1 Thessalonians (Program #12) – An Exhortation Concerning a Holy Life for the Church Life

Every parent can learn a lot about how to properly care for and raise your children by observing how the apostle Paul care for his spiritual children in 1 & 2 Thessalonians. By the time he comes to Chapter 4 he has a strong and sober warning related to the danger and damage of fornication and immorality. But he does so only after having first nurtured, encouraged and nourished these precious young believers fostering them in the growth of the divine life.  Then as a faithful and exhorting father he brings to them these critical points in these chapters.

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Song of Songs (Program #2) – Drawn to Pursue Christ for Satisfaction (1)

“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!
For your love is better than wine.” (Song of Songs 1:2)

This intimate and tender language might be thought to be from a great love sonnet from Shakespeare or Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Yet it’s actually from the opening lines of the book Song of Songs in the Old Testament. Why is a love poem given precious space in the pages of the Bible? There seems to be no way to understand such a book by studying in a doctrinal or theological perspective. It is purely a book of experience and to understand it properly we must learn to interpret the types and figures.

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1 Thessalonians (Program #11) – Encouragement for Faith, Love, and Hope

When the apostle Paul first passed through Thessalonica and established the Church there, he set the young and new believers on a solid footing not just preaching the gospel to them but also anchoring them in the three strong elements of their life in Christ, faith, love and hope.

Chapter 1:3, “Remembering unceasingly your work of faith and labor of love and endurance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father;”

Then some months later, Paul found himself excessively burden to see how the young Church in Thessalonica was progressing. So much so he can bear it no longer, so he sent his faithful co-worker, Timothy to help foster their faith and encourage them.  Chapter 3:1-2, “Therefore when we could bear it no longer….. we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and encourage you for the sake of your faith.”

These are precious words. We want to have a chance to really look into the heart of the apostle and the lives and the experiences of these young believers in Thessalonica.

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Song of Songs (Program #1) – An Introductory Word and Drawn to Pursue Christ for Satisfaction (1)

“The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s.
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!
For your love is better than wine.
Your anointing oils have a pleasant fragrance;
Your name is like ointment poured forth;
Therefore the virgins love you.” (Song of Songs 1:1-3)

Thus opens one of the most remarkable and mysterious books of the entire Bible – The Song of Songs. It’s the third of three books composed by legendary King Solomon, the son of David and the builder of the first temple of God in Jerusalem. It is neither a book of history, law, prophecy or gospel as are nearly all of the other books of the Old Testament; rather, it is a book of poetry – a beautiful poetic story of the love and romance between a great and mighty king and a poor and lowly country maiden. How are we to understand such a book? The key is to realize that this book is a book of figures and symbols.

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1 Thessalonians (Program #10) – The Reward of Fostering

Of all the writings in the New Testament, perhaps the deepest and most profound are those of the apostle Paul. To Paul it was given to unfold many of the great truths of the Christian faith and to make known the eternal purpose of God. But his letters to the church in Thessalonica are striking in their simplicity. Because to the new believers in this city Paul became a nourishing and cherishing parent, fostering the growth of his spiritual children.

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Ecclesiastes (Program #1) – Vanity of Vanities

The book of Ecclesiastes was written by King Solomon after his fall as described in 1 Kings 11:1-8 in his following after the foreign wives. Ecclesiastes begins, “The words of the Preacher, the son of David, the king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; Vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What advantage does a man have in all his work which he does under the sun? A generation goes and a generation comes, But the earth stands forever. Also, the sun rises, and the sun sets…All things are wearisome; No one is able to tell it; The eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor is the ear filled with hearing. What has been is what will be, And what has been done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun…I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, and indeed, all is vanity and a chasing after wind…“

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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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