Genesis (Program #80) – Being Dealt With (1)

We are going on today on Jacob’s full and very interesting life.   And I’d like draw attention again to the fact that the Bible affords nearly one half of the entire book of Genesis detailing Jacob’s dealings with God.

We pointed out in another occasion that Jacob’s experience signifies the believer’s experience of transformation.  I believe we will see more of this in this broadcast.   For the book of Genesis to devote so many chapters to Jacob, indicates at least two things…

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John (Program #31) -Life’s Washing in Love to Maintain Fellowship (1)

So you can say that the Lord washes our feet by the working of the Holy Spirit and also by the enlightening of the Word of God and by the operating of the inner law of life within us.

John chapter 13 is very meaningful.  Not many people really understand this chapter and it had quite a background.  If you go back to all that has been covered in the first 12 chapters of the gospel of John, you will see how the Lord Jesus meets the need of every man.  In every kind of situations, He brings life out of death…

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John (Program #30) – Life’s Issue and Multiplication (2)

We need to praise the Lord for the redeeming aspect of His death.  We need to praise thee Lord for the Satan destroying aspect of His death and we need to praise Him for the life-releasing aspect of His wonderful death on the cross.

We’ve seen thus far from John chapter 3 to John chapter 11 is a long section showing us how Christ as the divine eternal life of God meets the need of every man’s case.  We went through all those cases in a marvelous way.  Then when we come to John chapter 12, we see the issue of life.  What is the issue of Christ as life meeting the need of every man’s case?  The issue of life is a house of feasting.  This house of feasting is a miniature of what our church life should be…

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Genesis (Program #79) – Being Chosen (2)

Today we are going to hear about the corporate aspect of God’s calling.

It is quite interesting to see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all put together are showing us one corporate man.  With Abraham you see a person who lives a life of faith.  With Isaac you see a person who lives a life of enjoyment and with Jacob you can see a person who has experienced transformation for the sake of the fulfillment God’s eternal purpose.  Eventually, Jacob’s name was Is-ra-el.  El on the end means God.  It means God has been added to this man.  So the wonder thing here you put these 3 together and you see what’s on God’s heart.  God’s eternal purpose is the main topic of the whole Bible.  And that is He wants to dispense Himself, and work Himself into a corporate humanity for what purpose?  So that He could be expressed.  God is working Himself into a corporate humanity so that He could be expressed through this humanity, because this is what is on His heart according to His eternal purpose which He made in eternity past.  So we see these 3 representing one corporate person in God’s purpose.

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John (Program #29) – Life’s Issue and Multiplication (1)

In the divine life there is a longing for the kind of church life portrait in chapter 12 of John.  But unfortunately, religious concept inclines us very much in another direction.  It’s striking that the Lord Jesus went to a little house to have His church life.

It surely is a pleasant message on a very pleasant matter; the miniature of the church life portrait in the first part of John 12.  For you have Martha and Lazarus and Mary together with the Lord Jesus enjoying kind of feast together.  Two or three things are very striking about this.  One is the fact that it follows the record of the raising of Lazarus and since everything in this gospel virtually is a sign, the scene in chapter 12 is also a sign of the genuine and proper church life as an issue of resurrection.

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Genesis (Program #78) – Being Chosen (1)

We have been looking at Abraham and Isaac and now we are going to spend quite some time as the Bible does dealing with Jacob.

One way to describe Jacob’s history recorded in Genesis is a long journey with much experience under the Lord’s hand.  A journey in which he is gradually transformed from a self-seeking supplanter into a prince of God, mature in life, reigning in life, able to bless others in the name of the Triune God…

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John (Program #28) – The Need of the Dead – Life’s Resurrecting

Lazarus comes forth, but he still has his grave clothes on. So, what the Lord told the ones around him is, “loose him and let him go”. We still need the brothers and sisters. When we meet with them, we are loose and we are free to follow Christ with those who cooperate with the Lord in resurrection.

This is the conclusion of a long section from John 3 through John 11 that shows us how Christ as the divine, eternal, uncreated life of God meets the need of every man’s case.

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Genesis (Program #77) – Having Natural Weakness as Abraham and Living in the Natural Life as Jacob

Today’s life study is going to deal very much with natural life and the weaknesses of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

When we reconsider these Old Testament “heroes”, we don’t think of their weaknesses.  However, through these life studies we have come to see the real situation.  We have often heard of Abraham as the father of faith.  We have seen how he believed that God was able to call things not being as being, as in the case of the birth of Isaac.  And also believing in God being able to raise Isaac from the dead, after he offered him on Mount Moriah.  And we usually consider everything about Abraham happening to him because he was a good, God-fearing man, strong in the faith.  But if you have being following these life studies of Genesis, you found out that Abraham learned many lessons by his weaknesses and even his naturalness in the way he did things, the way he tried to help God and tried to enter into a clever solution to certain problems that came up as in the case of the birth of Ishmael and in his trying to have Eliezer to be in the place of his son.  These kind of things show that Abraham wasn’t that perfect.  He had some weakness that he acted in a natural way and he did things according to his natural cleverness…

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John (Program #27) – The Need of the Blind in Religion – Life’s Shepherding

Our good Shepherd laid down His human life for us in order that the divine life could now be imparted to us.

John 10 is the direct continuation of the events in chapter 9. And together, they form a case of the need of the blind in religion. In chapter 9, there was a man blind from birth. And, the Lord gave him sight by the Lord’s being the light of life to him and by the anointing through His speaking. This took place on the Sabbath day. And, healing on the Sabbath was something prohibited, not by God, but by the religionists.

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Genesis (Program #76) – Resting and Enjoying

We have more marvelous pictures from the experience of Isaac.   Pictures is appropriate because anyone who has followed these life studies, I am sure has being able to see one picture after another.  And it’s amazing that the Old Testament book of Genesis that we have been in has been so much help to us with our New Testament experience of life.  What is the relationship between the Old and New Testament in the divine revelation?

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