Psalms (Program #30) –  The Psalmist’s Love for the House of God with Christ

Psalms 84 is a lovely expression of the Psalmist’s intense love and longing for God’s house.  “How lovely are Your tabernacle.” he writes.  “Oh Jehovah of hosts, my soul longs even faints for the cores of Jehovah.”  As this wonderful Psalm develops it becomes clear just what it is regarding God’s house that draws him so.  For it’s here, in God’s habitation which in His time was the tabernacle but today we realizes it’s the church that we find Christ.  It is Him that we long for and desire above all else.  Of course, this Psalm also shows us that on the way to God’s house, the journey brings us through many stations, like a valley of weeping and eventually to the two altars that reside in the tabernacle,.

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Colossians (Program #14) – Struggling According To The Operation Of Christ

Listen to Paul the apostle as he speaks of his great struggle in Colossians 2:1-2 “For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those in Laodicea, even all who have not seen my face in the flesh, That their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love and unto all the riches of the full assurance of understanding, unto the full knowledge of the mystery of God, Christ.” After unveiling Christ as the great mystery of God hidden from ages, he confesses that his great struggle for the believers was that their hearts could be comforted and knitted together. From something so high and spiritual to something so seemingly shallow and human as a care for the comfort of the believers. This was the Apostle Paul. Today we will consider these two bookends and how they related one to another.

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Psalms (Program #29) – The Way of Restoration—Exalting Christ

For most believers the Christian life is one of peaks and valleys.  At times we may be carried in a marvelous and victorious condition with little or no self effort.  At other times we are dried, weary and easily overcome.  In the historical record of the Bible, we can see that God’s people corporately go through similar ups and downs.  But from their experience, we may be able to learn some wonderful keys to help us deal with our own period of spiritual desolation and even we might be brought into a full restoration.

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Colossians (Program #13) – Presenting Every Man Full-Grown In Christ

It’s a marvelous feeling to share Christ with someone, even pray with them as they accept the Lord Jesus for the first time. But typically, what happens to them after this initial step. Colossians 1:28 says, “[Christ] whom we announce, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man full-grown in Christ;” We need to check within. Are we satisfied just to lead someone to salvation, or are we, as Paul was, burdened, even consumed with their being brought on to maturity.

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Psalms (Program #28) – The Desolation of God’s House and Christ as the Solution

The apostle Paul writing in his epistle to the Colossians is the very interesting phrase related to the Holy Word, the Bible.  He told them that God had imparted to him the task of completing the Word of God.  Actually we know from history that there were other books added to the canon of Scripture that were written after Paul’s fourteen epistles.  So we need to understand Paul’s word in the sense that his writings were a conclusion not to the written record but to God’s divine revelation.  The books that came later like Revelation and John’s epistles merely strengthened and confirmed that divine revelation.  All this is to day that the divine revelation has a progressive aspect to it.  more…

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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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Psalms (Program #27) – The Suffering Christ and the Reigning Christ

The Psalms are wonderful portion of God’s word.  They are treasured by countless lovers of God and His Holy Word.  In this collection of poetry, praises and hymns is found a wide range of expressions.   We might turn to our favorite Psalms during times of trial or suffering and seek comforting words.  And surely many of the Psalms do convey such comfort and solace.  But at their height or peak are those Psalms that clearly and definitely reveal Christ in much detail and richness.  For those Psalms preceded the incarnation of the God-Man Jesus by many centuries.  The eternal Son is clearly found in the Psalms, if we know where to look and how to recognize it.

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Colossians (Program #11) – Filling Up What is Lacking Of The Afflictions of Christ

In the writings of the Apostle Paul, there are terms and  concepts found no other place in the Scripture.  It was Paul who talked about “the Body of Christ” and the “One New Man” and the “stewardship” or the “economy of the mystery”.  In Colossians 1:25 Paul said that it was given to him to complete or fill up the word of God.  Yet other writings came after his in the New Testament.  So in what sense was Paul’s ministry, a ministry of completion?

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Psalms (Program #26) –  Christ as the Center of God’s Move on the Earth

Did you know that the book of Psalms actually contains 150 different Psalms in all?  So many poetic and prophetic utterances.  Of course, as we have seen, some of these Psalms have a very high and profound content expressing the divine thought revealing Christ in brilliant detail.  Others are not so high.  In fact some are very low in the thought that they convey.  Bit by bit as we read and study this book, we can learn to cultivate a taste for the high peaks contain in the Psalms.  Perhaps the highest peak of all in the divine revelation of Christ in the book of Psalms is found in Psalms 68.  This oft quoted Psalm actually begins with a quotation of its own.  David the Psalmist quotes Moses from Numbers chapter 10 “as he sets out with the completed tabernacle to lead the children of Israel away from Sinai and ultimately into the good land of Canaan with the ultimate destination being Zion in the midst of Jerusalem and the cloud of Jehovah was over them by day when they set out from the camp”,  Moses writes in Numbers 10.  “And when the Ark set out, Moses said, Rise up, O Jehovah, and let Your enemies be scattered; And let those who hate You flee before You.”

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Colossians (Program #10) – The Stewardship of God

Colossians 1:24 says “I now rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His Body, which is the church.” Did you ever consider that there were still a lack concerning Christ’s suffering?  After all that He endured on our behalf to accomplish our perfect redemption on the cross, how could anything yet lack? But here is the Apostle Paul pointing us to the need that he sensed to fill up on his part that lacked. This can be a troubling even perplexing verse but it can also be the source of tremendous light concerning God’s ultimate heart desire.

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