1 Timothy (Program #5) – Overseers and Deacons for the Church’s Administration

In Chapter 3 of the apostle Paul first epistle to Timothy, he comes to the crucial and the highest point in the whole letter. But before he does, he first gives Timothy the important requirements or prerequisites for proper leadership in the Church.  Listen, as Paul details these necessary attributes:

“Faithful is the word: If anyone aspires to the overseership, he desires a good work. The overseer then must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, of a sober mind, orderly, hospitable, apt to teach; Not an excessive drinker; not a striker, but gentle; not contentious; not fond of money; One who manages well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity (But if one does not know how to manage his own house, how will he care for the church of God?); Not a new convert, lest being blinded with pride he fall into the judgment suffered by the devil. And he also must have a good testimony from those outside, that he may not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. Deacons must similarly be grave, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for base gain; Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.“

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1 Timothy (Program #4) – The Normal Life of the Brothers and Sisters in the Church

In his first letter to his young co-worker, Timothy, the apostle Paul after his first imprisonment encourages Timothy to war the good warfare for the faith against the situation of degradation that had set in among all the churches.

In his letter he firstly reconfirms the basic foundation of the truth, God’s economy and the teaching of the apostles. Then he points the Timothy and eventually all the brothers and sisters to prayer. The real solution for all the negative situations.  Next, he addresses the sisters and admonishes them in much detail on how they must bear the burden for the church to be healthy.

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1 Timothy (Program #2) – Faith and a Good Conscience Needed for the Keeping of the Faith

In 1 Timothy Chapter 1:18, The apostle Paul gives young Timothy a charge. A charge that he would war the good warfare.  This charge he writes, “I commit to you, my child Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you might war the good warfare,”

Many Bible readers and Bible lovers have no doubt been aspired by such hefty stuff. But do they really understand what it was that Paul would have Timothy so gallantly fight for and defend?

In reading passages like this in scripture. We need to take great care to get in the full context. In this case the key to understanding Paul’s charge to Timothy is the preceding 17 verses in Chapter 1. And those can be well summarized by verse 3, “Even as I exhorted you, …. that you might charge certain ones not to teach different things. Nor to give heed to myths and unending genealogies, which produce questionings rather than God’s economy, which is in faith.“

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2 Thessalonians (Program #23) – A Word of Correction of the Misconception Concerning the Day of the Lord’s Coming (1)

The subject of Paul’s second epistle to the Thessalonians were encouragement and correction concerning the holy life for the Church life.

Verse 3-5 of chapter 1 say : “We ought to thank God always concerning you, brothers, even as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly and the love of each one of you all to one another is increasing, So that we ourselves boast in you among the churches of God concerning your endurance and faith in all your persecutions and the afflictions which you bear, a plain indication of the righteous judgment of God that you may be account worthy of the kingdom of God for which also you suffer.“

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1 Thessalonians (Program #18) – Our Heart to be Established Blameless in Holiness (2)

The Bible has a lot to say about man’s heart. And sometime it can seem confusing. For example, Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, And it is incurable; Who can know it?”  But in Proverbs despite the incurable condition of our heart it becomes a door or a gate for the experience of the divine life.  Proverbs 4:23 “Keep your heart with all vigilance, For from it are the issues of life.”

So, our hear does at times seem confusing because it is not a simple thing and above all, man’s heart is prone to change like the wind. It is with this thought in view no doubt that Paul wrote to the new believers in Thessalonica telling them that he desire to come and see them face to face in order to perfect the things which are lacking in their faith and to establish their hearts.

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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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1 Thessalonians (Program #4) – The Triune God Embodied in the Word to Produce a Holy Life for the Church Life (2)

First Thessalonians, a letter written to a very young Church composed of newly saved believers reveals the Triune God in the first chapter. But this unveiling of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit goes on to reveal not just that God is Triune but that in our dynamic salvation all three of the Godhead are ministered to us becoming the very substance and elements of our faith and the beginning of our Christian life. A life relationship with God Himself.

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Colossians (Program #12) – Christ-The Mystery Of God’s Economy

What kind of book is the Bible to you? Maybe a book of stories of inspiring men of faith or perhaps a book of deep teachings and doctrines. Or, a book of ethics or words of wisdom for men to live by. Well, surely it’s all of these things but if these are all we see in the Bible, we’d missed the mark. Because embedded in all the stories, all the teachings, and all the ethics and wisdom lies the mystery of God and of His heart’s desire for man. Listen to Paul the Apostle in Colossians 1:25  “Of which I became a minister according to the stewardship of God, which was given to me for you, to complete the word of God, The mystery which has been hidden from the ages and from the generations but now has been manifested to His saints;”

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Philippians (Program #48) -The Sacrifice of Your Faith

What is faith?  Is it just to believe?  Why do some have it and some do not? Does the Bible gives us any direction of how to obtain more faith?   Well the question concerning faith are virtually endless. Of course the Bible does have much to say about faith, yet in many ways it remains mysterious. One of the most mysterious references to faith is found in Philippians 2 where Paul talks about the sacrifice and service of your faith. We want to get into the extraordinary expression today concerning the faith of the believers on this life study from the book of Philippians.

In the book of Philippians the apostle Paul used several remarkable or extraordinary expressions really and they are not found any where else in the New Testament not even in his other writing in his Epistles. We spent quite a bit of time on at least two of them in previous programs and those are the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The second one would be the holding forth of Word of life.  By now every one who’s been listening to these programs has to be fully impressed with these two expressions.

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Philippians (Program #45) -The Word of Life Being Identical to Living Christ

What is the secret of strong faith in Christ?  Well, today we will look back at the experience of some fathers in the faith to learn helpful lessons from them that would hopefully save us a lot of time and trouble.

It’s good to look back at some of our predecessors in the faith and to see how they learn to receive God’s word through prayer.

We’ve been talking a lot about the relationship between the Word and the Spirit and how these two should never be separated.  When we come to the Bible we need prayer and we also need to add the words of the Bible itself to our prayer.

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