by Mark T. Bube
“Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). For most readers of this magazine, the answer to the first question in our Larger Catechism may sound a little different, but still very familiar: “Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.” That second clause, “fully to enjoy him forever,” brings the words of Psalm 73:24–26 readily to mind: You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. In harmony with the Catechism, John Piper, in his book on the supremacy of God in missions ( Let the Nations Be Glad , p. 26), suggests that “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” It begins with God; it ends with ... Read more
by Patricia E. Clawson
At a time when many fledgling churches are cautious about spreading their funds far beyond their front doors, one Home Missions intern set a pattern of generous giving for his young congregation of twenty. Over the next forty years, that congregation would contribute nearly $4 million to Orthodox Presbyterian Church missions. Mark R. Brown first heard about the OPC from fellow Geneva College students Robert Harting and Robert Eckardt, now OP ministers. At Westminster Theological Seminary, Brown was spurred by an OP pastor to consider planting a Reformed church back home in the mountains of central Pennsylvania. During the summer of 1976, when he was an intern under Pastor Thomas Tyson at Trinity OPC in Hatboro, Pennsylvania, Brown began a Bible study more than two hundred miles west in his parents’ home. Fifteen family members and friends attended. After his graduation in 1977, Brown became a Home Missions intern to the group near his hometown under the Hatboro session’s supervision. Newly named ... Read more
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