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…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

2 Corinthians (Program #52) – Paul’s Vindication of His Apostolic Authority (7)

The concluding chapters of 2 Corinthians are Paul’s vindication of his apostleship.  His authority, especially with the believers in Corinth had been challenged and undermined by religious men  posing as apostles seeking to  lead them away from the simplicity and purity in Christ back to the Mosaic and Judaic practices of the old covenant.  It would be easy to consider that the points Paul makes in this portion would have little or any application to us. believers in a much different time and not necessarily in the capacity of leadership.  Yet as with all the Scripture the divine revelation contain in this portion is full of meaning and shows us once again a true pattern for all of us who desire to live Christ and experience Him day by day.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Luke (Program #30) – The Ministry of the Man-Savior in His Human Virtues with His Divine Attributes from Galilee to Jerusalem (9)

At the time the Lord Jesus was on the earth, the Biblical religion of the day Judaism had many strict ordinances prohibiting all manner of activities on their Holy Sabbath day including healing the sick. And yet, the Lord Jesus purposely broke many of the ordinances. As He not only healed the sick, against the traditions and regulations of the Sabbath, but He would do so in the presence of the religious leaders, many times offending them. We will look at an interesting case today of the violation of the religious regulations with a purpose as the Lord Jesus was continuing to usher in the real New Testament Jubilee.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Matthew (Program #33) – The Establishment of the King’s Rejection (1)

Matthew chapter 11 concludes with the Lord Jesus calling all the ones that are burdened and toil to come to Him for rest; “My yoke is easy and My burden is light”.  This is His promise.  This wonderful promise is then followed by sequence of events that brings in the complete rejection of the King by the religious leaders of Judaism.  We will look how all these events are actually very closely related on this program today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

James (Program #10) – A Life Not Fully According to and for God’s New Testament Economy (1)

In Acts chapter 2, the apostle Peter spoke boldly to his Jewish kinsman, “be saved from this crooked generation.”   Some time later, the apostle  Paul reminded the Jewish believers that God had rescued them out of the present evil age.  The context of both passages makes it clear that these strong words, “the crooked generation” and “the present evil age” both refer to the religious system that had become modern Judaism at the time when God was ushering the New Testament economy.

Peter and Paul made it very clear God was calling people out of that religious system.  Yet in other New Testament passages, it is equally clear that the apostle  James was not only comfortable receiving the Jews into the fellowship of believers, he was even willing to accommodate the major practices of Judaism into the church.  Well what lessons can we glean from this confused situation today?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Hebrews (Program #47) – The Unique Way of Faith and Faith’s Definition

The bible says faith is the substance for the substantiating of the unseen things.  Faith is what makes God real to us, the way our eyes make light real to us.

Today we will spend most of our time looking at the unique way of faith and the Bible’s definition of faith.  And as a preface, we need to see that Hebrews opens the matter of faith to us only after the presentation of some serious warnings to Christians, to believers.  What is the general point of these warnings?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Hebrews (Program #44) – Come Forward to the Holy of Holies and Do Not Shrink Back to Judaism

The call to come forward is a striking element in the book of Hebrews. God’s desire for us is not just to come forward to receive Him for salvation, but we need to live a life of continually coming forward to God in Christ and through the spirit for our daily living. This is our focus today on the life study of the Bible.

The program today is going to begin with a brief review of some of the points that we’ve been covering in our recent broadcasts. Then we are going to launch into an examination of this marvelous phrase that appears at least four times in Hebrews. In the Recovery version, this phrase is translated as “come forward”. It’s really one Greek word but it takes the two words “come forward” to capture the essence of it – and it’s a call from God to His people.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Titus (Program #2) -Dealing with the Influence of Judaism and Gnosticism

The apostle Paul tried to focus the family of God on the New Testament economy of God. Yet many Christians are usurped today by focusing on other things.  When we focus on God’s New Testament economy then everything in the family of faith will be brought into a proper order.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS