1 Thessalonians (Program #9) -The Care of a Nursing Mother and an Exhorting Father

In the tender and intimate letters of the apostle Paul to the young church in Thessalonica, is very interesting to consider what he stresses. In one way these are not high words or deep or even seemingly profound and there is no mention of miraculous things or of works of great power.  Rather the apostle reminds the believers of the normal and upright manner of life in which he and his co-worker were manifested for them when they were together just one short year prior.

Listen to his word again in Chapter 1:5 of 1 Thessalonians,  “For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, even as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.“

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Proverbs (Program #9) – Using Proverbs for Building Up the New Man

When we come to the book of Proverbs in the Bible we need to see that the place that the book of Proverbs placed in God’s economy.  According to God’s economy, Proverbs should not be used to build up the Old Man.  The big Proverbs are like nuggets and the small ones are like gems and they are not for us to build up our Old Man to cultivate ourselves and our natural man.  Rather they are for us to build up our New Man.  It’s for this purpose that the Proverbs are useful.  While we are still living in this body on the earth we need the Proverbs to give us instructions on how to live rightly in so many aspects in order to build up our New Man.

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1 Thessalonians (Program #8) -The Church Becoming the Embodiment of the Triune God (2)

One of the essentials for being a Christian is to appreciate the Bible as the word of God. But for most of us our reading and our understanding of the Holy Word fall far short of what it should be.

For instance, take a passage like 1 Thessalonians Chapter 2:12 where Paul tells us that we have been called into God’s own kingdom and glory. Do we really have an adequate appreciation of all that these implies or do we even have a proper understanding of things like God’s kingdom and God’s glory?  Probably we just skim along taking such marvelous word for granted.  But one of the benefits we have in this program each day is that the Lord richly unveils and brings us into deeper realities of His word.

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Proverbs (Program #8) – The Detailed Precepts for Man To Live a Proper Human Life (3)

The book of Proverbs is full of wisdom but the real purpose of Proverbs is to cultivate our new man. Yet many people come to the book of Proverbs seeking wisdom to help them and improve their old man, their natural life, to improve their “self”. But the problem is no matter how much we improve our “self”, we still according to the Lord’s word in Luke 17:33 we need to deny our “self”. We need to take up the cross and follow the Lord. So at best we’re perfecting our “self” that we need to deny. But if we have the light and we see Proverbs in a proper way, we can see the benefit of the book of Proverbs is to help us to cultivate our new man.

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1 Thessalonians (Program #7) – The Church Becoming the Embodiment of the Triune God (2)

In both of his epistles to the Thessalonians Paul stresses at the beginning that the Church is in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a strong confirmation to this in another passage of the Scripture in the gospel of John. However in order to see the parallel we must first be willing to reconsider the traditional and commonly held understanding of the gospel of John Chapter 14, “In My Father’s house are many abodes; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will receive you to Myself, so that where I am you also may be.”

You see, probably before I was even finish reading these verse, many of you were already thinking, “Oh, yes, that is talking about the Lord preparing our heavenly mansion.”  But is that really what these verses present to us or are there a strong confirming word that the Lord Jesus has prepared a place for us today in God Himself, a place for all the believers to stay?

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Proverbs (Program #7) – Coming to Proverbs to Cultivate Our Regenerated New Man

Paul, the apostle tells us that the Bible has the potential to affect us when we read it in two very different ways. In 2 Corinthians 3:6 he says “Who has made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” Do we have this realization when we come to the word of God?  The same words can either become Spirit and life to us or they can become dead letters to us. It all depends on how we come to the Bible and what kind of persons we are that will determine what we receive. We’re all fallen creatures with an old fallen nature and an old life the Bible calls the old man. When this old man comes to the Bible in order to find help to improve itself before God, the result will be predictable, the result of death.

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1 Thessalonians (Program #6) – The Church Becoming the Embodiment of the Triune God (1)

The way in which Paul, the apostle opens his letter to the Thessalonians is very interesting, “to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Well, you may wonder what’s so significant about such a greeting. First, notice that Paul didn’t just say that the Thessalonians believers were in God, in a general way or even in God and in Jesus. But he inspired by the Holy Spirit chose these words specifically, in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We considered in recent programs, what it is to be in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus.  Today, we will see more about what it is to be in Christ?

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Proverbs (Program #6) – The Detailed Precepts for Man To Live a Proper Human Life (2)

The book of Proverbs is a collection of gems which are detailed precepts for man to live a proper human life. Today we are going to use the majority of our radio program on the life-study of Proverbs to hear a reading of these gems categorized. Today we’re going to cover the second part of these readings entitled “Admonitions and Teachings”.

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1 Thessalonians (Program #5) – The Church in the Triune God

In all of his epistles, the apostle Paul under scores that our God is Triune. That is He is God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit. And as such He becomes available to us not only as our Father and Savior without but also as the very source of our Christian life within.

Paul concludes 2 Corinthians, a marvelous book with an unmistakable reference to the Trinity, 13:14 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”  But in both 1 & 2 Thessalonians he begins the books by drawing our attention not just to God in a general way but to the Triune God as he says, “to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.“

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Proverbs (Program #5) – Touching the Word of God by Our New Man

The book of Proverbs is a wonderful collection of gems of wisdom concerning nearly every aspect of human life. As such, people of many persuasions appreciate Proverbs and often quote these nuggets of wisdom. While we’re thankful for such a book in the Bible, it also presents a dilemma. And that is that an ethical person, even one who has no personal knowledge or experience of our dear Saviour Jesus, can apply these moral precepts to build himself up and enhance his fallen human life. While we may say that society would surely benefit if all men practice these principles and employ the wisdom expressed in Proverbs, yet God’s goal of bringing us, His children, not into an improved condition but into a new creation will be no closer to reality. While we extol God for the wisdom of His word, our real need is not self-improvement but rather that we put off our old man and put on the new man.

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