Blog Archives

22 Apr 2023 Luke (Program #53)

Luke (Program #53) – The Man-Savior’s God-man Living (1 & 2)

Here is an interesting point to ponder; in creating the entire universe, God took only six days, resting on the seventh. Yet when it came time to redeem and save man, He spent thirty-three and a half years, living a genuine human life before going to the cross.

Why would all that time needed for redemption and salvation? Could He just  miraculously appeared as a man and died the next day or next month to accomplish our redemption?   Well, the salvation that this Ones came to accomplish was more than just as a sacrifice to save us from our sins. This One had to live the life of the first God-Man in order to save us, not just to the heaven, but as the Bible says, save us to the uttermost.

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03 Apr 2023 Luke (Program #34)

Luke (Program #34) – The Ministry of the Man-Savior in His Human Virtues with His Divine Attributes from Galilee to Jerusalem (14)

Luke 15 is a chapter with three tremendous parables including one of the best known in the whole Bible, the parable of the prodigal son. When you take these three parable together, they reveal to us the three persons of the Godhead. The Son is seen the first parable, the Spirit in the second, and the Father in the third, and all three bring us to salvation. Then, we come to another parable at the beginning of chapter 16. At first, it seems terribly out of place. The story of a steward, who threatened with the loss of His position, unrighteously deals with his master’s assets only to gain His praise. But as we will see today, these parables fit very well together.

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24 Feb 2023 Zephaniah(Program #1)

Zephaniah(Program #1) – Jehovah’s Judgment and Salvation

Zephaniah 3:14-15 “Give a ringing shout, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Jehovah has taken away your judgments; He has turned aside your enemy. The King of Israel, Jehovah, is in the midst of you; You will not see evil again.”

Zephaniah speaks of Christ been the king of Israel, in her midst, in the restoration, which is coming. So that time in the future will be a great salvation to Israel. But for the last two thousands years, His salvation has mostly been to the Gentiles. How is this fit into the central thought in the book of Zephaniah?

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21 Feb 2023 Nahum (Program #1)

Nahum (Program #1) – Jehovah’s Judgment on Nineveh

In the Bible story of Jonah, we probably recall, that he was fleeing, running away from Jehovah and the task that God had appointed to Him. That of bringing God’s message of judgment and repentance to the evil city Nineveh.

In the story as Jonah was trying to escape from God, he is thrown into the sea during a raging storm, only to be swallowed up by a giant fish. He remained alive in the belly of the fish for three days until he was spewed out by the fish unto dry land. Well, this is the part of the story that most of us remember and can retell it to our children. But the story continues, for eventually Jonah reached Nineveh, and not only did he proclaimed God’s righteous judgment on that evil city, but he also witness first hand Jehovah’s mercy and salvation upon the people of Nineveh.

Another book in the Old Testament, another book of the Minor Prophets, is that of Nahum. And once again the subject of the book is the city of Nineveh. Only this time we don’t see God’s mercy and compassion resulting in the salvation for the city. Rather we see God’s righteous indignation and judgment upon Nineveh resulting in the city’s ultimate destruction.  What was it about this ancient city that caused it to be the focus and so much attention by the Old Testament prophets?

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13 Feb 2023 Joel (Program #3)

Joel (Program #3) – On Joel (2)—The Content (1)

The Old Testament Prophets Daniel, Zechariah and Joel all speak prophetically of 4 great empires that would come against God’s chosen people Israel to consume and devour. This consuming had been going on for more than 27 centuries now. History tells us that Daniel got it right when he prophesied in Chapter 2 that these 4 empires that would rule the world and wreck havoc upon Israel would be the Babylonian, the Medo Persian, the Greek and the Roman Empires.  Zechariah saw them as 4 horns. And the Prophet Joel described them as 4 kinds of locusts as in Chapter 1 : 4 “What the cutting locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; And what the swarming locust has left, the licking locust has eaten; And what the licking locust has left, the consuming locust has eaten.”

Whatever metaphor we use to depict these 4 great empires, the fact is, Israel had been sustained through this long period of suffering and ultimately will turned back to God, and receive a salvation and a restoration. For us, God’s New Testament people these consuming locusts representing all of human government had also been used by God for His specific purpose and goal, and that is the Christ might be manifested.

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13 Feb 2023 Mark (Program #44)

Mark (Program #44) – The Resurrection and Ascension of the Slave-Savior and His Universal Spreading of the Gospel Through His Disciples

Chapter 16, the final chapter of Mark’s gospel presents three tremendous events in the ministry of Jesus Christ.  First it reveals His resurrection then His ascension for His exaltation and finally the spreading of His gospel to all the creation. All of these matters are important to genuine believers as they relate to the truth of the divine revelation. But they also should be very real aspects of our experience of the marvelous salvation that we have received. But that leads us to a very important question, How can we experience Christ in the reality of His resurrection and how can we experience the exalted and ascended Christ?  Well, this chapter gives us some very helpful signs from some of the Lord’s followers who were living in the reality of Christ in His crucifixion and therefore we are also able to experience Him in His resurrection.

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25 Jan 2023 Mark (Program #25)

Mark (Program #25) – The Move of the Slave-Savior’s Gospel Service (14)

Most of us remembered from our childhood the story of the rich man who came to Jesus asking what he must to do in order to have eternal life. The Lord’s answer instructing the man to go and sell all that he possessed and to give the proceed to the poor was more than the young man could bear. So he turned away and in despair of his inability to do what seems to be required.

The Lord’s disciples also expressed their dismay over His words to this young ruler to which the Lord answered, “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”

This passage from Mark chapter 10 though famous as a Bible story is also one that has perplexed many students of the Bible for there is no place in the scripture where we were given of such a requirement in order to be saved. Our salvation is by faith and not according to our works, such as selling all and giving all to the poor. And how should we understand such a story?

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17 Jul 2022 1 John (Program #25)

1 John (Program #25) -The Virtues of the Divine Birth to Practice the Divine Love (1)

When the believers in Christ are born again at the time of their salvation the divine seed is sown into their being. This seed is the divine life and the divine life has the divine nature.

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08 Jul 2022 1 John (Program #16)

1 John (Program #16) – Conditions of the Divine Fellowship (9)

John first epistle as a continuation of his gospel stresses the eternal life. And specifically the fellowship or flow of this divine life that is available for all of us as His children to experience.

But though our salvation is unconditional there are conditions for us to stay in the fellowship of life experimentally. The first of this condition is found in chapter one and this is a basic requirement for every believer to maintain their enjoyment of Christ as life.

1 John 1:7, 9
7 “But if we walk in the light as He 1is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin.

9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Keeping sure account by confessing our sins before God is vitally important. But John brings us another important condition for maintaining the fellowship of life and that is to love the brothers.

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26 Jun 2022 1 John (Program #4)

1 John (Program #4) – The Divine Life (2)

In all of the writings of the apostle John we see a continual emphasis on the divine life.  One of the aspects of the divine life that John stresses again and again is that it is eternal, even calling it the eternal life.  Many readers of the Bible and even many translators of the Bible equate the term “eternal life” with everlasting life.  Though this thought is not altogether wrong, it is incomplete at best and it can lead us to a shallow realization of all that we received in Christ at the moment of our salvation.  The eternal life is our subject today as we continue our life study in the book of 1 John.

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