Ephesians (Program #30) – The Church for God’s Wisdom According to God’s Purpose

Ephesians reveals more clearly than any other writing in the New Testament, that the Church is the eternal purpose of God. In fact it goes so far as to say that God’s multifarious wisdom is made known to the universe through the Church. But how can that be? Because when we look at the Church, most often all we see are the difficult people, bringing all their difficult problems and failures with them into the Church. Well, problems and failures and how God deals with them is just exactly the environment He needs to fully display His infinite wisdom, His multifarious wisdom.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Ruth (Program #2) – Ruth’s Exercising Her Right

The book of Ruth is a rare delight.  It’s the sweet love story of a girl with a dark background but who through the mercy of Jehovah and through her own strong choice found a way to join herself to God, to His people and to His move on the earth.  In the process she even found a marvelous husband, a provider. But more than just the stuff of great stories are made up, the book of Ruth shows us much about ourselves and the full salvation that God is providing us and how we too can exercise to choose what He is offering to gain access to the rich inheritance that God desires all of His children to share.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Ephesians (Program #29) – The Riches of Christ Producing the Church

Most people love mysteries. There is something about mysteries that engages us and hold our attention. And may be you even thought if I can just read the Bible like I read a good mystery. Well actually the Bible is the top mystery in the universe. Listen to the apostle Paul in

Ephesians 3 :3 “That by revelation the mystery was made known to me, as I have written previously in brief, By which, in reading it, you can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in spirit, as we look at the mystery of God, the unsearchable riches of Christ.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Ruth (Program #1) – An Introductory Word

The book of Judges is one of the most difficult in the Bible, it’s difficult because it records the history of Israel during one of its’ most miserable periods. Israel has forsaken God as her king, as her husband and every man had gone away doing what was right in his own eyes. The account of the loses and their battles against their enemies and the deplorable degradation of the people of God is quite depressing.

But following Judges comes one of the most sweetest and most lovely book of the Bible, the short book of Ruth.  People had always love the story through the ages, but just as the deplorable account in Judges has an intrinsic message to us as God’s people today so does the book of Ruth. For in this book we see in type, the incarnation of the redeeming Christ and the sinners choosing to join herself to her redeemer and His people resulting in her receiving the full inheritance of God’s people and eventually becoming an important person in the accomplishment of God’s purpose.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Ephesians (Program #28) – The Revelation of the Mystery

Many places in scripture talk about how the believers should walk. For example we were told to walk by the Spirit and to walk according to love and to walk by faith, just to name a few.  But in Ephesians, where the view and revelation is the highest in the New Testament. We were told in Chapter 4:1 “..to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called,”  But what kind of walk is this?

We will see today, in order to have a walk that is worthy of all that God has called us to, we, like the apostle Paul must first be prisoners.  4: 1 “I beseech you therefore, I, the prisoner in the Lord, to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called,”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Judges (Program #7) – The Abominable Chaos in their Worship

The life study of the books of Joshua and judges reveals not just the history of Israel with its’ successes and failures possessing the good land of Canaan, but also even more importantly it teaches us how we can gain and possess the all inclusive Christ as our full portion, our enjoyment and our inheritance. Israel in the good land typifies us, the New Testament believers in Christ and just as Israel allowed their departure from a close and intimate fellowship with Jehovah to impede their progress gaining the land we too can see our spiritual progress and our enjoyment of Christ impeded if we don’t take care of our day by day, even moment by moment fellowship with Him.  Listen to this verse in 1 John 1:3 “That which we have seen and heard we report also to you that you also may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.”

A very marvelous portion related to this matter of fellowship typified of course by the picture in the Old Testament of Israel gaining, possessing the land. We enter into the fellowship the moment we receive Christ and this fellowship is a fellowship that is life long.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Ephesians (Program #27) – The Stewardship of the Grace

The apostle Paul wrote the book of Ephesians from prison in Rome. And he refers to his been imprison on account of the gospel in a very interesting way. In Chapter 3 he says, “I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus.” Well, this indicates that to Paul, Christ was the one that had captured him and not the Roman army.

Then in Chapter 4 he says that not only was he a prisoner of Christ but he was a prisoner in Christ.  And from this status he goes on to convey the real meaning and substance of what he called the stewardship of the grace of God.  What is this marvelous stewardship?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Judges (Program #6) – The Miserable History of Israel’s Forsaking God (5)

In the varied history of the nation of Israel that is recorded in the book of Judges, we have of course the interesting and well known story of Samson.  Endued with the power of the Spirit, he was mighty and fierce in his struggle against Israel’s enemy the Philistines but he had a very specific failure that gave Satan, God’s real enemy the ground to tempt him and and ultimately defeated him. Of course the beautiful Philistines woman, Delilah  typifies this failure.  Samson indulgence of the lust of his flesh led to his down fall. The story of Samson and the warning that we as God’s people today must take from this case is our topic on this life study of the Bible.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Ephesians (Program #26) – Growing into a Holy Temple and Being Built into a Dwelling Place of God

In the well known account in Mathew 16, the Lord Jesus asked His disciples who He was. And the apostle Peter responded with the famous words, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” As marvelous as this account is, it doesn’t end there. For the Lord goes on to tell Peter, that he had been blessed to receive such a revelation from God the Father. And further upon the rock of this revelation, the Church would be built.  This is truly one of the great passages in all of scripture. And the apostle Paul refers back to this monumental revelation in Ephesians 2 where the building of the Church is the focus and the theme.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Judges (Program #5) – The Miserable History of Israel’s Forsaking God (4)

The Bible begins with the story of Adam and how he gained a wife, Eve. In the New Testament of course we find out that Adam is a type of Christ, the very God and Eve, a type of God’s people, the Church.  So, from the beginning the Bible becomes a book of the marriage of God Himself with His people.  Yet by chapter 3 of Genesis, God’s enemy comes in to seduce man, to forsake God as their husband.  The result of this separation or divorce is the story of the chaotic history of mankind. Whatever nation, whatever group, whatever person forsakes God to become involves in something else ends up in a chaotic situation.  Israel’s history has seen this story repeated again and again in a cycle after cycle and soberly as we consider the situation even in the church, we’ see the same thing today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS