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Exploring God's Amazing Word
18 Bible Studies on Positive Living in Christ.
The Word is amazing in its effect upon humanity. Lives have been changed as its truths have been applied. You will be inspired to see yourself as blessed with Heaven's best. Word studies, topical studies, expository studies. How far do you want to go with God's Word? 180 pages. IN STOCK.
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On our Home Page this month is a link to download our complete list of "In Christ, Christ In" scriptures -- a wonderful guide for personal or group study. This list was distributed at all our US seminars, and has since been updated and corrected. There are some 24 references on "Christ In" and over 200 on "In Christ". In Acrobat Reader format. Download before the end of the month, and get started studying and believing these powerful, life-changing verses.
The Seed of the New Birth
The miracle of the new birth has been called "the greatest miracle in the world". I am sure this is true. I am equally sure that most believers do not know just how great it is. That the God who created heaven and earth should want me to be part of His family is extraordinary enough, but that He would place into that spiritual "gift package" all that I need for everything that I will ever run across is generosity and grace indeed. And to discover that His gift to me is perfect and permanent brings joy beyond words.
When it comes to studying that glorious event known to many as conversion, we do not have to read far into the New Testament to find that the primary illustration employed is that of the birth of a child. God is termed a father and the believers sons and daughters. Conversion is described as a new birth, produced by seed. As a child, the believer is a partaker of the Father's nature and will always bear a resemblance to the Father. The new birth, being born from above, is described by many terms, but I wish to emphasize the Biblical terminology of the birth.
A key verse on this subject is found in I Peter 1:23, "Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through [by] the word of God which lives and abides forever" (NKJV). There is surely no doubt that this verse refers to the new birth. What we have here is an accurate description of how God accomplished this miracle. We believed what the Word said, how God raised Jesus from the dead, and we confessed with our mouth Jesus as Lord (Romans 10:9-10), and the miracle happened -- we were "born again".
The human family, nearly all the animal kingdom, and a large part of the vegetable kingdom, use seed as the means of propagation. This seed is "perishable", it is decays very quickly. However, the seed that is placed in the believer is declared to be "incorruptible"; it will never decay.
Let us next note that the believer is said to be born again "of" incorruptible seed, "by" the Word of God. The text does not read, "...which is the Word of God"; yet so many read this into the verse. They do this since they are acquainted with the parable of the sower in the gospel records of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, where the seed is stated to represent the Word of God. But this does not prove that every time we read the word "seed" in the Bible it refers to the Word of God. In the parable of the tares in Matthew 13, the seed is clearly stated to be "the sons of the kingdom" (verse 38).
In I Peter 1:23, God uses prepositions with great care to show that the seed is not the Word of God. Vincent's Word Studies gives this note, "Of (ek) seed -- by (dia) the word. Note the difference in the prepositions; the former denoting the origin or source of life, the latter the medium through which it imparts itself to the nature". We are born again of "incorruptible" seed, through [by means of] "the word of God". That is the clear teaching from I Peter 1:23.
God's Word has a distinct part to play. "How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?... So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:14,17 KJV). No one can experience the new birth unless they have read in the Word of God that it is available and the part they must play in its reception. That part is to believe what God's Word declares, and when Romans 10:9-10 is acted upon, then the Father places His incorruptible seed within the person and they become a child of God.
We have a glorious Saviour, Who provided a glorious salvation to all who will to believe. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the One who created heaven and earth, has put His seed within us and loaded us with every spiritual blessings. Every Christian has everything they will ever need -- and so much more that the mind can scarcely take it in, let alone comprehend it. Read this article again and discover afresh the thrill and excitement of being a child of God. Bed these truths firmly in your mind, hold fast to the faithful Word of God, and learn how to benefit from the Christ-life dwelling within. -- Peter Wade
Insights From Every Chapter Of The Bible
G. Campbell Morgan was a well-known preacher and writer of over 60 books from the first half of the 20th century. In each issue of this newsletter he gives a comment from one verse in every chapter of the Bible. We continue with Paul's first letter to the Corinthians.
"Knowledge puffeth up, love edifieth" (I Corinthians 8:1).
Two ways of life are here contrasted -- the way of puffing up, and the way of edifying; the way of inflation, and the way of building; the way that tends to swift destruction, and the way of permanence. The contrast is peculiarly Biblical, and goes back to Habakkuk, and the difference between the righteous living by faith, and the puffed-up moving toward destruction. The arresting note is Paul's contrast between knowledge and love, as he distinctly affirms that the former puffs up, while the latter edifies.
Is knowledge therefore wrong? By no means. He had just said: "We know that we have all knowledge," in the matter under discussion, that, namely, of things sacrificed to idols; and there was no hint that such knowledge was in itself harmful. The knowledge was conviction of truth that "no idol is anything," and that there is "no God but one." All such knowledge is of supreme value. When, then, does it become dangerous? The answer is self-evident. When we have pride in what we know, and allow that pride to be the inspiration of the use we make of knowledge, we ourselves, becoming puffed up, are unable to act towards others as we should. Love will condition our use of knowledge so that it becomes of service to others, and thus tends also to our own building up. The man who knows, but lacks love, is a dangerous man. The man who knows and loves, is a man who blesses wherever he comes.
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(c)2004 Peter Wade
http://www.peterwade.com
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"IN CHRIST" QUOTE FOR TODAY
