Philippians (Program #28) – Excellent Characteristics of the Christian Life (2)

As believers in Christ we are all motivated at least to some degree to try to live the Christian life. Well this is noble and worthy desire but the Bible presents to us even a higher aspiration and that’s is not just to live a Christian life but to live a life that is the expression of Christ Himself. If you think that these two things are the same, you’ve better think again and you better stay with us for this life study program from the book of Philippians.

We need to live a life that is the expression of Christ Himself. It seems like a tall order.  It’s impossible by a human effort.  So we want to get into this.   Paul unfolded a numbers of things for us that are going to bring to light how it can be possible, because it is impossible on one hand, so we have a divine paradox.  more…

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Philippians (Program #27) – Excellent Characteristics of the Christian Life (1)

Enjoying Christ or been an enjoyer of Christ these are not terms we commonly used. But we will see today in the life study of Philippians that enjoying Christ issues in a life full of forbearance and without anxiety. Philippians 4:5-6 ” Let your forbearance be known to all men. The Lord is near. In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”

There is an outward issue from this enjoyment of Christ. In these verse in chapter 4 we see the description of a glorious outward expression of the inward reality of a person who’s living and experiencing Christ. We can’t experience these excellent characteristics refer to apart from really enjoying and experiencing Christ, can we?

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Philippians (Program #23) – Gaining Christ by Pursuing Him

“I pursue, if even I may lay hold of that for which I also have been laid hold of by Christ Jesus”, Philippians 3:12 and in it the apostle Paul tells us that Christ Jesus has lay hold of us for a purpose, a specific purpose and that purpose is that we may lay hold of or gain Him.

Focus on Philippians 3:12-14 and this conveys a picture of the apostle Paul pursuing after Christ to gain Him. But this happened only after Paul had been gained by Christ. This is a wonderful picture of the Christian life, Christ gaining us beginning with our salvation for a purpose and then our life becomes fills with meaning as that purpose become for us to gain Him. This is marvelous. These three verses just crystallized the whole feeling of the apostle’s Paul’s life…

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1 & 2 Kings (Program #16) – The Reign of Hoshea over Israel

As the kings of both houses of Israel slid further and further into degradation and failure, the Old Testament provides us with a parallel account of the prophets that God had raised up during the same period to carry on the line of His testimony and of His economy.  Often the prophecies of these ones touch the very center and focus of God’s New Testament economy in His eternal purpose which was embodied and manifested in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The prophet Isaiah particularly is rich with references to both Christ’s incarnation, His marvelous and all-effective redemption.Yet the challenge for us as believers today is not to stop with Christ’s wonderful redemption but rather to take it by faith as God intends as a starting point for our Christian life and walk.  This is what we hope to touch in today’s life study.

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Ephesians (Program #71) – Ordinances and the Church Life

The book of Ephesians reveals that what God is after is for Christ to be wrought into His chosen and redeemed people to produce the Church. But it also exposes many of the negative things that frustrate us form attaining to His purpose. Among these are the obvious items of sin and worldliness. But though these things surely damage the Church none are so great a problem as the not so obvious matter of ordinances.

Ordinances expressed our own way of practicing the Christian life. And each group, each gathering of believers has its’ own particular characteristics, its’ way to practice, to meet and to worship. Yet these ways that we treasure and value so dearly may in fact be the factor divide us from other believers and thereby frustrate God to the uttermost and He desires to obtain His heart desire, the Church as the One New Man.

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Galatians (Program #35) – Sow unto the Spirit to Reap Eternal Life

What is the aim or goal of your Christian life? Maybe it’s just to be saved, and to some day go to heaven. Maybe it’s to be the very best person that you can be. These are just a couple of the more common answers we might get from Christians today, and these are okay. But do they match the goal and the aim that are presented to us in the divine revelation of scripture?   Galatians is a book that has much to say about the aim and goal of the Christian life. We will look at what the Bible reveals as the goal of the Christian life on today’s life study of the Bible.

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Numbers (Program #7) – Being Formed into an Army (8)

Most Christians live with the realization that the Christian life shall be a life that is separated unto God or sanctified.  But the full understanding of just what this sanctification means is not so generally well-known.  Numbers chapter 6 in the Old Testament gives us a marvelous picture in the vow of the Nazarite, a voluntarily vow that can be made by anyone among God’s people that desire to give themselves to the Lord absolutely, utterly and ultimately.

We come again for the second day in this life study of Numbers to consider the Nazarite vow and what a marvelous picture presents to us of the kind of life and living that God is looking for among His people.

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Galatians (Program #1) – The Background and Subject of the Book

Just as there are 4 different seasons in the year, so there are seasons in our Christian life. This means that at times, we will pass through winter as well as through spring and summer. We may not enjoy the winter that much, but any good farmer can tell you without the reducing and killing of the winter, the growth of the crops will never be complete.

All of the epistles in the New Testament were written against a certain background or backdrop. To fully understand these letters, it’s helpful to be somewhat familiar with the background. What was the situation that the Apostle Paul faced when writing this book?

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2 Corinthians (Program #38) – The Minister’s of the New Covenant (11)

2 Corinthians is a marvelous book giving us both a detailed biography of the apostle Paul and a clear understanding of the goal of the New Testament ministry.  The goal as we have seen is for the believers and unbelievers alike to be fully reconciled to God.  That means that both in fact and in our experience, there is no barrier, no hindrance, nothing separating us from enjoying God and living Christ.  This is the ministry that Paul and the other apostles were commissioned with.  Further, it should be the goal of our own Christian life.  We have been saved many years ago, having settled that question of our eternal destiny once for all.  But do we live a life that’s fully reconciled to God?  This was Paul’s question to the believers in Corinth as well.   Listen 5:20 of  2 Corinthians say:

“On behalf of Christ then we are ambassadors, as God entreats you through us; we beseech you on behalf of Christ, Be reconciled to God.“

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2 Corinthians (Program #34) – A New Creation in Christ Becoming God’s Righteousness (1)

By the end of chapter 4 in 2 Corinthians the apostle Paul was very matured in the Christian life. His being has been largely transformed to the extend that regardless of his outward circumstances he remained in the peace and rest of the Lord’s presence. Realizing that through the Spirit within him God was working through all things to form him and shape him according to His eternal plan.

Listen to his testimony in verse 16 and 17,  “Therefore we do not lose heart; but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For our momentary lightness of affliction works out for us, more and more surpassingly, an eternal weight of glory,”

Surely this is the testimony of one who is longing to meet the Lord. Yet one thing remain in Paul’s spiritual journey is, as we will see in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, his longing to have his earthly body or tabernacle replaced with a heavenly one.

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