Blog Archives

29 Jun 2022 1 John (Program #7)

1 John (Program #7) – Conditions of the Divine Fellowship (2)

As believers in Christ, our relationship with God is unbreakable but our fellowship with Him can be broken. Our relationship as children of God is unconditional and has been settle once and for all. However our fellowship with God is conditional and may fluctuate.

We are going to pursue further the first of the two main conditions for our fellowship with God.

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28 Jun 2022 1 John (Program #6)

1 John (Program #6) – Conditions of the Divine Fellowship (1)

All genuinely blood washed, Spirit regenerated believers in Christ have become children of God and we can never break this marvelous relationship in life with our Savior God.

Yet in our experience we all know that our fellowship with God can be broken. Unfortunately this happens to us all too frequently and we miss the fellowship with the Lord that we love. So, the apostle John helped us in a practical way in his first epistle to deal with this.

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27 Jun 2022 1 John (Program #5)

1 John (Program #5) – The Fellowship of the Divine Life

We all should realize by now that John the apostle had a particular emphasis in all of his writings.  That emphasis was that what God desires for men above all else  is that men would receive Him as life.  “I have come that they may have life”, he writes in his gospel and “he that has the Son has the life“, he says in his epistle.  But we should also realize that this divine, eternal, uncreated life has an issue or an outflow, which John calls “the fellowship of life”.  If we want to know Him as life and experience the greatest of all divine gifts, we should pay our full attention to the “fellowship” or “flow of life” from the One who is life.

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24 Jun 2022 1 John (Program #2)

1 John (Program #2) – A Word Concerning the Writings of John (2)

Here is a question to ponder that may not be as simple as it first sounds – what is a Christian?  Well, may be you may a Christian is a good person or a Christian is a kind person or a humble person. But if you look carefully at the Bible and especially the writings of the apostle John, you have to conclude firstly that a Christian is altogether a mysterious person. Why mysterious you ask. Mysterious because a genuine Christian like Jesus Christ Himself is both human and divine.

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23 Jun 2022 1 John (Program #1)

1 John (Program #1) – A Word Concerning the Writings of John (1)

In all of the New Testament the writings of the apostle John are perhaps the most striking.  They are also the most mysterious because more than any of the other New Testament books, John’s gospel, epistles and his concluding book Revelation unveiled to us many of the divine and mystical things. His books are mysterious because they focus not on historical facts or on doctrines or on teachings but rather on the divine and mystical realm revealing Christ as the very divine life available for us to receive and experience day by day.

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19 Jun 2022 2 Peter (Program #9)

2 Peter (Program #9) – The Divine Government (2)

2 Peter chapter one is one of the most profound chapters in the New Testament.  It is full of solid, nourishing words conveying the central thought of the entire New Testament teaching.  In this chapter, Peter touches both life and truth as he speaks concerning the precious faith that we all have received.  He also strongly points us to the sure word of the Scripture.  But then in chapter two, he turned dramatically back to God’s governmental judgment, a major theme of his first epistle.  But here the righteous judgment of God that Peter described in great details is not general or vague but rather it is intensely focused on the false teachers who had begun to permeate the church and lead God’s people away from the very item that Peter had poured out in chapter one.

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17 Jun 2022 2 Peter (Program #7)

2 Peter (Program #7) – The Divine Provision (7)

The book of 2 Peter continues the thought of his first epistle; God’s governmental judgment.  But it also stresses God’s divine provision for His people to enable them to live under such divine ruling.  The first chapter of 2 Peter describes this provision in its various aspects such as the divine power and all things pertaining to life and godliness, the divine promises and even partaking of the divine nature.

These provisions  are all on the side of life.  But Peter also details  provisions on the side of the divine truth.  First we have the testimonies of the apostles themselves who were actual eye-witnesses of the glory and majesty of Christ.  Second we have the prophetic word shining as a lamp in a dark place to enlighten us until the morning star rises in our hearts.

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16 Jun 2022 2 Peter (Program #6)

2 Peter (Program #6) – The Divine Provision (6)

Second Peter chapter one is one of the most weighty and profound passages in all of scripture. Phrase after phrase in these few verses convey the progression and development of the divine life as it germinates, matures and comes to full growth.

Along this long progression or path all of the attributes of God divine life become the virtues that developed and are ultimately expressed through us. Of course while God supplies the divine power according to Peter which enables us to escape the corruption of the world that work through lust and to become partakers of the divine nature, there are some basic conditions that we need to meet, such as having a full knowledge of all the divine things pertaining to life and godliness.  And in addition we need to add all diligence to co-operate with the divine power operating within us.  The result of  this marvelous development is that God is expressed through us and we in turn are supplied a rich and unshakable entrance into God’s kingdom.

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14 Jun 2022 2 Peter (Program #4)

2 Peter (Program #4) – The Divine Provision (4)

Most of the time Christians are satisfied if their behavior before the unbelieving world reflects a proper ethical conduct and high moral. In fact if we spend our entire day living in such a way surely at the end of our day we will be peaceful and probably feel quite good about ourselves and our testimony.

But the Bible declares what God is seeking from His people is not mere ethics and morality but a life that expresses Godliness, which means a life that expresses God Himself. This is much different, much higher than mere morality.  Listen again to 2 Peter 1:3 “Seeing that His divine power has granted to us all things which relate to life and godliness, through the full knowledge of Him who has called us by His own glory and virtue.

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13 Jun 2022 2 Peter (Program #3)

2 Peter (Program #3) – The Divine Provision (3)

In a very real sense the first few verses of second Peter encapsulate much of how God will accomplished His eternal plan or economy. Beginning with the gift of faith, we have God’s righteousness, the righteousness of Christ, grace and peace being multiplied in the full knowledge of God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Then the divine power operating in the believers in conjunction with their co-operation leading to their escape from lust. Then God’s own glory and virtues and our being called through them and to them. Further we have God’s precious and exceedingly great promises, all of which lead us to become partakers of His divine nature resulting ultimately in our transformation in full salvation. What a tremendous beginning to this short but thoroughly crucial portion of the holy word.

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