Blog Archives

02 Dec 2021 Colossians (Program #23)

Colossians (Program #23) – Christ-Our Life

We live in an age when Christians and faith in God and belief in His Word are under much outward attack. Things that were once accepted as firmly part of our heritage and foundation as a nation are now ridiculed, publicly criticized. Many believers see this as a time to rise up and be heard, be seen. Many high profile ministries, Christian workers vie for exposure in the media to make a name for themselves to counter this attack of God’s enemy against His people. But, what does the Bible say about our outward visibility? Yes, we are to be lights in the world shining forth with the Word of light, but we need to consider Paul’s word to the Church in Colossians 3. “If therefore you were raised together with Christ, seek the things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things which are above, not on the things which are on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ our life is manifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in glory.”

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11 Nov 2021 Colossians (Program #2)

Colossians (Program #2) – Introduction

Today’s life study is from the book of Colossians. The book revealing that Christ is everything to us, being profound and all-inclusive and is unveiled to us to a fuller extent  than any other book in the Bible.  We must not allow anything to replace Christ or to be a substitute for Him.

It has been said that the book of Colossians reveals or unveils Christ to a fuller extent than any other book in the Bible. The first 8 verses of Colossians serve as somewhat an introduction to the book. In this introduction, the apostle Paul seemed to be saying, ‘Dear Colossians, if you follow the Jewish observances or the Gentile ordinances you will not lay up anything for yourselves in the heavens as a hope – you need to live by Christ. One day, Christ who is our life will appear in glory’.

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22 Sep 2021 Philippians (Program #11)

Philippians (Program #11) – The Exaltation of Christ

Philippians chapter 2 deals with the exaltation of Christ and Paul about that very topic has this to say in verses 9 through 11. “God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should openly confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”  That’s the inspirational portion in the New Testament.

A striking feature of our program today that the exaltation of Christ rather than something apart from us and far away from us that took place or will take place in the heavens, not so.  Actually there is the participation in an experiential aspect of that we are very much privilege to have a portion in and that’s our treat today.

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13 Jul 2021 Ephesians (Program #16)

Ephesians (Program #16) – The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power—Christ to be Head Over All Things to the Church

The apostle Paul prayed in Ephesians chapter 1 that the believers would be brought into a condition where they can see and enter into God’s eternal purpose. His prayer primarily touches three great matters: hope, glory and power. For us, hope and glory are both future items that will issue from God’s blessings concerning to us. But it is His power, the divine energy, that carries out and applies what God has promised to us. The surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe is the topic of our program today.

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12 Jul 2021 Ephesians (Program #15)

Ephesians (Program #15) – The Hope of God’s Calling and the Riches of the Glory of God’s Inheritance in the Saints

Hope can be a tremendous thing. If a person has hope, then their ability to withstand hardship and suffering is immeasurably enhanced. And as Christians, we above all people should live a life that is full of hope and therefore equipped to handle whatever may come our way. Paul, the apostle, experienced many hardships and knew much about hope; and in his letter to the Ephesians he opens up his earnest prayer to God on behalf of all the believers. One of the items that he prayed for strongly was that we all would see clearly and truthfully what is the hope of our calling. Where hope is a wonderful thing but our hope needs to be founded in truth and in the reality that the Bible conveys and not in something fanciful or simply according to the popular thought of the day.

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03 Jul 2021 Ephesians (Program #6)

Ephesians (Program #6) – Redemption in the Son

If we take three simple words from the New Testament like ‘praise, glory and grace’, we may feel quite comfortable that we understand what they mean. But the apostle Paul in Ephesians 1 links them together in one verse, verse 6 “To the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He graced us in the Beloved;” How about now? Do you feel that your understanding is adequate according to the divine revelation especially when you put this verse in it’s context; that is, as the issue of our being predestinated unto sonship in verse 5?  Well, Ephesians is rich, high and mysterious because it is written from the viewpoint of God in the heavenlies. And from that point of view, ‘praise, glory and grace’ flowing out of our sonship are not simple at all but marvelous.

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02 Jul 2021 Ephesians (Program #5)

Ephesians (Program #5) – The Praise of the Glory of God’s Grace

In all the Bible, no book gives us a perspective of the church from the heavenlies as Ephesians does. From the opening verse to the end, the view presented in Ephesians is God’s view, not man’s. And it’s from this view that we see that we have been chosen from the foundation of the world, not to be sinless or even perfect but to be holy. And further, that we have been marked out, predestinated not to be spiritual giants but to be sons of God.

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09 Apr 2021 2 Corinthians (Program #21)

2 Corinthians (Program #21) – Shining the Glory of the New Covenant (2)

Two items are marvelously connected in 2 Corinthians that you may have never noticed or linked before. These two things are the New Covenant and the shining of the glory of Christ.

The Old Covenant was a Covenant of law and of letters with the affect of bringing us into spiritual death. The New Covenant on the other hand has everything to do with the Spirit and life. And to be brought into the reality of the New Covenant is to be brought into the glory of the face of Jesus Christ.

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08 Apr 2021 2 Corinthians (Program #20)

2 Corinthians (Program #20) – Shining the Glory of the New Covenant (1)

The Bible is very rich in the many titles that it describe to God. Of course He is the almighty, the God of glory, the all sufficient One and on and on. It opens in Genesis 1 with the Hebrew word, Elohim, meaning the creator of the heavens and the earth. But interestingly at the end of the Bible, in the final chapter, Revelation 22, God is called simply, the Spirit.  But along the way between these two great bookends of the Bible, we see the journey or the process, that God has passed through in time to accomplish His great eternal purpose.

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28 Mar 2021 2 Corinthians (Program #9)

2 Corinthians (Program #9) – The Ministers of the New Covenant (2)

What should be the important criteria or qualities to be a genuine and proper minister of the gospel of the New Testament? We all might have our own ideas and thoughts about what are the most important qualities. But the Bible devotes several chapters to the subject in the book of 2 Corinthians and it’s there that we see several items that we likely would never have even considered.

First, the ministers must be those that are constituted with the life giving and transforming Spirit as chapter 3. This means that they are full of Christ and therefore able to minister this very Christ into people.

Second, as we will see today in chapter 4. They are those who conduct themselves in such a way that the glory of the gospel of Christ might shine through them and out from within them. In other words, their goal should not be just to preach the gospel, but to allow the gospel in its glory to be shined out through them for other to see. Oh, how we Christians today need such healthy, heavenly ministers.

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