Tag-Archive for ◊ worship ◊

24 May 2023 John (Program #20)

John (Program #20) – The Need of the Impotent – Life’s Enlivening

God never intended to have a religion. Actually, religion is to worship God, to serve God, and to live for God without Christ. This shows us that even today as Christians, we can have Christ just in terminology, but we may not have Christ as our living reality.

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04 May 2023 Luke (Program #65)

Luke (Program #65) – The Man-Savior’s Ascension (3 & 4)

The Gospel of Luke concludes with one of the mysterious and difficult to understand items in the entire New Testament and that’s the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ to the heavenlies, some forty days after His resurrection. Luke 20:4 says “while He blessed them He parted from them and was carried up into heaven and they worship Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing God.”  One of the reasons that seems to be mysterious and difficult is that it appears to be very removed even remote from us. Yet when we see His ascension properly in view of the entire New Testament revelation we realized that it has tremendous implications for us.

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19 Feb 2023 Micah (Program #2)

Micah (Program #2) – Jehovah’s Comfort to Israel

The Prophet Micah in the Old Testament speaks of God’s reprove and chastisement of Israel in a very poetic language.

Chapter 1:3-4 “For Jehovah is about to come forth from His place, And He will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains will be melted under Him, And the valleys will be cleft, Like wax before fire, Like water poured down a slope.”

These sobering words caused Micah to weep but as with other prophets Micah also speaks of God’s comforting of His people.  Which ultimately comes at the end of this age in what the prophets of all spoke as the restoration. A coming age when there will be no need of weapons for all the enemies will be gone and Christ will rule, shepherd and protect His people while His people feast and rejoice in loving worship of Him for a thousand years.

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09 Jul 2022 1 & 2 Chronicles (Program #9)

1 & 2 Chronicles (Program #9) – A Concluding Word to the Supplement to the History of the Kings of Judah

The kings of Judah were faithful to Jehovah, at least in part they held on to Jerusalem, the ground that God had given them for their worship.  They also kept allegiance at least outwardly to the word of God, which was His law.  The law of Mose, in two sections was God’s way in the Old Testament of both exposing man as well as revealing the divine plan for man to express God, bear His image and be His testimony.  In the end, God’s people, Israel were unable to keep either the moral law of God, the ten commandments or the ceremonials of God.  And the result was that they eventually lost the good land entirely and lost their enjoyment of God’s portion.  This is a strong warning to us but also as we look into these two aspects of the law, there is a great hope and we hope to bring that out in today’s program.

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04 Jul 2022 1 & 2 Chronicles (Program #4)

1 & 2 Chronicles (Program #4) – Learning from the Examples of the Kings of Judah to Have a God-Man Living in Our Daily Life

Not long after the death of King Solomon, David’s son, the nation of Israel separated and became two kingdoms.  Solomon’s son Rehoboam became king in Jerusalem and ruled on the throne.  But another one Jeroboam departed from Jerusalem and led ten of the twelve tribes away establishing the northern kingdom called Israel with a different center of worship in Dan far in the north.  In the book of Deuteronomy, Jehovah made it clear that He had chosen only one place on this entire earth to be the center for His worship.  To break this God ordained principle is an abomination in the eyes of Jehovah.  Listen to His word in Deuteronomy in 12 “but you shall seek the Lord at the place which the Lord your God shall choose from all your tribes to establish His name there for His dwelling and there you shall come.  You shall not do at all what we are doing here today, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes.  Be careful that you do not offer your burnt offering in every place you see, but in the place which the Lord chose.”

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02 Jul 2022 1 John (Program #10)

1 John (Program #10) – The Divine Light and the Divine Truth (2)

1 John 1:6 says, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and are not practicing the truth;

What is truth?  John 4:23-24 says “But an hour is coming, and it is now, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truthfulness, for the Father also seeks such to worship Him.  God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.”  So, truth or truthfulness is very related to our worship of God.

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07 May 2022 Judges (Program #7)

Judges (Program #7) – The Abominable Chaos in their Worship

The life study of the books of Joshua and judges reveals not just the history of Israel with its’ successes and failures possessing the good land of Canaan, but also even more importantly it teaches us how we can gain and possess the all inclusive Christ as our full portion, our enjoyment and our inheritance. Israel in the good land typifies us, the New Testament believers in Christ and just as Israel allowed their departure from a close and intimate fellowship with Jehovah to impede their progress gaining the land we too can see our spiritual progress and our enjoyment of Christ impeded if we don’t take care of our day by day, even moment by moment fellowship with Him.  Listen to this verse in 1 John 1:3 “That which we have seen and heard we report also to you that you also may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.”

A very marvelous portion related to this matter of fellowship typified of course by the picture in the Old Testament of Israel gaining, possessing the land. We enter into the fellowship the moment we receive Christ and this fellowship is a fellowship that is life long.

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04 Apr 2022 Deuteronomy (Program #13)

Deuteronomy (Program #13) – God’s Choice—The Definite Ground for the Worship of God

The Bible often speaks of God’s love and we take great comfort from the love of God. But the Bible also speaks very much about the things that God hates. You may say “well I know that God hates sin”, that’s true. But specifically they are a few sins that God hates above all others because they damage the very person of God and His Christ or they damage His corporate expression which is the Body of Christ. Many times it is verses from the Old Testament that help us to see things if our eyes are opened.

Deuteronomy 13:4  says “You shall follow Jehovah your God; and you shall fear Him, keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and hold fast to Him.. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has advocated apostasy from Jehovah your God.”  Apostasy, an Old Testament word but there is a New Testament equal, we will find out from this life study of Deuteronomy.

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17 Jan 2022 Leviticus (Program #8)

Leviticus (Program #8) – The Meal Offering Christ for the Satisfaction of God’s People Enjoyed together with God (1)

What is it to worship God?  Well, for man’s side it is obvious worship takes many form and it is practiced in countless ways with all manner of rituals.  But what about from God’s side.  Does the Bible reveal what God is looking for in real genuine worship?  To see this more clearly we really should go back to the Old Testament books like Leviticus where elaborate details are given to us in the form of the offerings that took place in the Tabernacle and later on in the Temple.  Of course the age of the offerings have long since passed but the reality of these offerings must be the focus of all our worship even today.  This reality is the very Christ whom God has given to us to experience and enjoy.

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13 Jan 2022 Leviticus (Program #4)

Leviticus(Program #4) – The Burnt Offering Christ for God’s Satisfaction (2)

Many Christians pass over the fine points in this book, but the Lord has revealed many details of our precious Christ in Leviticus.  Most believers in Christ today know that Christ is the Lamb of God but not many had heard the details of the sacrifice that’s offer to God as described in Leviticus chapters 1 through 7.  As we touch an unique picture of our experience of Christ as it’s revealed in the Old Testament sacrifices.

The book of Leviticus shows us the way God’s people were to worship Him and then as a result of their worship of God they live a holy life. So these things are portrayed in Leviticus.  According to Leviticus to worship God is not just to bow down and to recognizes how awesome and mighty God is. But to worship God is to contact God and to enjoy Christ together with God. This may be a different definition of worship than many Christians have heard but this is the real worship that’s revealed in the Bible more…

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