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SB Staff Annual Meeting 2024

Watchman on the Walls of Zion: The Life and Influenece of Simon van Velzen

Simon van Velzen was a powerful preacher of the gospel. He was a reformer of the church of Christ in the Netherlands in the Secession of 1834, a seminary    professor who influenced hundreds of future Reformed ministers, as well as a faithful husband and devoted father.

Sadly, many Reformed Christians in the twenty-first century have little, if any, idea as to who he is. Where he is remembered, he is often branded as being “unyielding, obstinate, and domineering,” and he is dismissed as being of little significance in the history of the church.

Here’s the biography that corrects the ignorance and misconceptions by setting forth the fascinating life of an influential figure in the history of Christ’s church.

We need your help!

Dating Differently has been in print for six months, and you, our supporters, have been incredible in your response. We’ve had to go back to the printer for more copies.

We think it’s safe to say that you think this is a good book. Now we are asking you to help us spread the word. Has this book been a help to you in your Christian dating? Do you want to encourage others to date differently?

Please go to the book page on Amazon and leave a review for us. If you don’t have the book yet, you can get it here, and still leave a review.

Thank you for your continued support!

Books for your Valentine

It’s Valentine’s Day! It’s the day to buy your wife or girlfriend (or mom!) flowers and chocolates and a nice dinner, and…a book?

Hey, why not? Valentine’s Day is supposed to be all about love, and we’ve got books that speak about love from a biblical perspective.

And you don’t have to limit your gift to your significant other. Consider getting these titles for your teenage children. Help them to start their romantic relationships off on the right foot.

Biblical, practical, God-focused, and Reformed

February 1, 2020 Standard Bearer preview article

The Christian man as husband

In recent articles on what it means to be a godly man I’ve written about male sexuality (especially as it relates to single men) and how a godly man behaves in a dating relationship. This article addresses the next logical subject: the Christian man as husband.

"Radically different in that it seeks the glory of God in our dating relationships"

The world in which we live continues under the lie, the lie with which Satan tempted Eve and the lie which the heart of the natural man continues to indulge. This lie says that man is as God and can know all things, good and evil—even about dating.

And what if we don’t know?

Just do what everybody else is doing. Or at least Google it.

Dating Differently, subtitled A Guide to Reformed Dating, is radically different from what is above described.

Give the gift of books this Christmas!

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Announcing a new book for teens on Christian dating!

  DATING DIFFERENTLY: A Guide to Reformed Dating by Joshua Engelsma Coming October 2019! We’re bombarded with antichristian messages everywhere in life, and from casual hookups to casual sex, our culture’s messages on dating are no different.But Christians don’t have to follow these norms. The Bible gives us a better way.It’s a way of chastity and wisdom. A way that understands that marriage—the end goal of dating—is for life. The person you marry will shape who you become spiritually. And that...

Dating Differently chapter preview: Who's the One?

In many ways this chapter gets right to the heart of Christian dating. What I write here is devoted to helping answer the question, “Whom should I be dating? What do I look for in a boyfriend or girlfriend?” Once you’ve answered the questions raised in the previous chapter—Why do you want to date? Are you ready to date?—then you’re ready to ask yourself the next question: “Who’s the one?”

I’m not sure it’s possible to overstate the importance of this question and its answer. What makes marriage the most important decision you might ever make is that you are going to be living with that person for the rest of your life. You’d better be quite sure before you enter into the lifelong bond of marriage that you know exactly the kind of person you are marrying.

March 1 Standard Bearer preview article

A man of character

For a young man to be what God calls him to be, he must be a man of high character.

The mention of character sounds strange to the modern ear. It makes us think of some long-forgotten, more formal era. The worldly man is not concerned with character, and the examples of men in the media today are the farthest thing from men of character.

This makes it all the more urgent that the Christian young man be a man of character. The character about which he is so concerned is a set of spiritual attributes graciously given him by God. Having received them from God, the man of God then carefully cultivates and diligently develops them in his life.

There is certainly more that could be said, but here I want to mention three aspects of a godly man’s character: sobriety, wisdom, and compassion.

Continue reading...

Be strong

When the Bible speaks of the strength of youth, it does not have in mind merely muscles. After all, God “taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man” (Ps. 147:10, a verse oft repeated to a sports-crazed young man by a wise grandmother). Rather, the word of God has in mind spiritual strength. This is evident from the rest of 1 John 2:14 when it says to young men, “…I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong….” What...