1 Thessalonians (Program #9) -The Care of a Nursing Mother and an Exhorting Father

In the tender and intimate letters of the apostle Paul to the young church in Thessalonica, is very interesting to consider what he stresses. In one way these are not high words or deep or even seemingly profound and there is no mention of miraculous things or of works of great power.  Rather the apostle reminds the believers of the normal and upright manner of life in which he and his co-worker were manifested for them when they were together just one short year prior.

Listen to his word again in Chapter 1:5 of 1 Thessalonians,  “For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, even as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.“

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1 Thessalonians (Program #3) – The Triune God Embodied in the Word to Produce a Holy Life for the Church Life (1)

The word of God is so marvelous, the more you discover its’ infinite riches and hidden treasures the more you realize that there is far more to see than we can ever possibly exhaust. Its’ structure, its’ order even the subtle ways in which several passages begin are full of meaning and significance.

For example consider a passage that you may have read hundreds of times and never really stop to consider. Paul begins his letter to the Church in Thessalonica not in a general way, but in way that it is unique from the way he open any of his letters to the other Churches.

“Paul and Silvanus,” he writes, I Thessolonians 1:1, “and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.”  Even in a simple greeting we just read we will see there is a lot of meaning here.

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Philippians (Program #45) -The Word of Life Being Identical to Living Christ

What is the secret of strong faith in Christ?  Well, today we will look back at the experience of some fathers in the faith to learn helpful lessons from them that would hopefully save us a lot of time and trouble.

It’s good to look back at some of our predecessors in the faith and to see how they learn to receive God’s word through prayer.

We’ve been talking a lot about the relationship between the Word and the Spirit and how these two should never be separated.  When we come to the Bible we need prayer and we also need to add the words of the Bible itself to our prayer.

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Philippians (Program #36) -The Riches of the Bountiful Supply of the Spirit Embodied in the Word

The religious world always seeks to do a big outward work but God wants to do an inward work, to come into man to be his life and everything. And He does this through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ that is embodied in the Word. Today pointing us once again to the indwelling Christ and how we can practically live by Him and overcome so many things in our lives.

It’s good to come back to the inward working of the Triune God. Truly God wants to enter into us and He wants to live in us and He wants to express through us.

This wonderful person of Christ wants to indwelt us and work within us to accomplish His purpose. And we are going to hear the striking word: the basic thought of the whole Bible is that God as the Triune God wants to work Himself into man. If we were to ask a thousand people on the street of what is the basic thought of the whole Bible, how many would have any answer at all?

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Leviticus (Program #14) – The Peace Offering Christ as the Peace Between God and God’s People

In His wisdom and understanding God has elected to reveal Himself in His plan.  Not by way of miraculous appearances from the heavens or by supernatural manifestations but rather by speaking. His speaking is contained in His Word, the Bible.  And if we are attuned to hear His speaking is as fresh today as it was when He first spoke to His people from the Tabernacle or the Tent of Meeting as it is called in Leviticus.

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John (Program #50) – Life in Resurrection (1)

John 1:14 says, the Word became flesh. That means the Word, who was God, became something that He previous was not. When God came out of eternity into time to accomplish His plan, He became flesh. In this sense, God did change.

When we cover these two aspects (God being unchanging and God having changed), what we’re touching is the mystery of the Divine Trinity. So, what we need to do is look at the entire Bible and just say Amen to whatever the Bible says about the Triune God. On the one hand, you know people uses this verse Malachi 3:6, which says that God changes not. And, this is true. But of course, if you look at the context of Malachi 3:6, it’s talking about that God changes not in his principles, in the way that He deals with His people. But also, we know that the Bible shows that God in His eternal being is unchanging. The Bible reveals that the Triune God, the three of the Godhead. On the one hand, they are distinct. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are eternally distinct, but they also co-inhere. That means that they mutually indwell one another. The Father is in the Son. The Son is in the Father. The Father is in the Spirit. more…

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John (Program #22) – The Need of the Hungry – Life’s Feeding (2)

I love this connection between the Spirit and the Word because it gives me a way in my daily life to come to the Lord and contact Him and feed on Him and drink Him in. So in our daily living, we have Christ as the living bread, the bread of life, the bread of God.

We come again today to chapter 6 in John.  We saw how the Lord fed the thousands and that was really to show how He meets the need of the hungry and now the disciples are fed but they have another problem.

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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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John (Program #6) – An Introduction to Life and Building (2)

God is a mystery, but Christ is the Word of God. And, this Word defines God, explains God, and expresses God. So, this Word is the definition of God, and the explanation of God, and also the expression of God.

So eventually, this Word was God. Just God Himself. But not God hidden, not God concealed, not God mysterious, but God defined, God explained, God expressed. Not unseen God, but the seen God. Not the God invisible, but the very God so visible. This is the Word.

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Genesis (Program #1) -The General Sketch and Central Thought (1)

Welcome to the life study of the book of Genesis.

This life study stands upon the shoulders of the great teachers and expositors throughout the century.  So it is a study.  However, this study is what we call a life study.  We surely are studying with our whole being exercised.  But the object of our study in particular is to grasp and to experience eventually the life elements in the Word of God.

The Bible is a book of life.  Every book is permeated with the element of life.  The life study has a particular objective.  That objective is not merely to garner more information, more doctrine from the Scriptures.  The object of this study is the Lord Himself reveal in the Word, Who is our life.

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