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“Why” is more important than “how” in everything we do, especially concerning our service to the Father, and it’s when our motives are right in our serving Him that pleases Him the most. Regardless of the fact that our will is never to do anything with the wrong motive, we need to realize that...

“Christ is the head of the church” (Eph 5:23). The Lord Jesus is Head of the Body—such is His relationship to the Church; and how is He head of the Body? Not because He is the firstborn of all creation simply, nay, not because He is Creator of all, nor His headship of all creation as the “Heir...

The desire to know the truth concerning the concept of whether or not one can lose a redemptive position in the Lord Jesus is clearly the most popular spiritual growth doctrine among the New Testament teachings (which of course is a separate issue concerning receiving salvation). It’s clear that...

God would have His own to learn to be joyous as much as He enables us to be so (Phl 4:4; Jhn 16:24; 1Jo 1:4). For those choosing to remain unbelievers, the Gospel is a Sword of conflict in administering to them discouragement and separation from His Body (Mat 10:34); for the believer it’s the...

The three Nazarites, Shadrach, Mechach and Abednego walked with God in the king’s palace; and God walked with them in the king’s furnace. Is it not worth passing through a fiery furnace to enjoy more of the presence of the Lord Jesus, and the sympathy of His loving heart (Heb 4:15)? Is not a...

Since rebirth, believers have had the righteousness of the Judge imputed to them (not imparted, because He “is made unto us righteousness;” we are righteous but He is the righteousness - 1Co 1:30), and it’s in this they will eventually stand before His “seat”! Even though believers have security...

Aaah, the refreshing after the trial! I’m glad I’m learning to remember not to allow them to trouble me (Jn 14:1, 27), because there is more taught in going through freehanded than white-knuckling. I feel that I may sometimes still let it get to me a little too much, but I think the most...

There’s nothing more encouraging and comforting than realizing that at rebirth, believers have all they will ever require to be pronounced innocent before Christ’s judgment seat! I often wonder how many believers there are who may at least wish or hope that rebirth is permanent. One truth is...

With spiritual growth issues there can be varying beliefs, but only the doctrines that are settled in the “truth” will liberate you from disappointment (Jhn 8:32). Concerning the issue of receiving salvation, there can be no varying beliefs on the essentials of believing in the Lord Jesus’...

In all things, our Father teaches us to know the freedom we have available from now on in the Lord Jesus (but you’ve got to appropriate it in your conscience and walk). That is, the release of the old man’s incurred guilt and “dominion.” It’s the possession of the sin nature (“old” or original...

The majority of mankind dies “in” sin (Mat 7:13, 14), but Christ could only die “to” sin because He not only “knew no sin” but also “in Him is no sin” (2Co 5:21; 1Jo 3:5). It’s my belief that “made to be sin” is in the sense of “being made out to be sin”, (e.g. was made only in “the likeness” of...

The one great thought of the Holy Spirit in Philippians is to make known the Lord Jesus as the Servant (Phl 2:7; e.g. Mat 12:18; 20:28); and this He does, that He may produce in us truehearted service (Jhn 13:14). There is not a thought of our Father’s love but what we get in “the face of the...

The most understandable and encouraging attribute concerning salvation is that of its permanency, after all, it is called “eternal salvation” (Heb 5:9). What part of salvation is temporary, seeing that one of the meanings of redemption is that of being saved from “eternal damnation” (Mar 3:29)...

It is truly beyond answering why it must be that the majority of mankind has and will continue to reject that which is the most important in this life—and the next! God’s great love, especially for those whom He knows will choose Him, is well demonstrated in the fact that He is allowing the...

At the point of rebirth we are given “all things that pertain unto life and godliness” (2Pe 1:3); and from then on the Spirit ensures that we will learn “the things that have been freely given to us by God” (1Co 2:12). This will “not be in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy...

When Saul, in his zeal persecuting he Church, was on his way to Damascus, the Lord in glory met him—that same Lord Jesus, Whom Saul had with his nation rejected and cast out, but now risen from the dead and glorified, appeared to him. It was then Saul discovered the true values of his precious...

Those who continue to “desire and do” God’s “good pleasure” manifest that it is He who “works in you” (Phl 2:13)! This is clearly an advantage shown within Christianity that was not a provision within Judaism. Nevertheless, the former dispensation was equally necessary as the present one, for it...

In Scripture the term “flesh” has two meanings: 1) the physical body; 2) the mere human nature, the earthly nature of man apart from divine influence, and therefore prone to sin and opposed to God. The prior term is the Hebrew word bä·sär' and is found only in the OT, which never refers to the...

We who are reborn are merely camping on low grounds until the High Grounds are reached; and for us, through the entirety of the journey since believing, “all things work together for good,” that is, to the reborn! This means we can consider all that we encounter from now on, esp. the...

“But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for...