Tag-Archive for ◊ culture ◊

02 Nov 2024 Philippians (Program #18)

Philippians (Program #18) – Counting All Things Loss on Account of Christ

“I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse that I may gain Christ.”  What a blessing for a believer in Christ to reach a point the apostle did in Philippians 3:7-8 where the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus caused him to count all things as dung.

Before Paul was converted to Christ he was not one who had a problem loving the material things, the material world. Quite the contrary he was a person who was fully given to the Jewish religion, to philosophy and to the culture of his time. His whole being was for Judaism and for everything that’s included in it.  So, we read these verses in Philippians 3, how Paul, the apostle counted all things loss on account of Christ, we have to realize he is talking about here giving up his Jewish religion, his philosophy and his culture, that were all referred to in earlier verses and not the aspect of the material world. more…

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27 Jul 2024 Galatians (Program #39)

Galatians (Program #39) – Walking in the Divine Rules and Steps By the Spirit

Great religions are present in virtually every corner of the earth. For the most part, they’re sincere, stress good, ethical, and moral teaching that are consistent with those of the Bible. Along side the great religions of the world stand culture and tradition. These three (religion, culture, and tradition) represent the highest and most noble attainments of human life. Yet, it is these three very positive things that God’s enemy specifically uses to distract and divert men from God and from His purpose. You will not want to miss today’s marvelous unfolding of the Word of God from the book of Galatians.

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15 Aug 2023 Exodus (Program #19)

Exodus (Program #19) – God’s Demand and Pharaoh’s Resistance (5)

Bible scholars have long agreed that Egypt, the land that held God’s people, Israel in slavery for more than 400 years typifies the world, the system of commerce, culture, education and even entertainment is today’s Egypt, complete with its accompanying slavery and bondage.  God’s way with Israel was to change their view of the land they had grown to love.   He wants to do the same with us today.  When we see the world as God sees it, our heart like Israel’s heart will be changed.

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11 Aug 2023 Acts (Program #47)

Acts (Program #47) – The Propagation in Asia Minor and Europe through the Ministry of Paul’s Company (13)

Ancient Athens was the cultural, scientific, and philosophical center of the earth and at its center was Areopagus, or Mars Hill, where all the great thinkers of the day wield away their time with new thoughts and enticing notions. They even had a statue erected to the unknown god. The Apostle Paul chose such a spot to declare to these learned, but spiritually blinded men that the God that was unknown to them was not only known to Paul and by Paul, but could also be known by them.  Stay tune for a remarkable and fascinating life study of the Bible.

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04 Mar 2022 Hebrews (Program #9)

Hebrews (Program #9) – The Captain of Salvation (1)

God’s goal is not to bring us to heaven. The goal of God’s salvation is to bring us into the very glory which in Christ has been sown into us at the time of our regeneration. Christ is many things to His saved ones. We may appreciate Him as our Savior and our Redeemer or may be even as our friend. But Hebrews unveils Him as the Captain of our Salvation. We’ll see Him as the fighting captain in today’s life study of the Bible.

Logically, we think that for salvation you need a savior or a redeemer but why do we need a captain for our salvation?

We need to make it emphatically clear that we surely need Christ as the Savior and we absolutely need Christ as the Redeemer. There’s no way to be saved without this personal Savior, the God-man. And we surely need Him as the Redeemer who bought us back with His precious blood and has brought us back to God that we may enjoy God as everything to us in Christ as the Spirit. Regrettably, many believers have a shallow even elementary concept of salvation. If we understand salvation merely as a rescue from hell to heaven then we don’t really need a captain. We just need a savior and a redeemer, one who allegedly who brings us out of the likelihood of going to hell and brings us to heaven. However, the goal of God’s salvation is not heaven. We are told in the book of Hebrews that God is bringing many sons into glory. For this we need a captain. Why? more…

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15 Dec 2021 Colossians (Program #36)

Colossians (Program #36) – Christ Replaced in Every Way

Three important books in the New Testament are 1 Corinthians, Galatians and Colossians.  It’s interesting to know that all three of these letters written by the Apostle Paul were sent to the churches largely because the believers in these places had allowed things other than Christ to replace Him in their experience.  With the Corinthians it was gifts and knowledge.  With the Galatians, religion had replaced Christ and with the Colossians, it was their top culture.  All good things yet all had replaced Christ.  How about us?  Have we allowed things other than Christ Himself to become our focus?

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12 Dec 2021 Colossians (Program #33)

Colossians (Program #33) – The Extensive Revelation of the All-Inclusive Christ

Our Christ is not narrow or limited. He’s all inclusive, and He’s extensive. Do you realize that He’s a universal traveler? Well in incarnation, He traveled from the heavens to the earth. In death and resurrection, He traveled from the earth into hades and then back to earth again. And then in ascension, He traveled back into the heavens only to be poured out once more to the earth to be our everything as the life-giving Spirit. This is our Christ. And, as the result of all this universal traveling, He fills all in all and wants to impress us that He alone can replace everything that occupies us, even our culture.

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07 Dec 2021 Colossians (Program #28)

Colossians (Program #28) – The All-Inclusive Christ Versus Culture

When the Apostle Paul was addressing the Corinthians, he first had to deal with the problem of their fleshly sin and temptations. When he wrote to the churches in Galatia, he was faced with the problem of their adding practices of Judaism to their Christian faith. But, the church in Colossae offered perhaps the greatest obstacle to his labor to bring them into a deeper experience of Christ and that was their culture and philosophy.

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