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

Peter begins his second epistle with the matter of faith. In fact he addresses the epistle “to those who have been allotted faith”. Faith is an mysterious thing and often misunderstood by believers and unbelievers alike. Many people may be even most people think that faith is something that we need to some how produce or find in order to believe. But according to Peter, faith is something allotted to us. The apostle Paul made a similar point in Ephesians, “for by grace you have been saved through faith and this not of yourself it is the gift of God.”

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1 Peter (Program #17) -Christian Life and Its Sufferings (4 & 5)

The Bible speaks about marriage and about the marriage life in many places.  It’s common for people to select their own favorite passages on this most personal of subjects.  How often, for example do husbands anxious to establish their authority quote such verses as Ephesians 5 :22 where the apostle Paul says “Wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord;”  While many wives might prefer to remind their spouses of verse 25 in the same chapter; “Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.”  But Peter also speaks of marriage and may in fact offer one of the most excellent passages in all of Scripture on the subject.  Speaking to the husband, he says in chapter 3 of his first epistle, “Husbands, in like manner dwell together with them according to knowledge, as with the weaker, female vessel, assigning honor to them as also to fellow heirs of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.“

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Joel (Program #4) – On Joel (5)—The Four Factors in the Book of Joel

The Old Testament, Minor Prophet Joel is an interesting book. It was quoted by Peter on the day of Pentecost and its’ prophecy concerning both the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the second coming of Christ are of great importance even to us, the New Testament believers.

The book can be summarized into 4 principles. These are the consuming locusts representing the 4 great empires of the human history and how they had been consuming Israel for more than 27 centuries.  The second principle is the suffering, that this is caused to Israel and how Israel had continued to endure under the suffering.  The third principle in Joel is that the Church, that’s us, God’s New Testament people are the beneficiaries of all these consuming and suffering.  And finally, the fourth principle is that of restoration. For all the suffering that Israel has endured there is a day coming when Israel will enjoy God’s full restoration.  This is Joel a wonderful and important book.

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1 Peter (Program #9) -The Full Salvation of the Triune God and Its Issues (7)

In chapter one of his epistle Peter contrasts our former way of living or literally our manner of life which was vain with our present manner of life, we should be holy. Vain of course means empty, without meaning.

Well, all of us must surely confess that our life before we were regenerated were categorized by sin. But Peter points out that even more our life were vain, empty and without purpose. Yet we had been called to a holy manner of life.

14: “..Do not be fashioned,” Peter writes, “according to the former lusts in your ignorance;”

15 “But according to the Holy One who called you, you yourselves also be holy in all your manner of life;”

How can we have such a living, such a manner of life that becomes holy? Peter’s further word in this chapter becomes a very great help to us.

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