1 Timothy (Program #9) – Dealing with the Saints of Different Ages

1 Timothy chapter 3 ends in a very high, divine and spiritual note. Talking about “the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth. And confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory.”

But in chapter 5, the apostle drops to the human level. “Do not upbraid an elderly man, but exhort him as a father.” And continues discussing other human relationships. It’s not enough to be spiritual, we have to learn how to be human.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

1 Timothy (Program #7)- The Prediction of the Decline of the Church

In reading the Bible, sometimes it is the short, simple words that can provide the greatest insight into the richer meaning been conveyed. For example take the little word “but”.  In Chapter 4 of 1 Timothy, Paul begins with this three letter word, the clear implication been that what is about to be spoken is in start contrast to what’s been previously presented. And likely no way in scripture is the contrast between two adjoining verses any more start than these passage.  Listen as the apostle Paul turns from one of the highest revelation in the entire Bible to one of its’ darkest portions.

In Chapter 3:15-16 Paul says, “But if I delay, I write that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth.  And confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, preached among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory. But the Spirit says expressly that in later times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and teachings of demons.”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

1 Timothy (Program #6)- The Function of the Church

After clearing away several important problems that were affecting the  churches under Paul’s ministry and then establishing the proper leadership the apostle comes to the crucial point and some of the highest speaking in all of scripture concerning the church, moving the reality of the church far away form the traditional and common thought that identifies the Church with a physical structure.

Listen to Paul’s word in 1 Timothy Chapter 3 : 14-16 “These things I write to you, hoping to come to you shortly.  But if I delay, I write that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth.  And confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, preached among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory.”  We’ve come to the critical and crucial point in our fellowship in the life study of 1 Timothy.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Psalms (Program #32) – Christ versus Restoration of God’s People, Personal Salvation, and Release from Sufferings

God has purpose, an economy.  If we have ears to hear what the Spirit is speaking then we can see this plan is centered on Zion with Christ, love by God in Psalms 87.  Christ as God anointed to possess the entire earth in Psalms 89.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Psalms (Program #31) – A Supplement to Message Thirty-Two on Psalm 84

Psalms 84:1-4 say “How lovely are Your tabernacles, O Jehovah of hosts! My soul longs, indeed even faints, For the courts of Jehovah; My heart and my flesh cry out To the living God.  At Your two altars even the sparrow has found a home; And the swallow, a nest for herself, Where she may lay her young, O Jehovah of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; They will yet be praising You.”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

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

Ephesians (Program #26) – Growing into a Holy Temple and Being Built into a Dwelling Place of God

In the well known account in Mathew 16, the Lord Jesus asked His disciples who He was. And the apostle Peter responded with the famous words, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” As marvelous as this account is, it doesn’t end there. For the Lord goes on to tell Peter, that he had been blessed to receive such a revelation from God the Father. And further upon the rock of this revelation, the Church would be built.  This is truly one of the great passages in all of scripture. And the apostle Paul refers back to this monumental revelation in Ephesians 2 where the building of the Church is the focus and the theme.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

2 Corinthians (Program #18) -Competent of Christ as the Alphabets to Write Living Letters with the Life-giving Spirit of the Living Lord (1)

Most genuine Christians in the protestant traditions owe a great debt to such courageous reformer such as as Martin Luther. Luther was used much by the Lord to recover the great truth of justification by faith, even risking his life for the sake of this foundational truth of the Christians faith. But this is not the only truth that had been lost and in need of recovery. Other reformers went even further, realizing that justification must have a result beyond the mere objective fact. The Bible reveals that the issue of justification is life. It is life, divine life, operating subjectively in the believers that constitute us members of Christ and it is the Spirit of life through the New Testament ministry that also makes us living letters of Christ. Living letters inscribe with the living Spirit of the living God. Hallelujah for the recovering of the divine life.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Exodus (Program #64) – Apart From the Living God the Law Becoming the Killing Letters

God’s eternal purpose is to work Himself into us as our life so that we may take Him as our person to live Him and to express Him. This is the desire of God’s heart; it is also the focal point of the Bible including the book of Exodus. Stay with us today as we are drawn again to God’s intention and heart’s desire even as He gave man the revelation of His law and commandments.

This program again brings us into the Exodus of God’s people and the continuing unveiling of how this story is really our story as well. In Exodus 19 and 20, God gave the commandments to the people, most people know them as the ten commandments.  Right away the people responded with this word, “All that God has said we will do”.  That seems good enough when we read it but this was really a window that exposes a lot about the people.  Why is it such a telling remark showing that the people were a long way from where God desires them to be? more…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

John (Program #37) – The Organism of the Triune God in the Divine Dispensation (1)

God intends to propagate and multiply, not by relying on great gospel campaigns, but rather by flowing His life in Christ into all the branches so that all the branches will bear fruit.

Chapter 14 of John has as its focus, the dispensing of the Triune God into the believers of Christ for the producing of God’s abode. In order to touch the heart of chapter 14, we need to drop the traditional concept that the Father’s house with the many abodes denotes Heaven. Simply put the Father’s house denotes the Father’s house, which is His habitation, His dwelling place, elsewhere called quite distinctly the Church of the living God or the temple of God. So, the emphasis in chapter 14 is how Christ in resurrection as the Spirit of reality comes into the believers, dwells in them, and enables them to dwell in God. And the result of this mutual indwelling is the producing of God’s dwelling place.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS