Covenant Protestant Reformed Fellowship
Ballymena
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 23 April, 2006
“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people;
that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you
out of darkness into his marvellous light (I Peter 2:9)
Morning Service – 11:00 AM
The Righteousness of God
Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 23; Romans 3:21-22
I. The Meaning
II. The Manifestation
II. The Reception Psalms: 98:1-9; 41:1-6; 32:1-5; 40:5-9
Evening Service – 6:00 PM
The Office of Believer (6)
II Corinthians 8
I. The Worthy Causes
II. The Macedonian Example
II. The Powerful Motivations Psalms: 15:1-5; 41:7-13; 136:1-12; 112:5-10
CPRC Website: www.cprc.co.uk • Live Webcast: https://cprc.co.uk/live-streaming/
CPRC YouTube: www.youtube.com/cprcni
CPRC Facebook: www.facebook.com/CovenantPRC
Quotes to Consider:
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Romans 3:21: “When the devil attacks you and suggests to you that you are not a Christian and that you have never been a Christian because of what is still in your heart or because of what you are still doing or because of something you once did—when he comes and thus accuses you, what do you say to him? Do you agree with him? Or do you say to him: ‘Yes, that was true, but now …’? Do you hold up these words against him? Or when, perhaps, you feel condemned as you read the Scripture, as you read the Law in the Old Testament, as you read the sermon on the Mount, and as you feel that you are undone, do you remain lying on the ground in hopelessness, or do you lift up your head and say, ‘But now’? This is the essence of the Christian position; this is how faith answers the accusations of the Law, the accusations of conscience and everything else that would condemn and depress us. These are indeed very wonderful words, and it is most important that we should lay hold of them and realize their tremendous importance and their real significance” (Romans: An Exposition of Chapters 3:20-4:25, p. 27).
Announcements (subject to God’s will):
The Standard Bearers are available on the back table as are the RFPA Updates.
Bob Wendrich’s surgery this past week went well. Thankfully the cancer has not spread. He is out of the hospital and recovering at home.
Bible Study will be held at 7:45 PM this Wednesday at the manse as we continue our study of the office of believer.
The Courtneys leave this week to visit family in Holland, Michigan, for about a month. We wish them the Lord’s blessing as they travel. Martyn McGeown will be taking care of the audio tapes while they are gone.
The Reformed Witness Hour next Lord’s Day, 30 April (8:30-9:00 AM, on Gospel 846MW) is entitled “Will the Next Generation Know?” (Judges 2:6-14).
The lecture in S. Wales on Friday evening went well. The Stewarts also enjoyed their visit to Cloverley Hall the site of this summer’s BRF Conference. The Hall should work well for the conference and there are plenty of activities to do on-site including football, volleyball, tennis, snooker and table tennis.
The congregation is invited to witness the wedding service of William Graham and Alison Bann, next week Thursday, 4 May, at 12:30 PM in Ballymena Congregational Church.
Church Building: There have been delays with the plans and planning permission, in part due to new building legislation.
Last Week’s Offerings: General Fund – £538.20. Donation: £28.
PRC News: Rev. Dick declined the call to Kalamazoo PRC. Covenant PRC (Wyckoff, NJ) has extended a call to Rev. R. Kleyn (Trinity, MI).
PROTESTANT REFORMED FELLOWSHIP in India
17 April, 2006
Dear saints of the CPRF in N. Ireland,
We thank God for this privilege to have you get to know about us, the little band of saints committed to the Reformed Faith in India. God’s providence enabled Pastor J. Kortering (missionary emeritus of PRCA) to
labour in India by bringing the good old truth of the Scripture, faithfully expressed in the glorious heritage of the Reformed Faith. Yes, His faithful labours, mainly through correspondence and teaching in the Bible Seminars, won some people to this Biblical Faith. J. Y. Paulraj, 33 years, lecturer by profession, is one of few fruits of his tireless labour of love in India. The writer of this introductory letter is me (Paulraj).
I’m personally thankful to Rev. Stewart for giving me this opportunity to write a brief introductory letter. This we present to you with the hope and expectation of your regular prayers and spiritual support. To say briefly, it is by God’s grace I had the privilege to be in regular correspondence with Rev. J. Kortering since 1993. With the limited knowledge in the Reformed Faith I tried to introduce this blessed truth locally. Immediately after our wedding in May 2001, we began to do the Reformed Mission work in Vellore, one of the major cities in Tamil Nadu (SE India). During 2002-2003, God provided us an opportunity to obtain theological training from the ministers of PRCA and ERCS with the focus that we be better equipped to witness the Reformed Faith in India.
Beginning from October 2003, Kasthuri (my wife) and I began to minister in few cities of Tamil Nadu under the supervision and support of ERCS, for which we are very grateful. There was a time to evaluate our mission efforts and its fruits in January 2005 (about 16 months of labour). By then the fruits of our mission was so minimal, which troubled me and I was pushed down to doubt even my call for the ministry. This resulted in the stoppage of fulltime mission work. Rather we continued the works of mission as a tent-making missionary couple. Our Sovereign God used our difficulties and doubt to teach us the real need and the effective ways of introducing the Reformed Faith, which is not known to 99% of Indian Christians. God enabled us to establish an informal Bible Study Program, yet with a system under the name, “Sola Gratia Academy,” with the focus to identify those Christians who are interested to know the truth. Yes, God blessed this simple, yet sincere effort, which resulted in winning faithful Christians those who have learnt to love and appreciate the Reformed Faith. About ten saints were the fruits of this effort. Now most of them stay with us to head this PR Fellowship here. Our active involvement in the local outreach ministry is blessed of the Lord and so there are about 35+ saints those who join us in our regular worship gatherings and other Bible Study activities. We do have four more Bible Study groups in and around the city of Vellore. Through these Bible Study groups we try to reach out to more people both non Christians and Christians as well.
God has been faithful in blessing our humble efforts of spreading the Biblical Faith for the comfort of our people here in India. We seek your prayers for our present Reformed Mission Activities such as publishing “Manathelivu,” a Reformed Newsletter in Tamil, organizing Bible Study groups and promoting the knowledge of the Reformed Faith through systematic Bible Study Program called “Sola Gratia Academy.” Besides all these we have our regular House Church Worship gathering, which is the focus behind all our mission activities. The recent visit and stay of the Korterings with us for about ten days was a real blessing for all of us. God has used him to direct the way that we consider so that our house church gathering can be transformed into an official Reformed Church gathering some day, God willing.
We look forward to have Rev. Paul Goh, one of the ministers of ERCS, who will be ministering to us for about three weeks in the month of June 2006, God willing. Presently we have all our gatherings by our simple residence, which is not enough to hold all the participants. Hence we earnestly seek for a bigger place. Indeed there’s a great need for benevolent fund in order to meet certain very basic needs of the poor saints in our Reformed Fellowship. More than ten children in our fellowship are in the state of orphan and semi-orphan—those who need our special care. We hope to establish a childrens’ home so thar that these needy children can be cared for and brought up in Reformed Christian education and discipline. Moreover, there are young men and women who are jobless and some are paid very minimal, less than £10 per month. In order to ease their unemployment problems of our Reformed saints we wish to work out self help projects, which will enable our PR Fellowship to become self supporting. We hope to have our PR Fellowship be transformed into a PR Church, which is the glorious end of all our mission endeavours. Please uphold us through your prayers. We do earnestly anticipate your encouraging mails too. This will encourage our PR Fellowship in India as well. Thank you! May God be glorified! Amen!
For Further Info, Please write to: [email protected] / 0091-9443035140 / 0091-416-2248609
