True Self-Knowledge

Whatever identity questions we face in life, whether it is seeking our purpose or place, knowing what job we should do, or finding our roles in our homes, communities, and churches, we can’t know who we are until we know God.

Have you ever gone through some sort of identity crisis? You know, the kind where you wonder who you are and what you are supposed to do?

After living in the same town for nearly twenty years, I moved to another state. Since then, I’ve gone through an identity crisis of sorts. Where I used to live, I knew who I was. I knew where I belonged and my role. I knew what my church needed from me and where I fit in there. Since I’ve moved, I feel like a visitor wherever I go. I often feel out of place and I wonder— who am I in this new place?

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

Christward Collective is a conversation of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Christward Collective and the mission of the Alliance.

A Weak Man’s Strong Tribute, Part 3

Theme: A Plea for Mercy

In this week’s lessons we see that there is a connection between how we treat other people and what we want the Lord to do for us.

Scripture: Psalm 41:1-13

What were his enemies and false friends doing? The psalm specifies four things.

His enemies were hoping for his death (v.4). It is hard for us to imagine such ill will on the part of anyone toward David, because we have such a good impression of him from the account of his life given in the Old Testament. But David did have enemies. At the beginning of his reign he had enemies from the family and house of King Saul, his predecessor. Later, even his own son Absalom turned against him, and when Absalom did that there were many in the palace and army who followed him.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

A Weak Man’s Strong Tribute, Part 2

Theme: Blessed Are the Merciful

In this week’s lessons we see that there is a connection between how we treat other people and what we want the Lord to do for us.

Scripture: Psalm 41:1-13

The composition begins with the word “blessed”. There are two ways the blessing can be taken. It can be understood as an encouragement to show compassion for the weak or as an objective statement implying that the speaker is one who did so and was therefore cared for by God.1 No doubt it is both. As the rest of the psalm will make clear, David was in the position of being a weak person due to his illness, and he wanted people to show mercy to himself and those like him, which his enemies were not doing.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

A Weak Man’s Strong Tribute, Part1

Theme: Regard for the Needy

In this week’s lessons we see that there is a connection between how we treat other people and what we want the Lord to do for us.

Scripture: Psalm 41:1-13

Psalm 40 ended with the confession that the psalmist was "poor and needy" (v. 17). Psalm 41 picks up at this point with a promise of blessing for the one who has regard for just such needy people. "Weak" is the word used. And that is what the psalmist is! He is in an extremely low point in life. He is sick, slandered by malicious enemies, surrounded by false friends, even betrayed by one of his close friends, whom he trusted. Besides, he is aware, as we should all be, that he is a sinner and therefore not without guilt of his own. These conditions have been preying on his mind and have distressed him.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

First Christmas, Part 5

Theme: Have You Responded?

From these Christmas lessons, we look at how God’s promises were fulfilled at the first Christmas, and what everyone must do in response to them.

Scripture: Luke 2:6, 7

This brings us to the last of the four categories of those to whom the promises were made, as I presented them. It brings us to the human race at large and particularly to ourselves. The issue is: Have you accepted the fulfillment of God's promise of a Savior who came to deliver you from your sins? Have you put your trust in him?

This brings us to the last of the four categories of those to whom the promises were made, as I presented them. It brings us to the human race at large and particularly to ourselves. The issue is: Have you accepted the fulfillment of God's promise of a Savior who came to deliver you from your sins? Have you put your trust in him?

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

First Christmas, Part 4

Theme: The Promise Accepted and Believed

From these Christmas lessons, we look at how God’s promises were fulfilled at the first Christmas, and what everyone must do in response to them.

Scripture: Luke 2:6, 7

Yet there was another reality to that first Christmas that I also want you to see. Chiefly, it was the fulfillment of God's promises made to Joseph and Mary, Israel and the entire human race, to you and me. But it was also the acceptance and belief in those promises by those God called. Without that acceptance, the conception and birth of Jesus might well have occurred, but it would have gone unnoticed, unobserved. And it certainly would not have resulted in the accounts of that first Christmas as we know them.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

First Christmas, Part 3

Theme: The Fulfillment of God’s Promises to Israel and Beyond

From these Christmas lessons, we look at how God’s promises were fulfilled at the first Christmas, and what everyone must do in response to them.

Scripture: Luke 2:6, 7

The promise to Israel. The first Christmas was also a fulfillment of God's promise to Israel. We must not forget that. Mary and Joseph were ones to whom God's final promises were made. But long before those promises were given, God had begun to prepare the Jewish nation by many promises of a Messiah who should come.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

First Christmas, Part 2

Theme: The Fulfillment of God’s Promises to Joseph and Mary

From these Christmas lessons, we look at how God’s promises were fulfilled at the first Christmas, and what everyone must do in response to them.

Scripture: Luke 2:6, 7

Well, then, what was the first Christmas if not a time of laughter and family fun and decorations? Do you know what it was? It was the fulfillment of a promise. It was the fulfillment of God's promise to send his Son, a Savior, to the world.

Well, then, what was the first Christmas if not a time of laughter and family fun and decorations? Do you know what it was? It was the fulfillment of a promise. It was the fulfillment of God's promise to send his Son, a Savior, to the world.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

First Christmas, Part 1

Theme: What the First Christmas Was Not

From this week’s Christmas lessons, we look at how God’s promises were fulfilled at the first Christmas, and what everyone must do in response to them.

Scripture: Luke 2:6, 7

Not long ago I received a funding letter from one of the large American relief organizations. It was trying to raise money for Albania, and it pointed out that for the first time in an entire generation the birth of Christ will be celebrated openly in that country. It said, "For many Albanians this is literally their 'First Christmas.’"

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

The Unique Church

As the men God has appointed to pastor local churches assess the context of their congregations, and allow the Scripture to scrutinize the unique challenges and shortcomings that they face, they will be better able to address the real needs of the local church in a manner suitable to that local congregation.

Too often, ministers foolishly embrace the ecclesiastical advice of those who know absolutely nothing about the specific arrangement of the local church they pastor. A pastor is animated by an article in which today's latest "church expert" insists that he or she has the corner on what should be done in every church. All the while, he forgets that that those writing such articles often know absolutely nothing about the various personal, cultural, industrial, socio-economic, religious, ethnic or age dynamics represented by the town in which each local church is set.

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

Christward Collective is a conversation of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Christward Collective and the mission of the Alliance.

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