FAIR SUNSHINE

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.  Mat 28:18-20  Consider the golden bookends which bind the volume of our Lord’s Great Commission. Upon the one side, He hath engraved: 'All power is given unto Me.' Upon the other, He hath set His seal: 'Lo, I am with you alway.' Between these two pillars of divine strength lies the whole of our calling. Whatever task the Master lays upon thy heart, whatever cross thou art bid to carry, it must be received with a faith that rests entirely upon His' omnipotence. We do not labor perchance. The victory is already sure in the courts of Heaven, yet it pleased our King to use our weakly hands for its completion. ...

Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.  Psalm 34:11 O ne of the great stewardship entrusted to us is the care of bringing up these young ones, who for most have been with us for the past three years, in Scriptural instruction. Our first and foremost calling is to introduce to them the blessed person of Jesus Christ, as the very shining image of the Father's glory. They have been led through the Decalogue, studied the attributes of God, been through a primer on covenant theology, and rehearsed, in children's language, the fundamentals of the Westminster shorter catechism (The Westminster Shorter Catechism is a Reformed Christian catechism composed of 107 questions and answers, written by the Westminster Assembly in 1646 and 1647).  It is noteworthy, that the crucial matters concerning the inborn corruption dwelling within the heart of fallen man, and the dreadful, eternal consequences of a life of sin and transgression against the perfect ho...

This Sunday was a review of the lessons from the past month. The children who have been with us for fourteen months have responded so wonderfully to the catechisms that I cannot begin to praise God for deepening the children's understanding. The Old Testament's main ideas, starting with the Genesis' prophecy of the coming Messiah up to Joshua, required about a year to study. Much grace has been given to the teachers who put their hearts to pray for the children, and going the extra mile by burning the midnight oil, studying for the lessons, often well into daybreak. It gives me great joy in encouraging them that their labors in the LORD are never in vain, and that they have been given the privilege of shaping these minds who would one day, Lord willing, be granted saving grace. They have a hand in affecting these children's lives who in turn will be the very ones to take the gospel into their homes, to their parents, and to their siblings. God is able to do more with th...

The most useful books for the whole week that compose the Sunday liturgy, with the family worship guide being used daily, 7 days a week. We keep the services 2 hours short, with an hour of close fellowship prior to start. An hour dedicated to prayer, worship, catechism, and Scripture reading - before the message. Ending in songs from the Westminster Scottish Psalter, and another hour of fellowship. God has tremendously blessed the dear ones by instilling a greater awareness of sin, and a deeper reverence for His commands, especially the seriousness of Lord's day, by which most of them have stood firm against much opposition and ridicule from employers, and even from their own families. The fruit of God's faithfulness shone through when I spoke with one of the young ones, "Should God gift me with my own family, we will dedicate every night to worshipping the Lord. From my children and to my grandchildren." Each one of them share the same sentiment. What a blessed work...

Yes, children are a gift from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Children born during one’s youth are like arrows in a warrior’s hand. How blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! They will not be put to shame when they confront enemies at the city gate. Psalms 127:3-5

As the daily worship of God has become the primary point of our small gathering, more than the weekly gathering, so the need to properly align ourselves with scriptural truths becomes primary. God has given us His very own prescriptions on how to worship Him and enjoy ourselves in rendering it; this book aims to compile portions of them. "Every Christian knows the importance of a daily quiet time with the Lord. But anyone who’s been a believer long enough has likely experienced seasons that feel more mundane or routine, leading to aimlessly skimming a couple of Bible verses or praying the same prayer over and over." "In Be Thou My Vision, Jonathan Gibson has created a 31-day liturgical guide designed to provide structure to the daily worship of individuals and families. Each daily reading includes a call to worship, adoration, confession, assurance, creed and catechism, the Gloria Patri, a prayer of illumination, Bible reading, intercessory prayer, and the Lord’s Prayer....

The Heavenly Father hath been pleased to open His storehouse and provide us with the very means necessary to purchase the Holy Scriptures for the children themselves! Our immediate pursuit is to place His Word into their own hands, to be distributed freely, so that we might teach them the blessed habit of opening the Scriptures—not merely listening passively as the words are read unto them. To familiarize them with stories from both testaments and show how Christ is pointed at in the old, and fulfilled in the new, and that He can be seen in every story; how Christ is "written in the volume of the book," and inculcate the truths of God by way of catechism questions and answers. The end of every class is great encouragement to us in this work. Each one can recite the 10 commandments at will, but it will require God's grace to give it life in them, to be understood, and eventually lived out. This we thank God for and plead His hand.

Our new teacher, Grandpa Willie ( Lolo Willie ) has appeared three times now assisting in teaching the children regarding questions on the New City Catechism. The children are reportedly more excited now than ever to attend each session, typically lasting 30 minutes, which includes a short overview of major stories in the bible. Since their families do not open the bible in their homes, it is good that we are enabled to assist the children by presenting the bible to them in its proper context and in a biblical fashion, emphasizing that the Word of God holds supreme authority above all.  We are currently in the Old Testament. We have included simple typology, to show Christ in every story. After this, we move on to the questions and answers of catechism consisting of 51 important subjects of the faith. It gives us great joy every time we hear the children answer past questions on their own, declaring "we are not our own but belong to God." Lastly, the children recite the 10 c...

You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. Deuteronomy 6:7-9 Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Matthew 10:14 We believe in the eternality of the Law (Matthew 5:18) . We also understand that the Law was not given as a means to righteousness before God (Romans 3:20, 10:3, Acts 13:39) but as a rule for living (Romans 7:10) as established by God. Adam by sin forfeited the benefits of the covenant of works (Genesis 1:28) , and instead earned its curses (Genesis 3:17) , Christ came by divine decree to accomplish the perfection demanded by the Law (Matthew 5:17) , and redeem Adam's seed, by this we mean that seed that pertained to the woman's, the elect, by faith, from its curse (Galatians 3:13, Titus 2:14) Therefore by this we declare that Christ is the very righteousness of God (John 1...

Congregations in every age must see themselves as learning communities in which gospel truth has to be taught, defended, and vindicated against corruptions of it and alternatives to it. Being alert to all aspects of the difference between true and false teaching, and of behavior that expresses the truth as distinct from obscuring it, is vital to the church’s health. 1  As the years go by, I am increasingly burdened by the sense that the more conservative church people in the West, Protestant and Roman Catholic alike, are, if not starving, at least grievously undernourished for lack of a particular pastoral ministry that was a staple item in the church life of the first Christian centuries and also of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation era in Western Europe, but has largely fallen out of use in recent days.  That ministry is called catechesis. It consists of intentional, orderly instruction in the truths that Christians are called to live by, linked with equally intentio...