Joel Beeke

Today I spoke at Faith Free Presbyterian Church in Greenville, South Carolina to a few hundred people on the topic of “Growing in Christ” in exercising a personal life of holiness, in developing a healthy marriage, and in leading our families. I also did a QA session with the pastor, Armen Thomassian (photo 1), and received a great surprise, when Armen presented me with a beautiful, large, detailed sculpture of William Perkins (photo 2), the father of Puritanism, for the Puritan Resource Center in our William Perkins Library at our Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary.

I hope to continue the same theme tomorrow at Faith Free Presbyterian Church in relation to appreciation of Christ’s intercession (9:30 a.m.), life’s afflictions (11:00 a.m.), and Christ’s cry of dereliction (6:00 p.m.), as well as preach for the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) at 2:00 p.m. on Jacob wresting with the Angel of the Covenant.

We are thoroughly enjoying staying in the home of Pastor Thomassian, his wife Melanie, and their four precious daughters. Pastor Thomassian has begun a website familyworshipcompanion.com, in which he explains a chapter of the bible on video and makes relevant application points in order to help fathers to lead their families in family worship. He releases three episodes each week.

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.”

Mary and I hope to fly to Greenville, South Carolina again tomorrow. On Saturday from 9:30 to 3:30 p.m., I hope to speak on three topics on Growing in Christ for the “Second Annual Greenville Family Conference” held at Faith Free Presbyterian Church (FFPC), 1207 Haywood Road, Greenville: Growing in Holiness, Growing in a Healthy Marriage, and Growing in Leading My Family. I also hope to speak twice on Lord’s Day morning for Rev. Armen Thomassian at FFPC and then for Rev. Rob McCurley from the Free Church of Scotland Continuing in Greenville at 2:00 p.m.

You can see the schedule and register free for the conference here: https://faithfpc.org/gfc/

Please pray that God will add His blessing.

Last night the Queen and I thoroughly enjoyed visiting with Robert Rodgers (or should I say, “Charles Spurgeon”?—see photo 1!) and Molly Maartense (photo 2), newly-engaged, to go over wedding plans for a mid-July wedding, D.V.

In addition to wedding plans, we covered a lot of subjects—from theological to spiritual to practical—in nearly 3 hours. Please pray for this delightful couple that their future marriage might glorify God, be grounded in His Word, and be lived out in the childlike fear of His Triune name.

Mary and I just had a blessed visit with our Chinese pastor, Simon, and his wife, Chunzi, after they recently went through two major life events in a matter of a few weeks—the sorrow of the sudden loss of her father and the joy of the marriage of their only daughter, Olivia (to one of our theological students, Daniel). Please pray for them and for God’s blessing upon their work among us. Simon pastors about 40 Chinese members of and friends in our church family, and preaches nearly every Sunday afternoon for them in Mandarin, as well as periodically in English to the entire church family. We love this dear pastoral couple and thoroughly enjoy having the Chinese as part of our family. Pray that this cause may continue to grow!    

Here’s a quote from my most recent sermon, “God’s Experiential Grace Tried and Renewed After Communion.”

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

If you are a single Christian, please consider joining the excellent Singles Conference that Church and Family Life is offering on May 3-4, 2023 in North Carolina as a pre-conference to their regular annual conference on May 4-6. Speakers include Paul Washer, Scott and Deborah Brown, and Jeff Johnson. Here is the link you need: Register for the Singles Conference

I hope to be speaking at this regular annual conference on May 4 which focuses on “Glorifying and Enjoying God.” My assigned topic this year is to speak especially to children on “Glorifying and Enjoying God in Your Childhood Years.” I hope to see you there!

The Preeminent Christ by Paul David Washer – Heartcry Missionary Society : www.heritagebooks.org/products/the-preeminent-christ-washer.html

Good news! We have just released a new book today by Paul Washer titled “The Preeminent Christ: God’s Beautiful and Unchanging Gospel” (Reformation Heritage Books, 100 pages). Drawing from the wisdom of great preachers and teachers of the past, our brother Paul lifts up our eyes to see the supremacy of the gospel for our lives and powerfully exhorts us to keep our eyes fixed on the gospel in all we do. This succinct, mind-stimulating, soul-feasting book is highly recommended! Parents would do well to order copies for all their children and churches for all their families.

This morning I gave the last two messages at the Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary conference in Greenville, SC. Afterwards, a group photo of the speakers was taken (photo 1). Then Rev. Peter VanDoodewaard moderated a QA session with Dr. Jonathan Master (president of GPTS) and me (photo 2). After the conference was over, I enjoyed a few moments with my good friend of about three decades, Dr. Joey Pipa (former president of GPTS and still professor there; photo 3). Before going to the airport, we fellowshipped over lunch with a few of the speakers and their wives, children, and friends (photo 4, with Ryan McGraw on the left and Decherd Stephens on the right—son-in-law and father-in-law—the first time they both spoke together at the same conference). Now we are waiting at the airport, not at all sure we will make it home at all late tonight due to a large snowstorm moving into Michigan this evening. Your prayers are again treasured.