Hart’s At Grace

Newsletter

Family Update & Prayer
The Harts are doing well this Christmas season. While we tend to be more curmudgeonly than others, we do enjoy the extended time spent with our families and friends during the holidays. The boys especially love visiting with their grandparents, and we are grateful for the extra hands.

Brooke has begun to work through an Advent calendar with Ezra in the mornings when I am away. Although, he seems to be much more enthralled by the candy he receives than learning any of the daily verses. It has been a joy to watch him grow up, and to grow in the Lord. While he is only two, I would like to say a word about our eldest’s maturity. One evening as I was preparing him for bed, I could hear his quiet voice muttering something in the background of his room. Taking a moment to come to, I turned to ask what he was saying.

“Baptized, baptized, baptized.”

I nearly fell on the floor. There he was, patting his head and identifying with his baptismal status. Well, okay. He probably doesn’t quite think in those terms, but he does acknowledge “baptism” as something to do with him. He loves to “sing, sing” the Doxology before bed, as well as “pray, pray” the Lord’s Prayer. The Bible is his favorite book and Jesus is his favorite character. He knows that God is “one” and that He loves us. And in those moments I forget my covenantal duties as a father, the Father gently reminds me with a nudge from my son. What a great treasure we have in our children; a heavenly gift, indeed.

Please be in prayer for us this season as I continue the task of raising financial support for the ministry. We have been the recipients of much generosity throughout the years, both past and present. Many-a-time I feel as though I am nothing more than a beggar. Then I realize, I am nothing more than a beggar; a beggar of goods and a beggar of righteousness.

The sufficient and Almighty God supplies our every need.

Seminary Update
This semester is well underway for my winter term at the Reformed Theological Seminary. I am taking four courses (7 credits): Isaiah-Malachi, Pastoral Ministry, Polity, and Classics of Personal Devotion. These classes come with an obscene amount of reading. And while it does feel as though I can easily slip into a type of learning auto-pilot, I have greatly benefited from the effort required to persevere. In January, we will head to Orlando for a week’s worth of intensive lectures.

I would like to submit three devotional books to the reader for further consideration:

Little Book on the Christian Life (John Calvin)
Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
The Imitation of Christ (Thomas a’ Kempis)

While the third has plenty to reject as well as enjoy, all three are worth the effort. I would also like to recommend a fourth book for those interested in an introductory and historical account of the events surrounding the Protestant Reformation and its key figures — The Unquenchable Flame by Michael Reeves is an accessible book to that end.

Grace Church Update
The church is doing well, despite the present challenges posed by the Coronavirus. I recently started a running document with the minutes of our Sunday Evening Fellowship. This has become our collaborative effort to observe the Sabbath Day well, and to join the corporate body together in worship further than the morning service. We have particularly enjoyed this time together with the families of the church.

The men’s and women’s groups are continuing to press on. The men have been reading through a commentary on the Westminster Confession of Faith by G.I. Williamson, while the women have just recently finished J.I. Packer’s Knowing God, and are now embarking on the task of reading through What is Reformed Theology by R.C. Sproul.

I recently preached a sermon on 1 Peter 4:1–11. You can find it posted here.*

Continue to remember these saints in prayer, as you do our family, as well as the New River Presbytery (PCA) of which we are associated.

*The hosting location of collected sermons is subject to change