Wednesday, February 5, 2020
Sorry to hear of Aunt Sietke's passing. I recall our occasional visits to the family farm when everyone was younger. Then as everyone grew older, time went on and we went our ways, we sort of lost touch with the cousins. I managed to visit Uncle Dick and Aunt Sietzke yet when we came down for a visit to family on one occasion. Uncle Dick still had a potato patch and Aunt Sietzke her flowers at a nice home. More recently, I was able to visit both yet at the Braemare Nursing home at a more recent trip down from up North to visit family. It was encouraging to know that Uncle Dick and Aunt Sietzke and family were affiliated with the church and so share a faith with us in Jesus as Saviour and Lord. It is encouraging to see that a pastor is involved with a funeral too since some people these days don't acknowledge our God and Saviour any more. Due to distance, we won't be at the funeral but our hearts go out to all of you. We can rejoice with you in the Lord and in the promises of His Word, where-in we learn of God's call to all of man-kind to make our peace with Him. It is in God's Word that we discover that in the first Adam, we fell into sin/ dis-favour with God. Having inherited the sin-nature of the first Adam, it is only by the amazing grace of God, in a large part through parents and other believers who had also accepted God and His gifts of grace, repentance, faith and such and by the working of God's Holy Spirit in our hearts and lives that we learned and are availing ourselves of God's plan of salvation. Because it is good news for mankind, God helping us, we aim to continue to embrace it and to attempt to share it with others. I know that it honours God, God's Word, God's people- including our parents, Uncle Dick and Aunt Sietzke to do so and that doing so requires that we continue- as they did, to support the on-going work of the Lord. We appreciate the work of those who care for our physical needs too of course how-ever continuing to do our best to love the Lord with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength is portrayed by God's people as constituting our first obligation. Our parents instilled in us from the Reformed tradition, the need to incorporate God's Word in our lives on a daily basis. If we are ever going to reclaim the prodigals and to bring lost/ unregenerate/ unsaved souls into the church/ kingdom of God, we need to have made our peace with God and we need to be either equipped to bring others in and/or to equip others to bring them in, and then to both remain faithful and to help them to remain faithful until judgement day/ the day when we are called home to our heavenly reward. With the removal of God's Word from the public schools- which used to be 'protestant' schools, the responsibility of raising our children in the 'nurture and admonition of the Lord' falls on us- as God's people, providing we know and affirm ourselves as such and are willing to own that responsibility. The promotion of 'evolutionary theory', 'secular humanism', "pluralism', religious synchretism and such in our world requires that we are constantly on guard against all such things/ philosophies/ ways of thinking that exalt themselves against God, against the knowledge of God, against Jesus- our Messiah/ the Christ and against the sound, prayerful, reverent and progressive interpretation and application of God's Word. On the passing on of Aunt Sietzke and other loved ones, we are reminded of the importance of continuing to support the furtherance of the good news concerning Jesus- in our own hearts first, then in that of our family and then where possible in our respective spheres of influence. I apologize for not having managed to keep in touch. Here I am at retirement age and since I am still working, I am reminded that I need to at least tithe from the additional income. Voice of the Martyrs is an organization we support some. His Word for His People is another that I hope to help some more. I am writing this from my work e-mail. If you write, send to elainemdeboer@yahoo.com since my home e-mail no longer functions. If you happen by in Thunder Bay, we are at 704 McLeod St. and you could phone us at 807-622-8651. The length of my note should reveal that we wish all of you God's best today and always. Love John & Elaine de Boer.
