In this issue, we again feature articles that were submitted as part of the scholarship essay contest. The two essay prompts for the articles were: The fruit of the Spirit is “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,” Galatians 5:22,23. Why is it important to manifest this fruit in your personal walk as […]

Some Editor’s Notes are easier to write than others. This qualifies as one of the more difficult ones. After almost nine faithful years of serving the Beacon Lights staff and readership as Managing Editor, Ryan Kregel will be stepping down from this post. With his steady, able hand on the tiller, Ryan steered the magazine […]

This year we welcome some new faces to the staff and bid farewell to others. We welcome Ashley Huizinga to our staff as the new Promotions Manager. Ashley is a member of Grace Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, MI. Ashley graduated from Dordt University in May 2018. Although she may not find much opportunity […]

This issue includes the articles submitted for this year’s scholarship essay competition by those individuals who aspire to the office of teacher or pastor. The two writing prompts that each author could choose from are as follows:  Dead orthodoxy is a real threat in our lives and the lives of our youth. Matthew 15:8 teaches […]

Publishing one issue on the topic of union with Christ is like publishing a one-page summary of Calvin’s Institutes. It will not say all that needs to be said, but hopefully it will whet your interest to study more deeply about the subject. The doctrine (I am tempted to call it a super-doctrine since so […]

How is your prayer life, young person? I do not need to limit that question to the young reader of this magazine. What child of God looks back over their life and declares, “my prayer life has been everything it should be.”? A friend of Beacon Lights suggested that we have articles in each issue […]

This month’s issue contains the three speeches given at this year’s Protestant Reformed Young People’s Convention. The convention was held at the Lake Geneva Christian Center in Alexandria, Minnesota from August 13–17. The theme of the convention was Guided by God, and the three keynote addresses were delivered by Revs. Brummel, Engelsma, and Griess. According […]

This issue includes four articles written as part of the annual scholarship contest; two written by aspiring ministers, and two by young people studying to be teachers. The writing prompt that all four authors chose was as follows: In the New Testament Paul often refers to himself as God’s servant, or slave. What does it […]

This issue marks a change in staffing here at Beacon Lights. After more than three years of writing for the magazine, Sarah Mowery has decided to lay down her pen. She has been one of the faithful writers of the Devotionals rubric. In fact, the title of the section, Daily Press, was her idea (taken […]

Desiderius Erasmus was a Dutch humanist and scholar who lived in the late 15th and early 16th century. In 1509 he wrote a satirical piece called In Praise of Folly. Although he made a better satirist than a theologian, in this work he rightfully exposed and ridiculed the excesses of the Roman Catholic Church. In […]