Patrick’s life reads like an adventure story, with chapters on pirates, kidnapping, foreign lands and languages, slavery, prophetic dreams, a daring escape over land and sea, a shocking return to the pagan barbarians, druids, leprechauns and fairies, and war. By the time he was 16, Patrick had had more real life adventures than most of […]
We live in a country whose beauty is great; The mountains, lakes, rivers, with grandeur abound; The flowers, trees, grasses, which God did create, And the deserts and fields us with splendor surround. We are thankful that we who inhabit this land May have freedom to worship, to speak, and to write, And we pray […]
The first commandment states in Exodus 20:3, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” The Heidelberg Catechism says in question and answer 95 that “Idolatry is having or inventing something in which one trusts in place of or alongside of the only true God, who has revealed himself in the Word.” The topic of […]
MHH: So this small group that was left did what? They reconstituted, but what did they do for a meeting place and a pastor, and what happened after this? EG: They immediately asked Rev. Hoeksema to come and help them to decide what to do about it. So Rev. Hoeksema came. One of the main […]
I joined the Beacon Lights Staff sometime in 1993 while attending Calvin College in preparation for seminary. My memories of working with Beacon Lights include the monthly meetings with a staff who became life-long friends working through the routine, never-ending task of generating topics and encouraging writers. From time to time we also worked through […]
“How do we respond to a relative who has decided on cremation?” Two arguments have been used against cremation. First, we are told that it is pagan. While it is true that pagans have cremated their dead for pagan reasons, that in itself does not make the practice pagan. Pagans such as the Greeks cremated […]
Medical professionals are taught that there are five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. It is argued that those who grieve will experience each of these stages, although everyone experiences them differently. They occur in different orders; some people skip a stage and then come back to it. Some experience two stages […]
War creates its own problems, particularly for young people whose lives are so directly affected by it. By far not the least weighty of these problems for many of our young people is the question of a war marriage. Shall they marry now, before the young man leaves for active service in the armed forces, […]
Stress is something that is very evident in young people today. It is something that happens consistently throughout their day-to-day lives. Young people have a lot put on them with school, jobs, responsibilities at home, and commitments to other things, and it can be very easy to get stressed out and worry about things that […]
May 8 – Read John 10:23–38 The Pharisees had become obsessed with trying to trap Jesus in his words so they would have an excuse to kill him. However, every time they made an attempt they only succeeded in exposing their own hypocrisy. In these verses, Jesus tells the Pharisees that they do not believe […]