Tag-Archive for ◊ branches ◊

13 Jun 2023 John (Program #39)

John (Program #39) – The Organism of the Triune God in the Divine Dispensation (3)

Those who refuse Christ and who stay in Adam by so doing will remain one with Satan, and as a result will participate in the judgment reserved for God’s enemy.

In this chapter (John 15), the Lord speaks plainly, directly, and profoundly concerning the divine organism. And, He says, “I am the true vine, you are the branches.” So, here we have a corporate entity. The vine with its branches composed of Christ as the embodiment and manifestation of the triune God. And, all those who have believed into Christ by receiving Him into them. The Lord calls this the true vine, the real vine. What we have in this marvelous picture is God the Father embodied in Christ who is the stock of the vine. And, all the believers who have been added to Christ, to become parts of Christ, just as the branches of the vine are parts of the vine to be an organism. So, now we have on this earth the living, divine organism of Christ and His believers, the vine and the branches.

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12 Jun 2023 John (Program #38)

John (Program #38) – The Organism of the Triune God in the Divine Dispensation (2)

When He speaks to us, we have to keep it. When His word abides in us, then right away, we are abiding in His love. So, just by saying Amen to His speaking, love will fill us, and we will find the prevailing way to love the Lord Jesus and abide in His love.

The very striking point in John 15 to me is the illustration of the vine and the branches. There’s no other plant that could adequately illustrate the life flow that exists between the Lord and His believers. The Lord said, “I am the vine, and you are the branches.” Could any other illustration make it more clear? Then, what God is producing is an organism, not an organization. The “I am” here is Christ when He said, “I am the vine.” And, the “you are” is that part of the vine known as branches. Christ, the Son, is the very center of God’s economy, and He’s also the embodiment of all the riches of the Father.

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11 Jun 2023 John (Program #37)

John (Program #37) – The Organism of the Triune God in the Divine Dispensation (1)

God intends to propagate and multiply, not by relying on great gospel campaigns, but rather by flowing His life in Christ into all the branches so that all the branches will bear fruit.

Chapter 14 of John has as its focus, the dispensing of the Triune God into the believers of Christ for the producing of God’s abode. In order to touch the heart of chapter 14, we need to drop the traditional concept that the Father’s house with the many abodes denotes Heaven. Simply put the Father’s house denotes the Father’s house, which is His habitation, His dwelling place, elsewhere called quite distinctly the Church of the living God or the temple of God. So, the emphasis in chapter 14 is how Christ in resurrection as the Spirit of reality comes into the believers, dwells in them, and enables them to dwell in God. And the result of this mutual indwelling is the producing of God’s dwelling place.

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29 Mar 2023 Luke (Program #29)

Luke (Program #29) – The Ministry of the Man-Savior in His Human Virtues with His Divine Attributes from Galilee to Jerusalem (8)

When a mustard seed is planted according to the natural law of life, it grows into a small and tender herb with succulent leaves. Yet, the parable in Luke 13 tells of a mustard seed growing into a great tree with birds lodging in the branches. And this unlikely distortion is presented as a picture of an aspect of the kingdom of God. Is this a positive development, or one from which we should take a strong and serious warning from the Lord?  We’ll explore it on today’s life study.

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