Here’s a quote from my most recent sermon, “Gethsemane’s King-Lord-Priest-Lamb.”

You can listen to the whole sermon here:
https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=31023235838790

Ten days ago when I was speaking at a conference for Faith Free Presbyterian Church in Greenville, South Carolina, I was called to come up front to unveil an amazingly beautiful bust of William Perkins, often called “the father of Puritanism,” that a member of their church, Jodie Barnes, had sculptured as a gift for our William Perkins Library at Puritan Reformed Seminary. Pastor Jeff Johnson of Grand Rapids graciously brought the bust home with him from Greenville yesterday, and then over to us a few minutes ago at the end of our prayer time, where it was unveiled a second time and enjoyed by some of our faculty and staff (photo 1). Having worked for nearly ten years on editing and printing “The Works of William Perkins” (10 vols., Reformation Heritage Books), and having lectured on him often, I was delighted to receive Mr. Perkins together with my Queen (photo 2). We decided to place him in our Puritan Research Center (PRC), which houses one of the world’s largest collections of Puritan writings, just beside an early 17^th-century collection of his complete works that Charles Spurgeon owned (his personal seal is in each volume) and later A. W. Pink possessed (who sprinkled his pencil marks of approval throughout). In photo 3, I am pointing to this old, rare, nostalgic set of his writings under glass in the PRC. Many thanks to Jodie Barnes for her fine work!

Above all, may God bless the rich heritage of Perkins and the Puritans that, happily, is increasingly being treasured around the world today, and that He would turn many theological students into God-blessed ministers of the gospel who would carry on the biblical, Reformed, experiential, and practical tradition in our contemporary and needy day that Perkins so faithfully proclaimed by his life, voice, and pen until God took him home at the tender age of 44. SDG!

Please join Paul Washer, Scott Brown, me, and other speakers for the Church and Family Life Conference in Ridgecrest, NC, May 4-6, for a conference on the Chief End of Man—which is, of course, to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. I will be speaking on the evening of May 4 on “Glorifying and Enjoying God in Your Childhood Years.”

You can register here: https://churchandfamilylife.com/events/627c1b2263b576f39dc65266

The Lord willing, I hope to see you there!

Last night we attended the happy wedding of two believers: David Diemer (a member of our church) and Julia Boot (a member of a local URC that is pastored by one of our seminary graduates, Rev. Eric VanderMolen). My good friend and seminary colleague, Rev. Mark Kelderman, officiated the wedding, expounding the beautiful passage of Romans 8:28-39. Pray for David and Julia, please, that their marriage may richly exemplify the relationship between Jesus Christ and His living church.

P.S. Thanks to the five of you for offering to drive the sculpture of Perkins up to Grand Rapids from South Carolina—that was more than I expected. I gave the opportunity to ride with Perkins to a good friend who offered and who I’ve known for many years, but many thanks to each of you for offering to help us out.

***Giveaway*** Sign up here: https://kingsumo.com/g/rmnfsm/carr-church-history-bundle

I am excited to announce that Simonetta Carr’s “Church History,” an RHB publication, has won Best Children’s Non-fiction Book of the Year from WORLD Magazine!

To celebrate, RHB is giving away incredible prizes to five winners:

-1x First place winner will receive the Ultimate Simonetta Carr Bundle— Church History + the 20-volume set of Christian Biographies for Young Readers + the complete lineup of Bindery House x RHB coffee
-4x Second prize winners will receive one copy of Church History + the complete lineup of Bindery House x RHB coffee

And congratulations to you, Simonetta! Every continued blessing of God on your writing career for God’s glory and the good of young and old!

The Queen and I are back home safely from our two conferences in Greenville, S.C.  I am still amazed at the surprise gift I was privileged to unveil at Faith Free Presbyterian Church last Saturday—a stunning sculpture of William Perkins, known as “the father of the Puritans,” beautifully done by Jodi Barnes—many, many thanks to her!

I am wondering if some kind soul who might happen to be driving from Greenville, S.C. to Grand Rapids, MI in the next few months, might be willing to take Mr. Perkins with him/her and bring him to our William Perkins Library at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary where he will find a very good home in the Puritan Resource Center! The sculpture is not heavy; it is perhaps 2 feet high and just over 1 foot wide, but we don’t dare send him in the mail or by UPS. We will wrap up Mr. Perkins carefully and place him temporarily inside of a box for you. All you need to do is drive carefully and let him ride with you. He will not disturb you along the way; in fact, he won’t say a word to you. Be assured that we would be most grateful and also be happy to remunerate you a reasonable amount for letting Mr. Perkins ride with you! 

Yesterday was another long but very good day for Mary and me in Greenville, South Carolina. I was privileged to preach four times (3x for Faith Free Presbyterian Church [FFPC] and 1x for Greenville Presbyterian Church [GPC]), and we shared in fellowship meals with the GPC for lunch (photo 1 with their pastor, Rev. Rob McCurley) and with the FFPC for dinner, plus visiting with dozens of old and new friends, including Hal and Elaine and Joseph and Judith (photo 2). We left the lovely Thomassian family (photo 3) to fly home after a full and blessed weekend. Pray that God will continue to bless these dear pastors and their dear church families.   

RHB has two new books in stock by our seminary graduates that I would like to strongly commend to you. Both are published under an imprint of Crown and Covenant.
The first is by Rev. Kyle Borg, pastor of the Winchester Reformed Presbyterian Church in Winchester, Kansas, and is titled: “What is Love?”. It sheds good gospel light on 1 Corinthians 13.
https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/what-is-love-borg.html
The second is by Dr. Nathan Eshelman, pastor of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Orlando, “I Have a Confession: The What and Why of the Westminster Confession of Faith,” which dispels caricatures and shows how the confession promotes gospel clarity.
https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/i-have-a-confession-the-what-and-why-of-the-westminster-confession-of-faith-eshelman.html

The Collected Works of Thomas Boston (12 Volumes)!
Now available: https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/the-complete-works-of-thomas-boston-12-volumes.html
I am very excited to announce that we have just reprinted “The Works of Thomas Boston” (Reformation Heritage Books, 12 volumes, 7500 pages). This reprint is worth its weight in gold. Boston is definitely one of my top five writers in all of church history.

His first two volumes on the Westminster Shorter Catechism and his volumes on the covenant of works and the covenant of grace as well as some of his smaller classics like “The Crook in the Lot” and “The Art of Man-fishing” are unsurpassed. His scores of sermons are models of sound exegesis combined with Christ-centered experiential piety and admonition. His notes accompanying Fisher’s “Marrow of Modern Divinity” have been highly regarded by tens of thousands over the centuries. And his premier classic, “Human Nature in its Fourfold State,” is one of a kind—it pleased God to use this book greatly in my life to convict me of original sin and thereby drive me out of myself to cry out, “Give me Jesus, else I die,” when I was fifteen years old.

This new edition of Boston’s works also contains an 18-page introduction in volume 1 to Boston’s life and theology by Randall Pederson and me. Very highly recommended! If you can purchase one set of books this year, let this be the one!

Patrick of Ireland by Simonetta Carr: https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/patrick-of-ireland-christian-biographies-for-young-readers-carr.html

Simonetta Carr’s new children’s book on “Patrick of Ireland” has just been released by Reformation Heritage Books. Jonny Gibson rightly notes that she “does a wonderful job of setting Patrick in the historical context and culture of fourth-century Ireland without losing the drama of his life and ministry.”