Colossians (Program #41) – Having Died With Christ And Having Been Raised With Christ

The Bible tells us that, in Christ, we are dead to sin and to the world and even to ourselves. Not only so, it also tell us that we also have been raised in Christ and made alive to God in Christ. This is truly wonderful when we treasure verses like these that point us to the spiritual facts that are true in Christ. But, does simply knowing these facts help us in our day to day walk?  Is our experience parallel what is true in Christ? Well, I think we all know the answer to this question and the struggle and the anguish that most serious believers go through trying desperately to experience in us what is factually true in Christ.  As we come back again to consider how to bring into reality, the reality of being in Christ.

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Colossians (Program #18) – Not To Be Deluded And Carried Off From Christ

Nearly every believer in Christ loves to hear an eloquent speaker with a solid knowledge of the Bible deliver an inspiring and uplifting message. Christians often elevate this aspect of the ministry to the highest degree as they measure the usefulness of a servant of the Lord. Yet, Colossians contains the following warning in chapter 2, verse 4 says, “This I say that no one may delude you with persuasive speech.”, and verse 8, “Beware that no one carries you off as spoil through his philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ.”  What is it to be deluded with persuasive speech and be carried off according to the tradition of man?

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Deuteronomy (Program #14) – The Rehearsal of the Law (6 & 7)

The word slavery has a powerful and we would say even a painful connotation in today’s society.  Yet in the Bible it often refer to to describe an aspect of everyday life for many of God’s people. In a sense it helps to remember that we all had a background of a very real kind of slavery, that’s slavery to the world and to sin. In Christ God has set us all free. This is the promise of the gospel and the hope of our Christian life. For in Christ not only are the captives set free, but the poor and the needy are fed and are clothed and sheltered. Deuteronomy, is an Old Testament book with many wonderful pictures of these aspects of the life of the New Testament believers.

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Galatians (Program #30) – Crucified to the Religious World

Galatians 6 reveals 2 kinds of people who apparently are seeking after God. One kind boasts in their zealousness towards their religion, and their dutiful observance and practice of law keeping. The Apostle Paul represents the other class of God’s seekers; those who only boast in the cross of Christ.  To which class do you belong?  Stay with us as we look at what it really means to be a New Creation in Christ.

The phrase “a new creation” appears in Galatians 6:15. But, many people may be familiar with the translations that render this phrase as “In Christ we have become a new creature.” Which is it, creature or creation? It is definitely creation…

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Exodus (Program #47) – The Continual Fighting Against Amalek

If we could have a birds-eye view of Exodus, we will realize that even after God’s people are redeemed and baptized and brought to feed and drink on the living Christ, they still must face a fierce and subjective enemy.  Even more to be regarded than the world and sin is the flesh, our flesh.  How does God deal with the flesh?  This is our focus on today’s life study of the Bible.

We’ve come today to our second message covering the battle between the children of Israel with Amalek in Exodus 17.  What is represented in our experience by this Amalek?

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Exodus (Program #19) – God’s Demand and Pharaoh’s Resistance (5)

Bible scholars have long agreed that Egypt, the land that held God’s people, Israel in slavery for more than 400 years typifies the world, the system of commerce, culture, education and even entertainment is today’s Egypt, complete with its accompanying slavery and bondage.  God’s way with Israel was to change their view of the land they had grown to love.   He wants to do the same with us today.  When we see the world as God sees it, our heart like Israel’s heart will be changed.

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Mark (Program #15) – The Move of the Slave-Savior’s Gospel Service (2) & (3)

Mark chapter 6 presents us with 4 seemingly unrelated cases. To our shallow understanding these 4 cases seems to be merely 4 separate stories of events that took place during the Lord’s earthly ministry. However if we receive even a little enlightenment we can see that once again the sequence in the divine record of how these events are unfolded is really marvelous.  And that when taken together these 4 cases really are layers of meaning and significance.

So here are 4 cases, 2 negative and 2 positive. That individually show us the rejection, hatred and justice even martyrdom that typifies the world’s response to the gospel. But collectively they fill us with encouragement, conviction and even a renewed determination to go forth to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom to the whole inhabited earth.

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Jeremiah (Program #24) – Separation of the Church, God’s New Testament Elect from the World in All its Aspects

The Bible, especially the Old Testament is often studies merely in the way of history, looking at names, dates and places.  And though there are some values in this manner of study, for us as believers the greater need is to see the Bible open up as a book of life.  For this, it is seeing the spiritual significance of events that yields the greatest benefit.  And It is in this light that our study of Jeremiah has brought us to consider the final chapters where God’s wrath even His vengeance is poured out on one nation on earth that has been the most offensive to Him and rendered the most damage upon His chose people.  God’s judgment upon Babylon and its significance for God’s people today is our topic.

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1 John (Program #36) – The Virtues of the Divine Birth to Overcome the World, Death, Sin, the Devil, and the Idols (4)

The marvelous book of 1 John stresses the divine birth, the divine life and the fellowship all believers can experience and enjoy in the flow of this divine life.  It is not a book of great doctrine but rather it is a book as is John’s gospel  revealing the living and true God subjectively and experientially to mankind.

Finally in its concluding verses it tells us that above all we now possess the capacity to know Him not just know about Him.

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1 John (Program #35) – The Virtues of the Divine Birth to Overcome the World, Death, Sin, the Devil, and the Idols (3)

The final few verses of 1 John serve as a strong conclusion to a book that stress over and over, the divine birth and the divine life that all believers received at divine birth.  Closely associated with the divine birth are the divine fellowship and the divine anointing and all of the virtues that flow out of the divine birth.  Of course, the source of the divine life is the divine being, God Himself and His Son Jesus Christ.  And part of the heritage that we received at the divine birth is the capacity to know, experience, enjoy and ultimately even to possess God,  not merely in an objective way but in reality.

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