<![CDATA[Atlantic Reformed Conference - Past Conferences]]>Sun, 15 Jan 2023 09:40:39 -0400Weebly<![CDATA[All Conference Sermon Video and Audio Files]]>Wed, 11 Jan 2023 23:01:38 GMThttps://www.archalifax.ca/past-conferences/all-conference-sermon-video-and-audio-filesKeep scrolling on this page or click on previous posts from the Archives in the far right column to see conference and session summaries.
]]><![CDATA[Overview: A Biblical Perspective of Pain and Life in a Fallen World - 2022]]>Wed, 11 Jan 2023 22:32:31 GMThttps://www.archalifax.ca/past-conferences/a-biblical-perspective-of-pain-and-life-in-a-fallen-world-2022On November 18 - November 19, 2022 Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church hosted their third annual conference in Glenholme, Nova Scotia, Canada. Their guest speaker was Dr. James Halla who lives in Spartanburg, SC with his wife Genell. Jim practiced rheumatology there until his retirement at the end of 2019.

Jim has authored a number of scientific articles addressing various clinical issues encountered in the daily practice of rheumatology. Jim’s books were written in response to the need seen to bring God’s truth to every area of life.

​He is certified by NANC (National Association of Nouthetic Counselors) as a Christian counselor and has become a fellow at NANC, training others to counsel from the Scriptures.
See below for a summary of all 4 sessions along with the recorded audio and video:
Session 1:
A Biblical Perspective Of Pain and Life In a Fallen World: Its Joy and Its Sorrow
  • In this session, we will start at the beginning: Who is God? Who are you? What happened so that man is a sufferer and sinner? A firm foundation is necessary for the Church and individual believer to gain victory. There is no question that pain is the blight of fallen man. The Bible and practical living both testify to that fact. The question before every believer is a simple one: So what? God has the only satisfying answer to your so what? your how long? and your how can I make it? The Bible does not ignore or deny the fact of misery and trouble in a fallen world--the cross highlights this fact. It does not leave believers in a morass of God’s tough and hard providence--it gives God’s sure answers. Sadly, many people, including believers, are not interested in God’s answers. One goal of this session is to help you move to a more robust view of God as you function in His world.
Session 2:
What Does the Believer Have That the Unbeliever Does Not Have and What Is Its Significance?
  • Since man is a player and a responder in God’s world, a proper understanding of man is essential for any aspect of life, including the giving and the receiving of medical care. Although the Bible is not a medical textbook, it does address the whole person, including thoughts, desires, and actions. It supplies everything that a believer needs for life and godliness, including the area of pain, misery, and death (2 Timothy 3:15-17; 2 Peter 1:3-4). It is all that a believer needs to properly address and respond to physical problems. These facts are hope-engendering and are part of the answer to the question: How should we then live?
  • The believer has many resources and provisions to live in this fallen world, along with God’s sanctifying grace to use them. First, we will look at man as God’s image bearer and the significance that this has for salvation and sanctification. Second, we will consider the provisions that God has showered on His people, such that they are never governed by their circumstances. They are rather in any given circumstances for a specific purpose. That last statement is counterintuitive and countercultural, but so is a crucified, risen Savior who is King of kings and Lord of lords!
Session 3:
What to Do With Trouble When It Is Spelled Pain
  • The title is a little trickery. Believers must develop and are developing as a result of being believers! This is a biblical concept. Believers are also to respond to God and to His providence--including pain--in a God-honouring way. Some may deny the validity of such a statement. God brings hard providences to some people, but not to others, however, none have had harder providences than Christ. The cross is foolishness for those perishing, but wisdom for those being saved (1 Corinthians 1:18ff). The Bible gives precedence for the God-honouring approach we are to take in all areas of life: we are to grieve God’s way (1 Thessalonians 4:13); we are to comfort and love God’s way (2 Corinthians 1:3-4; 1 John 4:7-12); and we are to be fearful and angry God’s way (Ephesians 4:26; James 1:19-20). If God both expects us and equips us to respond to trouble in a God-honoring way, then we must learn how to do it. Our discussion now moves to growth in Christ, or, progressive sanctification.
Session 4:
Gain Through Loss: God’s Way to Victory
  • Victory is not often a word associated with patients facing various physical and mental problems. Rather, we hear phrases such as: we will get through it, hang in there, first you accept it and then you can move on, and suck it up. The phrases are born and bred in human wisdom. I heard these phrases so often, and from Christians, that I wrote a book on endurance (Endurance: What It is and How It looks in the Believer’s Life). My goal was to help believers endure God’s way. The Bible is replete with the admonition to godly living by way of contrasts. The Bible uses contrasts such as holy and unholy, clean and unclean, wise and foolish, light and darkness, the narrow road and the wide road, and fear of the Lord and fear of man. I have also alluded to the fact that a person can grieve God’s way or the way of the world, be angry God’s way or the world’s way, and be fearful God’s way or the way of the world (1 Thessalonians 4:13; Ephesians 4:26; James 1:19-20; Proverbs 3:5-8).
]]><![CDATA[Overview: Reformed Doctrines Simply Explained - 2019]]>Tue, 31 Mar 2020 20:09:24 GMThttps://www.archalifax.ca/past-conferences/reformed-doctrines-simply-explained-2019​A Challenge to live the Christian life today.
On October 18 - October 19, 2019 Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church hosted their third annual conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Their guest speaker was Rev. Mitchell Persaud who, in 1997, was sent to Toronto as a church planter and evangelist. He is still there and now the pastor of New Horizon United Reformed Church.
See below for a summary of all 4 sessions along with the recorded audio and video:
Session 1:​
The Nature and Function of the Church
  • Who runs the church?
    • Elders
    • Deacons
    • How are they selected and ordained?
    • Are women permitted to be deacons and elders?
  • Is the church linked to others?
    • Hierarchy, congregational or presbyterian?
  • Duties of the church:
    • Centrality of preaching
    • Using the sacraments
    • Insistence on discipline
    • Involvement in evangelism
Session 2:​
The Bible
  • General revelation
  • Special revelation
  • The scriptures are sufficient for every spiritual need
    • What are the implications?
  • How do we know the Bible is true?
    • Can we be sure?
  • Which books are in the Bible and which should not be?
Session 3:​
Covenant and Baptism
  • Believers and children were part of the old covenant
  • Believers and children are part of the new covenant
  • Believers and their children must have a sign of the covenant
  • What is the sign of the covenant today?
  • How should we treat children today?
  • Baptism is more than a sign
Session 4:​
Sabbath Day of Worship and Rest
  • The Sabbath was a creation ordinance that can never pass away
  • Breaking the Sabbath was reason for captivity in Babylon
  • Sabbath keeping continued during and after Jesus
  • Necessity and Blessing of the Sabbath
  • Preparation for the Sabbath
  • A warning against legalism
]]><![CDATA[Overview: All of Life Under Obedience to Jesus Christ - 2018]]>Mon, 29 Oct 2018 03:00:00 GMThttps://www.archalifax.ca/past-conferences/all-of-life-under-obedience-to-jesus-christ​A Challenge to live the Christian life today.
To live all of life under obedience to Christ requires that we learn who he is, how we become Christians, and what life in Christ looks like.
Of course we are not at a university. This conference is given by Christ’s church, so our ambition as the church is to learn in order to glorify and live for God; so I am not giving mere lectures (Rev. Henry Bartsch).
​​On September 28 - September 29, 2017 Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church hosted their second annual conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Their guest speaker was Rev. Henry Bartsch who is the pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Chatham, Ontario. He is a member of the Canadian Presbytery of the ARP denomination. He and his wife Tammy have 6 children.
See below for a summary of all 4 sessions along with the recorded audio and video:
Session 1:​
The Three Foundations of the Christian Life
  1. Regeneration
  2. Union with Christ
  3. Sanctification​
Session 2:
The Norm for the Christian Life
  1. ​God himself as the ethical norm
  2. Jesus Christ as the ethical norm
  3. God's holy law as the ethical norm
Session 3:
Christian Gratitude
  1. Definition of gratitude
  2. Crisis of gratitude
  3. The case for Christian gratitude
  4. The practice of Christian gratitude ​
Session 4:
Technology, Texting, and Serving Jesus Christ
  1. The reality of technology and social media
  2. The repercussions of technology and social media
  3. Serving Jesus Christ with technology and social media ​
]]><![CDATA[Overview: The Glory of Christ - 2017]]>Tue, 03 Oct 2017 03:00:00 GMThttps://www.archalifax.ca/past-conferences/the-glory-of-christ-2017-atlantic-reformed-conferenceThe incomparable Christ:
​"So divine, yet so authentically human; so strong, yet so meek; so great, the seraphim, God’s burning ones, hide their faces in His presence; yet, so lowly, He surprised lepers with His touch. He came from Glory to Golgotha to make our debts His very own. For our every noble thirst, He is the answer. Less will not satisfy, more cannot be desired."​
On September 29 - October 1, 2017 Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church hosted their first conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Their guest speaker was Rev. Neil C. Stewart who is the pastor of Christ Covenant Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is a former pediatric physician and a native of Northern Ireland. He now lives in Oak Ridge.
See below for a summary of all 6 sessions along with the recorded audio and video:
Session 1:​
In the Glory with the Father:
“From Heaven He Came”
If we are to begin to grasp the love of God for mankind, the gravity of evil, and the appalling cost of our redemption, we must begin with Christ in the glory of God, as the glory of God. (John 1:1-5)
Session 2:
In the Womb of the Virgin:
“Born the King of Angels”
​As one writer put it, “Without ceasing to be what He had always been, He became something He had never been before.” The incarnate Christ experienced the human condition, unabridged. In this session, we will think of our Savior growing up, developing his relationship with God, undergoing hardship, weakness, weariness, thirst, the need to learn, loneliness, the failure of friends, pain as a victim, and the ability to bleed and die. He understands humanity from the inside. (Phil 2:1-11)
Session 3:
In the Wilderness with the Devil:
“How Firm a Foundation.” 
In this middle session on Saturday morning, we will consider Christ as our Champion, facing down the devil in the wilderness. Here we will see Jesus stand where Adam fell. (Luke 4:1-13)
Session 4:
On the Cross as our Substitute:
“In my Place Condemned He Stood.”
Our sins took Jesus from the top to the bottom, from the height of heaven to the depths of hell, from Glory to Golgotha. Here we will consider the cross in the experience of our Lord. We will particularly examine the justice of the cross: how can the innocent suffer in the place of the guilty? Hugh Martin put it well, "The universe were one vast hell of suspense and horror if God's wrath could alight elsewhere than where it is deserved." (Isaiah 52:13-53:12)
Session 5:
On the Throne as our Brother:
​“Above all earthly powers!”
In our penultimate message, we will ponder the implications of the resurrection for the believer. Christ now sits enthroned in heaven, where He unleashes the Spirit for us, prays for us, rules the cosmos for us, and subdues our sins in us. We will consider how this heavenly vision should motivate, comfort, and encourage the Christian to press on and lay hold of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
​(Hebrews 4:1-16)
Session 6:
In the End as our Judge:
“Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending.” 
In our final message, we will examine the Bible’s teaching about the second coming of the Lord Christ. On that awesome Day, He will come in the glory of His Father, with His holy angels, to render to every man according to His deeds, and to bring in the New Heavens and the New Earth. What will this day be like for the Christian? (Psalm 50)
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