Ephesians (Program #10) – To Head Up All Things in Christ (2)

The notion or idea of an eternal struggle in the universe is certainly not new or novel.  Most societies, even most religion makes reference to the struggle of good versus evil that is larger than our world.  But what the Bible actually reveals is that the struggle is not directly good versus evil; rather it is God versus His enemy, Satan – the source of all evil and the source of death.  Actually, if our eyes are open, we realize that God in His wisdom allowed this archangel to rebel.  With one possible reason being the  tremendous opportunity that afforded God to manifest His wisdom through the church by heading up all things in Christ.  This is the view in Ephesians.

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1 Corinthians (Program #33) – Dealing with Marriage Life (1)

Have you ever noticed the way that 1 Corinthians chapter 7 began:

“Now concerning the things of which you wrote:”

Well this means that Paul is about to respond to a series of questions that the believers in Corinth had previously sent to him in a letter.  What questions? Well, according to the context of chapter 7 we can readily see that these cultured, highly educated, philosophical saints that were the church in Corinth had many questions about marriage.  The whole chapter in fact is devoted to marriage with Paul giving the Corinthians more than a dozen principles related to marriage. It’s likely that we all had had serious questions regarding marriage. Even the unmarried ones wonder about this critical human item. That on one hand is the source of so much trouble in the human life. While on the other hand can be the source of so much blessing.

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1 Corinthians (Program #1) – Introduction (1)

Every detail of the Bible is under the sovereign arrangement of God. Not only the words themselves have God as their source even the arrangement of the Bible is significant.

Romans for example gives us a full and complete sketch of both the Christians life and the church life. Then immediately following Romans we  1 Corinthians. What we have is the illustration of the same church life in the Christians life. What Romans reveals 1 Corinthians illustrates.

As we begin the life study of 1 Corinthians, a book that on the surface seems to be mainly focus on the problems of this 1st century gentile church in the city of Corinth but actually we will come to appreciate there is a very positive message in this book that is critical in God’s economy.

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Jeremiah (Program #22) – The Spiritual Sequence in the Bible and in Jeremiah

The Bible presents God’s work and God’s plan in a marvelous sequence.  If we see the spiritual significance, we can see that right after creating man, God presents Himself to man as man’s source, only to be rejected by the very man that He had created.  But what seems to be the end of God’s plan is really just the beginning.  As God deals with the sins that besets mankind by coming Himself to be man’s righteousness and his life and ultimately to gain man fully for Himself as His enlargement and expression.  This is the sequence of the whole Bible.  And that sequence is closely parallel by the account of the prophet Jeremiah.  The sequence of the divine revelation in the Bible and the same sequences as found in Jeremiah is our topic on today’s life study.

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Jeremiah (Program #21) – The Principle of Being One with God

Let me ask you, “What is sin?” As you ponder this great and universal question and before you begin enumerating any number of transgressions that would easily fall into the general category of sin, please consider that the Bible makes a clear distinction between “sin” and “sins”. Sins are the by products of the principle of sin. So, once again let me ask, “What is sin”? Well if we drop our own speculations and restrict our consideration to the clear revelation of the Bible, we realize that sin is fundamentally a matter of leaving God and doing something by ourselves and for ourselves. In other words, sin is to take anything other than God as our unique source. He desires to be the source of our life, of our living and even of our satisfaction. Any departure from taking Him as our source is sin and it will unavoidably result in innumerable sins. In that light, now let’s consider these verses from the very beginning of the Bible, Genesis 2:9, 16-17 “And out of the ground Jehovah God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, as well as the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may eat freely … But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, of it you shall not eat; for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

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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.

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1 John (Program #31) – The Virtues of the Divine Birth to Practice the Divine Love (4)

In his first epistle the apostle John talks very much about love.  Chapter four particularly places a strong emphasis on love. But if we examine John’s presentation of this most visible virtue of the divine birth we realize that the love spoken of in this book is not a vague or general love nor is it a natural love, a love that finds its’ source in the human heart. It is the love that flows from the divine source from God Himself.  In verse 8 of chapter 4 John puts it this way, “He who does not love has not known God, because God is love.“

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1 Thessalonians (Program #5) – The Church in the Triune God

In all of his epistles, the apostle Paul under scores that our God is Triune. That is He is God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit. And as such He becomes available to us not only as our Father and Savior without but also as the very source of our Christian life within.

Paul concludes 2 Corinthians, a marvelous book with an unmistakable reference to the Trinity, 13:14 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”  But in both 1 & 2 Thessalonians he begins the books by drawing our attention not just to God in a general way but to the Triune God as he says, “to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.“

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