Ephesians (Program #70) – Overflowing to Speak

If you ever visited a country where idol worship is practiced, one of the striking aspects of such worship is that it’s always done in silent.  The worshipers are silent or dumb because the idols they are worshiping are dumb. But our God is not an idol and He certainly is not dumb.

For Hebrews 12 tells us,  “you have come forward to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.”  And it’s interesting here implying that not only do the worshipers speak but listen to Hebrew 12:24 “And to Jesus, the Mediator of a new covenant; and to the blood of sprinkling, which speaks something better than that of Abel.”  Here not only do the worshipers speak even the blood is speaking.  A marvelous portion today based on really Ephesians where we are to be filled in spirit speaking.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Numbers (Program #30) – Fighting (9)

After 40 years of experiences in the wilderness, God is ready to fulfill His promise to His people Israel to give them the good land.  But there are some requirements that He places upon them because this land has been occupied even polluted by various people apart from Israel; people with other gods and idols.  So before Israel can inherit the land, they must first drive out all these inhabitants, destroy their idols and tear down the high places.  If they don’t, they will be troubled by these things throughout their days.  Once again, the Old Testament provides us with a rich profound illustration of how we must possess our good land, the all-inclusive Christ.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

1 Corinthians (Program #41) – The Lord’s Table (1) and (2)

The believers in the church in Corinth were confused by a practical issue – whether or not to eat food that had been offered to idols. Well, in giving opportunity to address it, the apostle Paul took the occasion to bring them into a deeper understanding of reality of eating and drinking. Actually eating and drinking are a kind of fellowship. Fellowship really means to participate, to enjoy. Surely we would all admit it is a good description of eating.

But the spiritual point that we need to come away with in this portion of 1 Corinthians chapter 10 is that we become one with whatever we eat. The old expression – “you are what you eat”, is true both physically and spiritually.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Daniel (Program #7) – The Victory of the Young Descendants of God’s Degraded Elect (5)

“The handwriting is on the wall.” Well nearly all of us have heard this phrase, but did you know that it comes from Daniel chapter 5?

The writing on the wall from a mysterious hand is the story here.  The main character today that Daniel encounters is this man, this king named Belshazzar.  Belshazzar is a descendant of Nebuchadnezzar.  To get the context of the handwriting on the wall we begin with the verses in chapter 5:1-4.  This was quite a  humiliation quite an insult to the God of heaven; to take the very items that have been used for the worship of the one True God and use them now for the worship and praise of these idols.  This really provides a setting for another victory of the young overcomers that the Lord has sovereignly arranged to be in the house of Belshazzar the king in Babylon.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Jeremiah (Program #19) – Jeremiah’s Genuine Prophecies

In the book of Jeremiah, we have the indelible account of God’s people forsaking Him in the most fundamental way. Listen again to Jehovah’s words though His prophet Jeremiah to the children of Israel “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew out for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns, Which hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:13) This warning applies not only to the children of Israel in the Old Testament but to us as well. Because to forsake the Lord in this way is to depart from Him as our very source and it’s an offense to God that is far more serious than even the sins we commit as a result of taking our own way and living independently from Him.

Israel’s departure from Jehovah was connected to the worship of idols that had become so prevalent among them. Though we may not be sacrificing to idols of wood and stone, as they were we too are tempted to be drawn off to our own idols. But what we all must see is that behind every idol whether or wood and stone, or an object of pleasure or a position that may attract us, the same spiritual force is present. God’s enemy Satan who will stop at nothing to distract God’s people from knowing and enjoying God as this fountain of living water.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Psalms (Program #39) – The Preciousness of Zion and Jerusalem in the Experiences and Praises of the Saints (1)

15 Psalms from Psalms 120 to 134 comprised a section known as the Psalms of ascent. They are all very short and very sweet.  Lord will we will see they bring us to the high peaks.

Psalms 120:1 ” In my distress I called out to Jehovah, And He answered me.”
That tells you a lot right there. The whole thing starts with distress and up until Psalms 119 is full of the law and they loved the law but they can’t keep the law, eventually the children of Israel don’t follow the law. And eventually start to serve idols. So, the result is they go to captivity and they are in distress. These Psalms of ascent started out with distress. If you do not have the distress where you go down you can never come up. So there is a lot of appreciation. more…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

1 John (Program #36) – The Virtues of the Divine Birth to Overcome the World, Death, Sin, the Devil, and the Idols (4)

The marvelous book of 1 John stresses the divine birth, the divine life and the fellowship all believers can experience and enjoy in the flow of this divine life.  It is not a book of great doctrine but rather it is a book as is John’s gospel  revealing the living and true God subjectively and experientially to mankind.

Finally in its concluding verses it tells us that above all we now possess the capacity to know Him not just know about Him.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

1 John (Program #35) – The Virtues of the Divine Birth to Overcome the World, Death, Sin, the Devil, and the Idols (3)

The final few verses of 1 John serve as a strong conclusion to a book that stress over and over, the divine birth and the divine life that all believers received at divine birth.  Closely associated with the divine birth are the divine fellowship and the divine anointing and all of the virtues that flow out of the divine birth.  Of course, the source of the divine life is the divine being, God Himself and His Son Jesus Christ.  And part of the heritage that we received at the divine birth is the capacity to know, experience, enjoy and ultimately even to possess God,  not merely in an objective way but in reality.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

1 John (Program #34) – The Virtues of the Divine Birth to Overcome the World, Death, Sin, the Devil, and the Idols (2)

1 John is a book that focuses on the divine eternal life that we all as believers received by faith.  It is the fellowship of this life that empowers and enables us to live the Christian life.  And in 1 John it is unveiled marvelously as well as practically.  John also warns us and instructs us to be on guard concerning those things that disrupt this fellowship of life, such as sin.

In chapter 5, he even instructs us that it is possible, in the Lord to be able to discern the deep spiritual condition of other members of the Body of Christ, to more effectively pray and even to become a channel of the divine life for them.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

1 John (Program #33) – The Virtues of the Divine Birth to Overcome the World, Death, Sin, the Devil, and the Idols (1)

1 John, a book that stresses divine eternal life, reveals that prayer is crucial in maintaining the fellowship of the divine life.  In chapter 5 it particularly shows us that as members of the Body, we need to pray for the other members.  No doubt it’s common practice among believers to pray for healing for someone in the church who may be sick or for financial blessing for those who may be suffering material shortage.  But do we pray as the apostle John instructs us for the Lord to supply the weaken members with life?  Listen to chapter 5:16 “If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask and he will give life to him, to those sinning not unto death… “

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS