Series: In Pursuit of Relational Knowledge
What can we do, on purpose, and what tools have been given us by God to facilitate Jesus being formed in us?
The One Who has been given to us to help us remain in and continue in partnership with our Vine Jesus is the person of the Holy Spirit.
Goring through 1Corinthians 1-3 will helps us better understand this relationship we have with our Helper, the Holy Spirit of God.
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Thru the Bible: Malachi 2:17-3:12
This week God uses Malachi to offer Israel a sign of Messiah’s coming by describing His forerunner which Isaiah also did.
Matthew, Mark and Luke all identify John the Baptist as the fulfillment of those prophecies.
Also, God addresses Israel’s third and final major sin – that of failing to support and give into the lives of thier spiritual leaders and the curse that brings.
Paul, draws a direct line between this and giving to ministirial support in 1 Corinthains 9 by saying, “(13) Do you not know that those who perform the temple services eat the food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the offerings of the altar?
(14) IN THE SAME WAY, the Lord has COMMANDED that those who preach the gospel should earn their living by the gospel.” – 1Corinthians 9:12-14.
Spirit please give us all ears to hear and eyes to see.
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Series: In Pursuit of Relational Knowledge
In Jesus’ parting words to His disciples just before calvary, He spoke to them about being branches which grow out of Him. They were to draw their life from Him and because of their union with Him – would bear life changing, character altering fruit.
Last week we took a verbal stroll through Jesus’ words to the disciples just before leaving the upper room regarding:
• His going to the Father
• That to know Him was to know the Father
• That soon the only way anyone would see Him was by the help of the Holy Spirit
• And that John tells us in 1 Jn. 2 that it is by the Holy Spirit that we are steered into the truth and learn how to abide in Christ.
So this week we will finish up the second half of chapters 14 & 15 and begin chapter 16 then scoot over to 1 Corinthians to see this show up in Paul’s letter to this church.
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Thru the Bible: Malachi 1-2
This is the last book of the Old Testament. It is a prophetic word to post-Babylonian exile Judah.
In this prophecy God addresses the exact same three major sins He did through Nehemiah, not so many years prior.
This was Israel’s last warning… a shot across the bow before their sins reward them a spiritual desert to live and die in.
Amos spoke of this intertestamental time of silence as “a famine for hearing the word of the Lord”.
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Series: In Pursuit of Relational knowledge
Out of all the things that Jesus could have taught, just before going to the cross, just before being separated from His disciples, THIS is the one thing He was led to tell them about.
It was and is a very important lesson. You can get nowhere with God if you are unwilling to embrace the intimacy of vulnerability and dependance. The proud of heart can have no admittance and can bear no fruit!
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