Philippians (Program #40) -To Participate and Enjoy the Riches of Christ by Receiving the Word of God

In a well-known verse in the book of Colossians the apostle Paul says “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.”  How does the word dwell in us?  In 3:16 Paul gives a secret, but not many Christians today enjoy this secret practically in their daily living. So we are devoting today’s program from the life study of the Bible to help all of our listeners and ourselves included into this secret.

We are talking about “how to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom, with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.”   The subject comes from the book of Philippians as we are studying about the Spirit living in us and Christ living in us and then from that to fill out the very experiential view of Christ in Philippians Brother Lee came to Colossians concerning the Word dwelling in us.  Where he makes the link that for the practical way for the Spirit to dwell in us is for the Word to dwell in us. So these two things together are really two aspects of one way or one means for us to experience Christ and to let Christ lives in us.

 

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Exodus (Program #62) - The Negative Aspect of the Giving of the Law (2)

We’ve all heard of the ten commandments, that most well-known portion of the Old Testament.  Actually, the Bible is full of commandments far beyond those ten originally.  When God commands His people to do something, what response is He looking for?  You may well be surprised as we touch this intriguing question during the next 30 minutes.  Stay we us for the life study of the Bible with Witness Lee.

The ten commandments were delivered by God to Moses in Exodus chapter 19 and 20.  Moses in turn passed them on to the children of Israel, the Jews.  How God’s New Testament people, the Christians should relate to these commandments has been a topic of major discussions or even debates or sometimes controversy for all this past 20 centuries.  Why is it such a difficult issue for believer to deal with?

 

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Philippians (Program #39) -To Participate in the Bountiful Supply of the Spirit

There is the Christ of the divine record, the Bible, the Christ of history, our eternal Redeemer and Savior.  Believers have honored and worshiped Him through the centuries and rightly so. But what about the present Christ?  The Christ of our moment by moment salvation Who went through such a marvelous process not only that He can be with us but even more that He could be in us.  The subjective Christ, that’s our focus today as it should be everyday.

 

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Exodus (Program #61) - The Negative Aspect of the Giving of the Law and Its Function (1)

God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. Yet the law that He gave to His people in Exodus chapter 20 sometimes may seem to bring us darkness. What determines whether it’s light or darkness is not God - it’s all the time dependent on our condition. We will see why sometimes we experience God in the light and other times when we touch His word, we are brought into darkness.

Throughout this series of messages related to the law as it was given by the Lord through Moses to His people Israel, a metaphor has been used to help convey two opposite functions of the law - this is an analogy of day and night. Between God and man or between His word and man seems like there’s always these two aspects.  Mainly we’ve been focusing on the “day” aspect of the law up until today.  more…

 

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Philippians (Program #38) -The Riches of Christ Realized in the Bountiful Supply of the Spirit

Philippians 1:21 says “For to me to live is Christ.”  What does the apostle mean when he says “for me to live is Christ”?  And how do we actually live Christ?

The subject today is “to live Christ”.   We have been on this verses for a number of programs now from Philippians 1:21.  It is important for us to see the basis by which Paul made such a comment and the basis is our relationship to God. Of course every one knows and realizes in listening to this program that God is our creator and that also He is our redeemer but Paul was focusing on something even more organic.

 

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Exodus (Program #60) - The Blessing Received by the Loving Seekers of God Through His Law as His Living Word (2)

In the Bible, God promises many different blessings to His people. We may seek outward blessings of material prosperity or physical health. But of all the blessings He may bestow on us, the highest blessing is that He would become our portion. What is it to have God as our portion?

We return again today to the book of Exodus, the remarkable journey of God’s people out of the bondage of the worldly captivity and through the wilderness.  We are going to divert a little bit today specifically in this life study of Exodus and spend most of our time at Psalm 119. This psalm fits very well into this examination of the law of God that was given in Exodus. There’s no portion of God’s word that speaks so exhaustively and completely concerning the law of God in Psalm 119.

We’re going to begin today by considering the law or the commandments from the point of view of a testimony – a testimony of a person that gives or makes the law. What does it mean that the law of God shows us God? more…

 

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Philippians (Program #37) -The Rich Word, the Bountiful Supply, and Unceasing Prayer for Living Christ

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God.”  Colossians 3:16.  We have another life study today revealing the secret of connecting the Word, the bountiful supply of the Spirit and unceasing prayer for the purpose of living Christ.

We come to the critical matter of just how to take this processed Triune God that we’ve been hearing about in recent programs into our being as food.  Many of us have thought that this means to just memorize Bible verses and recite them, may be we have a box full of verses that sits on our dinner table and we practice that. This is a good practice that we don’t put it down. But there is more to this then just memorizing verses.

 

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Exodus (Program#59) - The Blessing Received by the Loving Seekers of God Through His Law as His Living Word (1)

The Bible is the most wonderful book of books.   God revealed that the words in it are the very breath and that He himself is embodied in it.  Yet to some, all they see are the controversies and seeming inconsistencies.  Even to us Christians at times,  it seems to be merely a book of history and hard to understand proverb.   Should we settle for this or do we need to be desperate to contact the living God each and every time we come to His word?

On this particular program, we encourage everyone who is listening to pray this prayer “Lord, while I am listening to this broadcast, help me to turn my heart to You all the ways.”

The Bible should always be something beneficial.  It’s the bread of life.  It’s God’s word.  Surely, it should always bring some kind of help to us.  But we all know at times, we come away seemingly with nothing.  Even sometimes we don’t touch God and we only see may be history or events.  And at other times it seems like there may be even contradictions that plague us and bother us, just leave people questioning whether it is even true or not. Is this what Paul the apostle meant in 1 Corinthians 6 when he said “the letter kills but the Spirit gives life”?

 

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Philippians (Program #35) - Living Christ by Receiving the Word Through the Spirit

Do you ever wonder how the Christian life can be more practical to you or how you can experience the rich Christ that you heard spoken of.

We are touching the things that are most burdened with. To review some of the key verses and in this comparison we have been looking at the two verses, Philippians 1:19-20 “For I know that for me this will turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I will be put to shame, but with all boldness, as always, even now Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death.” And the comparison we are going to see 2:12 and16.  Verse 12 “So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only but now much rather in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; and verse 16, “Holding forth the word of life, so that I may have a boast in the day of Christ that I did not run in vain nor labor in vain.”

 

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Exodus (Program#58) - The Function of God’s Word as His Living Word to His Loving Seekers

Have you ever wondered why to some people the Bible can be full of sweetness and satisfaction, even encouragement; while to others it can be quite the opposite - it may seem harsh, demanding or may be just boring. Even within a single person, it may be one moment the former and in another moment the latter. What changes?  Well, God’s word is eternally the same and it is His very breath. Whether we experience it as life or death altogether depends on us. If you’ve ever struggled to enter into the richness and sweetness of God’s word, please don’t miss this classical presentation on today’s life study of the Bible.

All believers have struggled with this matter at one time or another in their Christian life. Maybe the Bible was very living, very sweet when we first got saved. But then something seems to change and we can’t seem to get the same burst of spiritual energy or nourishment from simply reading and studying. This is probably very common for most believers. It doesn’t have to be this way. It’s not supposed to be this way. more…

 

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