Ephesians (Program #74) -The Spirit and the Church

One of the major changes that takes place in the life of a Christian is in their mind.  As unbelievers we were as Paul described in Ephesians 4, darkened in our understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance which was in us and because of the hardness of our heart.

Contrast that to the conditions of the believers that follow in Chapter 5, For you were once darkness but are now light in the Lord, walk as children of light for the fruits of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth.  How does this transformation in our minds take place?  The answer to this crucial matter is also found in Ephesians.

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Numbers (Program #31) – A Vital Sketch of the Divine Revelation in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers (1)

Most serious readers of the Bible recognize there are unmistakable portraits of of Christ in the Old Testament, among these of course are the Passover Lamb and the brass serpent.  If our understanding has been enlightened we can see not only Christ but God’s eternal purpose and plan in picture forms throughout the Old Testament.  The key to this understanding is what apostle Paul called the economy of God.  God’s economy is His plan, His purpose and all that He has arranged to work it out.  This life study of the Bible has this economy as its focus.  The result is that book after book, including the obscure  and seldom spoken of books such as Numbers in the Old Testament all become a rich treasury of light and truth unveiling Christ and God’s purpose in marvelous details.

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2 Corinthians (Program #39) – The Minister’s of the New Covenant (12)

The book of 2 Corinthians is the book of the New Testament that’s not that well known, not frequently quoted and not really that well understood. One passage however that is familiar to most believers is found in chapter 6 in verse 14, where Paul tells the Corinthians,  “Do not become dissimilarly yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership do righteousness and lawlessness have? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?”

It’s good to consider this verse in any context but better is to consider it in the context to which it was delivered to us in the divine revelation.

Here 2 Corinthians chapter 6 is in the context of the New Testament Ministry, the ministry of reconciliation, the ministry where Paul under his commission by the Lord charges the believers in Corinth to be fully reconciled to God.

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Leviticus (Program #20) – The Law of the Meal Offering

Psalm 36:9 says, “For with Thee is the fountain of life/ In Thy light we see light.” The Old Testament offerings from Leviticus when properly applied in our New Testament walk with the Lord will bring us to experience Christ as the very fountain of life. This life brings us into the light, God’s light. In His light, we see even more clearly our true condition and how short we are and how in need we are of the very Christ God has provided us to be our offering, to bring us more into God’s presence.

The meal offering is the wonderful offering for us to enjoy Christ which is related to the cycle of life, and that is related to our walking in the light. God is light!  This really is the Christian life – we walk in the light, God shines in us, this leads us to enjoy Christ as the offerings, then we have more life and this life brings us more light and we get more shining, more brought to Christ as our offering…

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1 Corinthians (Program #38) – Dealing with Eating of Sacrifices to Idols (3)

1 Corinthians chapter 9 shows us two very significant factors in the ministry of the apostle Paul. First we see how pure he was. Pure in a sense that he had only one motive to be wholly in Christ and for Christ. He sought nothing for his personal gain. Second Paul was also faithful. Faithful because he saw his commission from the Lord in the gospel is a kind of stewardship with which he had been entrusted. Listen to these verses in 1 Corinthians

9:16-17 “For if I preach the gospel, I have no boast, for necessity is laid upon me; for woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. If I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a stewardship.”

To read words such as these can’t help but convict us because we all become keenly aware of the impurity of our motives when we receive light from God’s word. But rather be discouraged we should take heart. For in other of Paul’s writing he opens the door to help all of God’s children to as such pure living and in such a faithful serving.

In Galatians
2:20 “I am crucified with Christ;”

and in this book 1 Corinthians chapter

6:17 “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.”

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John (Program #27) – The Need of the Blind in Religion – Life’s Shepherding

Our good Shepherd laid down His human life for us in order that the divine life could now be imparted to us.

John 10 is the direct continuation of the events in chapter 9. And together, they form a case of the need of the blind in religion. In chapter 9, there was a man blind from birth. And, the Lord gave him sight by the Lord’s being the light of life to him and by the anointing through His speaking. This took place on the Sabbath day. And, healing on the Sabbath was something prohibited, not by God, but by the religionists.

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John (Program #9) – An Introduction to Life and Building (4)

God embodied Himself in Christ for our enjoyment.  John 1:16 tells us “of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.”  The fullness of the Godhead dwells in this Jesus bodily, for our enjoyment. This is grace. Grace is just God Himself for our enjoyment. When you enjoy God, when you participate in God, that is grace. Grace is God for your enjoyment, not in doctrine but in your experience as your strength, as your life, as your comfort, as your rest, as your power, righteousness and holiness. Christ declared the Father to us in the way of enjoyment. The more we enjoy God, the more we know God…

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John (Program #7) – An Introduction to Life and Building (3)

The message we have covered tells us that Christ, as the Word, came as life and light for the purpose to produce many children. Keep this clear point within you deeply. John chapter 1:4 tells us that Christ as the Word, which was God Himself, came as life to us and as light shining with us for the purpose to produce, to bring forth many children of God, that God may have the enlargement, that God may have a corporate expression. This is revealed in the first 13 verses in chapter 1.

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Isaiah (Program #40) – The Servant of Jehovah to be God’s Full Salvation

In both Isaiah 42 and 49 Christ, the servant of Jehovah is presented as a covenant and as a light to the people of God.  A covenant and a light, why are these two linked? Are they linked in other passages of the Bible?

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Isaiah (Program #39) – The Servant of Jehovah as a Covenant and a Light

A classic hymn of the Christian faith written by one of the giants in ages past asks the question “and can it be that I shall gain an interest in the Savior’s blood?”  A resounding “yes” shall be our instantaneous reply.  That is if we have realized that all that God has promised even guaranteed to us.  We gladly present this binding guarantee from the pages of Isaiah on today’s life study of the Bible.

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