Seen & Heard

A Woman's Wisdom

“If any of you lacks wisdom,” the apostle James writes, “let him ask of God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.” 

We all need wisdom, don’t we? And we especially need the wisdom that God provides through His life-giving Word. The book of Proverbs is a repository of godly wisdom that assists Christian believers in every area of life: in the workplace, at home, at church, in families, etc. God provides wisdom through the Scriptures, and Proverbs is a gold mine!

Please join us at the third Quakertown Women’s Conference on May 17-18, 2024. The theme of the two-day conference is A Woman’s Wisdom: How the Book of Proverbs Speaks to Everything. We are incredibly honored to have Lydia Brownback, Sarah Ivill, and Colleen McFadden as our speakers. Six sessions taught by three dynamic speakers will shine the light of God’s inerrant, inspired, infallible Word on several aspects of wisdom with women in mind. 

The conference will be held at Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Quakertown, PA, just an hour north of Philadelphia and 30 minutes south of Allentown. Women of all ages are invited to a time of teaching, worship, and edification. We know you will be blessed as we sit under the teaching of God’s inerrant, authoritative, and life-giving Word.

Find out more and register at AllianceNet.org/QWC

Audio from the conference will be available in June.


The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is member supported and operates only by your faithful support. Thank you.

Reading Calvin in 2021

What's on your reading list for 2021? Have you considered Calvin? 

The significance of Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion is hard to overstate. Consider what J.I. Packer once wrote in his foreword to A Theological Guide to Calvin's Institutes

"Great theology, like the Bible in which all great theology is soaked, is essentially transhistorical and transcultural, and interprets us, joltingly sometimes, as we seek to interpret it. The 1559 Institutio is great theology, and it is uncanny how often, as we read and re-read it, we come across passages that seem to speak directly across the centuries to our own hearts and our own present-day theological debates."

The Alliance is happy to again offer a year-long reading schedule through Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. As an added bonus, the Alliance is also offering a companion devotional, Zeal for Godliness, at an 80% discount. Read one page each day from pastors and scholars as they explore and explain the Institutes and its enduring relevance.

Even half a millennium later, there remains much to glean from Calvin's great work. As Packer continued,

"You never seem to get to the book’s bottom; it keeps opening up as a veritable treasure trove of biblical wisdom on all the main themes of the Christian faith. Do you, I wonder, know what I am talking about? Dig into the Institutio, and you soon will."

 [ Download the Reading Schedule Here ]


Related Links:

Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin (free online version at CCEL)

Zeal for Godliness, edited by Derek Thomas & Carlton Wynne

A Theological Guide to Calvin's Institutes, edited by David Hall & Peter Lillback

Calvin In The Public Square by David Hall

Everyday Prayer with John Calvin by Donald McKim

"Calvin and Piety" by Mark Johnston


The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is member supported and operates only by your faithful support. Thank you.

November Alliance Update

 


Quick links for items mentioned in the video

Order
Worship: The Chief End of Man
on CD or mp3 disc 
(Download available soon)

 

Download the free audio

Your support of the Alliance
goes even further on
November 22nd!

 


The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is member supported and operates only by your faithful support. Thank you.

The Cost of Discipleship

We admire those who sacrifice time, wealth, comfort, and more in service to the Lord... but we are not always ready to follow their examples. Particularly for those living in prosperous cultures, Christ's words can be disturbing: “Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple."

This month's free resource is The Cost of Discipleship by James Boice. In it, Dr. Boice reminds Christians that they are not their own, but are a part of Jesus' Church, having been purchased by His precious blood. This new life has radical implications; it means denying one's self, taking up the cross, and following Jesus. Download your FREE copy today at ReformedResources.org!


Pages: 44
Publication Date: Revised June 2019
Topic: Christian Living, Gospel, Suffering


The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is member supported and operates only by your faithful support. Thank you.

Discipleship

This month, the Alliance is pleased to offer a free MP3 download of Discipleship from the Alliance Teaching Series. Curated from years of biblical teaching, Discipleship presents listeners with thirteen encouraging messages on sanctification, the Church, and the Christian life. Download your copy here! 

(Also available for purchase on MP3 disc)


About

Being Christian is more than a title; it's a total commitment, forsaking everything to follow Christ, acknowledging Him as Savior and as Lord. The Word of God preached and read is central to the life of a Christian. It is how He sustains us. It is the source of our spiritual life in Christ. As we study and are taught God’s Word, we know Him more fully and we experience a growth in grace as we continue to persevere. This is being a disciple.

13 MP3 Messages:

  1. The Path of Discipleship, James Boice
  2. Regeneration: Beginning with God, Eric Alexander 
  3. The Marks of a Disciple, Donald Barnhouse 
  4. Ordinary Holiness, Michael Horton 
  5. Discipleship Tested by Doctrine, James Boice 
  6. The Cross of Discipleship, Philip Ryken 
  7. The Means of Growth, J.I. Packer 
  8. God’s Word and Christian Discipleship, Jerry Bridges 
  9. Feeding on God's Word, R.C. Sproul 
  10. Know the Truth, D.A. Carson 
  11. The Obstacles: World, Flesh, and the Devil-Mortification, Derek Thomas 
  12. The Difference in the Church: Membership, Discipleship, and Discipline, Mark Dever 
  13. A Message For Our World, Sinclair Ferguson

The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is member supported and operates only by your faithful support. Thank you.

The God of Creation

Our featured resource this month is The God of Creation – Truth and Gospel in Genesis 1 by Richard Phillips. We've discounted the price, so get your copy at Reformed Resources today!

About 

There are other books on Creation and dealing with the issues of Genesis 1, but this one is different. Rick Phillips takes us through the first chapter of Genesis with an absolute confidence that this is the plain, accurate Word of God, describing creation in six literal days of 24 hours. He looks at the alternatives offered and explains clearly and simply why they are inadequate. The science-based criticisms of the Word of God are considered and dealt with. The language used is accessible to most readers, and at each stage the Gospel is clearly explained.

Christians generally will find this book a great encouragement amidst the deluge of pro-evolution propaganda, school students will find themselves strengthened to take a biblical stand against the pressures of the education system. If your evangelistic outreach leads you to someone who wants a clear and rational explanation of why the Bible should believed over against the common understanding of evolution presented in the media, this is the book to give them.

Publication Date: March 2018
Topic: Creation, Evolution            
Pages: 192      

Biography      

Richard Phillips is chair of the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology. Rev. Phillips also serves as senior minister of Second Presbyterian Church in Greenville, SC. An officer in the United States Army for thirteen years, Phillips commanded tank units and later served as assistant professor of leadership at West Point before resigning with the rank of major to enter the ministry. He is the author of numerous books, including, The Masculine Mandate: God’s Calling to Men and I Samuel (Reformed Expository Commentary).

 


The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is member supported and operates only by your faithful support. Thank you.

Embracing God's Rest

The following is taken from the introduction to Entering God's Rest by Ken Golden, a thorough-yet-accessible discussion of the Sabbath and its relevance for us today. You can purchase the book here (also available as an eBook and on Amazon Kindle). 


We live in a busy world. Our families face round-the-clock commitments and the daily rat race can leave us gasping for breath. All too often there’s no rest for the weary.

Why is this so? Many things fill up our schedules and compete for our attention. Chief among them is our daily work. And that’s by design, because God created work. He gave Adam the responsibility of working in the garden (Gen. 2:15). In man’s original state, work was a blessing.

But man didn’t remain in his original state. He fell into a condition of sin and misery (WSC 17). This turned the blessing of work into the curse of toil. The lesser creation would bristle under man’s dominion; crops would come by the sweat of his brow (Gen. 3:19). Beaten down by the common curse, Lamech named his son Noah, a name that means rest. He believed Noah would live up to his name and bring relief from “the painful toil of our hands” (Gen. 5:29). Noah did bring temporary relief—in the form of a flood—but toil remained the order of the day. Many centuries later, the sage Qoheleth would describe work as endless and repetitive toil (Eccl. 1:2–4).

Things haven’t changed that much. Work is still a necessary part of life that demands our time and energy. Even the most satisfying work can be exhausting. We need a break from the weekly cycle of labor. We echo Lamech’s cry for relief, but where will we find it?

Our relief comes in the form of rest. But this needs defining. Some associate rest with sleeping. Others view it as the freedom to engage in non-work-related activities. (The clichés of “working for the weekend” or “thank God it’s Friday” reflect this tendency.) Some even find recreational sports or gardening to be restful.

The world offers many definitions of rest, but Christians should consider God’s definition of rest. And just to be clear, the two aren’t mutually exclusive. There’s certainly an overlap, since God gives us physical rest (Prov. 3:24) and refreshment (Mk. 6:31). Yet the Bible goes much deeper than our shallow definitions. Scripture considers the spiritual, even cosmic, dimension of rest. God orients this deeper understanding in a concept that’s woven into the very fabric of His Word. And the word for that concept is Sabbath.

Perhaps you’ve stumbled across this term as you read the Bible, and don’t know what to do with it. Well, readers beware: The Sabbath isn’t a simple and straightforward concept. It appears in Genesis, develops in Exodus, multiplies in Leviticus, and deepens in Isaiah. In the New Testament, Jesus clarifies it in the gospels while Paul appears to abandon it in the epistles. Sabbath references span the periods of creation, Sinai, monarchy, exile, and New Testament. It receives lots of attention in the old covenant and lots of reflection in the new covenant. When we study these references and periods, we need to ask some important questions:

  • What continues and what doesn’t?
  • How do these continuities and discontinuities relate to time and observance?
  • Is there a difference between the Old Testament Sabbath and the New Testament Lord’s Day? 

It’s also important to consider the Sabbath according to the traditional categories of biblical law. Ceremonial laws were given to Old Testament Israel as a system of types and shadows pointing to New Testament fulfillment (Acts 10; Heb. 10:1–10). Judicial laws supported the theocracy of the Old Testament that expired with the Israelite state (Ex. 21:1–23:19). Moral laws were rooted in creation, summarized in the Ten Commandments, and continue as an expression of gratitude for God’s people (Jas. 1:25; 2:8; 1 Jn. 2:3). I’ll address the historical flow and legal characteristics of the Sabbath in chapters 1–8.

Yet knowing what the Bible says about the Sabbath is only half the battle. Such knowledge must still be applied to life. This raises an important question: Is Sabbath observance a “one size fits all” practice, or is it informed by specific circumstances? The answer involves the exercise of biblical wisdom, a task I’ll take up in chapter 9.

At this point, it’s important to say what this book isn’t about. Entering God’s Rest isn’t a historical survey of Sabbath interpretation. Neither does it provide a list of “do’s and don’ts” for the reader. Instead, this book has a specific agenda. I wrote it for two reasons. First, as the title suggests, I sought to explain what it means to enter God’s rest. I did this by viewing the central theme through the ebb and flow of redemptive history. Second, I sought to apply this theme to the varied circumstances of our lives, working through the exercise of biblical wisdom and sensitivity to Christian liberty of conscience. This is especially important when the toil of living in a sin-cursed world can even carry over to our Sabbath-keeping! Entering God’s Rest is a call to embrace the rest that God has graciously given us. Discovering the purpose of the Sabbath means discovering what it means to rest in the Lord.


More From Ken Golden:


The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is member supported and operates only by your faithful support. Thank you.

Bargain Book Sale

Summer is the perfect time to kick back and enjoy a nice book. Or two. Or twelve.

To boost your reading list, the Alliance is pleased to announce their Bagain Book Sale. Products are available while supplies last, so be sure to grab 'em before they're gone! Click the button below to start shopping!

 

The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is member supported and operates only by your faithful support. Thank you.

Pastor, Keep Preaching the Gospel

As I was busy rushing from one place to another, I noticed a man looking at me with a big smile on his face. He had just stepped out of a work van and was doing some sort job nearby. To be honest, I had a lot on my plate to get done that day, and was determined not to be slowed down. The next thing I knew, the man who had been grinning at me was now standing right in front of me.

I do not remember what I was thinking at that moment but, sadly, it was probably something like, "Oh great."

He said, "You don't remember me. I went to your church 14 years ago when you first arrived in Lexington. You preached the gospel every week, and so did the small group leaders. To be honest, I did not want to hear it and stop attending. I thought I wanted something more practical that would help with my daily life. I found what I was looking for, I was getting my ears tickled, but I could never shake the gospel you preached and 4-years-ago I trusted Christ, and I am now in a great gospel-preaching church where I now live. I just wanted you to know. Thank you! Don't ever stop!"

Read more at reformation21.


The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is member supported and operates only by your faithful support. Thank you.

A Reason to Celebrate

With July 4 just around the corner, many Americans are taking the time to reflect on their country's founding and the nature of freedom. But long before the Summer of '76 there came another declaration of independence: Adam's rebellion in the Garden of Eden. This declaration did not liberate; rather, it enslaved the human race to sin and death. Thanks be to God, who presents us with true liberty! The one whom the Son makes free is free indeed (John 8:36); it is through our dependence upon Him that we truely taste freedom.

On that note, the Alliance is pleased to offer Declaration of Dependence by Donald Barnhouse. In this booklet, Dr. Barnhouse explains our desperate need to escape the "independence" of sin and cling to the freedom offered in Christ. And, for a limited time, you can download this booklet for free

•  Download the PDF  •

•  Buy the Print Booklet  •


The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is member supported and operates only by your faithful support. Thank you.