Today, January 9, is the first day of our second week of reading.
It is so encouraging that over 900 saints from 33 countries and 32 states in the USA have joined together to read the life-studies. This is a great opportunity for the Lord to blend the Body together a little more. Let’s pray for one another and share our enjoyment with each other by posting comments on this website. It would be great if everyone could try to post a comment at least once a week.
Today we will read message six, which has the title, “The Triune God Embodied in the Word to Produce a Holy Life for the Church Life (2).”
This message covers 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10. The sections in this message are:
I. THE WORD OF THE LORD AND FAITH TOWARD GOD
II. THE CONTENT OF THE WORD PREACHED BY PAUL
III. TWO ASPECTS OF FAITH
IV. THE WORK OF FAITH
V. THE LABOR OF LOVE
VI. THE ENDURANCE OF HOPE
“Faith is not a matter of TRYING to believe something that we are not able to believe. Whenever you preach the gospel do not FORCE people to believe. Instead, present the Triune God as the One most DEAR, PRECIOUS and VALUABLE.” This can be our living, this is the work of faith, which is a product of faith and which produces faith in others. Praise you sweet, faithful Lord!
I love this one too, Amen Lord!
Amen! This is the portion I also enjoyed the most! We should never have to force salvation on anyone! If we would only speak of how precious and lovely our wonderful Christ is, He will bring people to himself! Amen!!
Amen!! So did I I was also enlightened by this portion of Today’s LS, “We should never have to force salvation on anyone! If we would only speak of how precious and lovely our wonderful Christ is, He will bring people to himself!” Hallelujah~
Spontaneously the listener will be infused with the Triune God in the Word through our preaching Gospel to him. This is the preaching of Paul and believer’s faith toward God!! Hallelujah ~~
I enjoyed the same thing! Once a brother shared that sometimes when we preach the gospel we feel we need to convince the unbelieving person and we may argue with them when all we have to do is speak the Word to them. Though they may not even believe the Bible is true, nevertheless the Word IS living and is GOD, so faith is produced in that person through the hearing of faith and he believes!
Today I enjoyed that our serving the Lord is a labour of love. It is a good reminder that the reason for our service is because we love Him! So forget the expectations we put on ourselves or the expectations that we think we have from others. Just love the Lord! Then “our love for the Lord causes us to labor in serving Him.”
Amen, “just love the Lord”
I enjoyed to learn that the work of faith is not certain tasks we do for the Lord, it is our daily action as believers, the action that is a product of faith. The labor of Love is our listening to and cooperating with the living God as the Spirit inside of us.
Thank you Lord that you choose us to hear your word. Thank you for imparting faith into us. Thank you for the process you went through to become the Spirit LIVING IN US! What a priveledge! What a joy! We love you Lord Jesus!
Whatever God speaks in us and whatever He indicates to us, we need to follow Him. This is to serve Him as the living God. This service requires love toward Him. We should first love God, and this love will cause us to labor in serving Him.
I enjoyed how brother Lee encouraged us “Whenever you preach the gospel…present the Triune God as the One most dear, precious, and valuable. When others hear the presentation of such an attractive One, they will appreciate what you are saying and receive your word. The word they accept will then become their faith.” Hallelujah we can minister the Triune God into others!
Praise the Lord! I enjoyed this as well. To preach a more complete gospel we need to include the entire Triune God. By preaching the Triune God, we are able to present the God that has been processed to get into man for His economy! Let us not sell people short, but tell people about the entire Triune God.
Praise the Lord for Faith, the book says “Faith comes through our acceptance of the word that is the embodiment of the Triune God” Which makes Faith a Person, Christ… Hallelujah for Faith! and because this faith is living and active, it results in the work of the faith. Oh Lord thank you for this word…
God the Father selected us, God the Son accomplished redemption to deliver us, and God the Spirit transmits all the divine things to us. This is the content of the word preached by Paul as the gospel. This is the reason that the Triune God is embodied in the word. This is the reason that I love His word more and more!
Thank you Lord for your plan to reconstitute Yourself in us that we may grow up into you in all things. Amen
The work of faith denotes the proper actions of a genuine believer. It is not the performing of a certain task or the doing of certain good deeds to help others. No, it is our daily action as believers, the action that is a product of faith.
Faith is not a matter of trying to believe something that we are not able to believe. Whenever you preach the gospel, do not force anyone to believe. Instead, present the Triune God as the One most dear, precious, and valuable. When others hear the presentation of such an attractive One, they will appreciate what you are saying and receive your word. The word they accept will then become their faith. This is what it means to believe.
I too enjoyed the matter of a labor of love. Truly, this is much more difficult to carry out than a work. So how we really need God as love infused into us so we may love Him and the saints more! May all our labor–in raising up the young believers and/or our children–have this wonderful love as the source!
I was touched as I read message 6 today that the work of faith is our living that issues from our faith. It is not the performing of certain tasks or the doing of good deeds. It is the spontaneous daily actions as a product of faith, the faith that is generated in us by the receiving and speaking of the word.
I saw today that before, I was outside of Christ, but that now, by faith, I am in Christ. This
is the beginning of the Christian life for the church life.
The works of faith will mature into a labor of love if I have
enduring hope in Christ.
I am so intrigued by the phrase, “work of faith”…it is so rich and mysterious! By the receiving of the word, faith is produced in us and then there is a wonderful outflow. We may find ourselves responding to the Lord in love and telling Him how sweet He is to us. This faith may also work to enlighten us inwardly. Our faith is so living, producing so many living actions in our relationships, conduct and behavior. Thank you Lord for the living work of faith!
Amen! This kind of living work of faith is the holy life for the church life.
Yes Leslie I enjoyed that point too.Our faith is so living,producing so many living actions in our relationships, conduct and behaviour. The Lord as our faith is constantly moving within us. Thankyou Lord for the living work of faith!
What a great way to start the week! This message ties the knot! The Triune God embodied in the word to produce a holy life for the church life can be seen properly when matching up these verses. The Triune God is the content of the word received and the word which was sounded out. In verses 1 and 3 the Father is mentioned; in verse 10, the Son; and finally, verses 5 and 6 reveal the Holy Spirit. Paul’s gospel to the Thessalonians contained the Triune God. The Father’s selecting, the Son’s delivering, and the Spirit’s transmitting are embodied in Paul’s word. This was the word received by the Thessalonians. Actually, this word infused faith into them and produced a sounding out of the word through their living and proclamation. Only a living faith can produce such a wonderful change in a person’s daily life. The result is the structure of the church life where the work of faith, labor of love, and endurance of hope intertwine. This is the marvelous tune of a local church. May we be His loving seekers who bear a living song of turning unto Him, serving the living God, and awaiting the coming of the Beloved Son! Praise Him! Hallelujah!:)
Hallelujah! The word that is sounded out is the faith that goes out (v.8). We have a way to speak faith into others!
I’m so impressed by the work of faith- how it changes a person’s acts, actions, and activities. We may have been harsh to others in the past, but faith makes us unable to treat others in an unkind way. Praise the Lord, we have faith infused into us. Faith makes us a different person.
Thank you Lord a relationship of life has begun between us and God! I especially enjoyed this part of the message!
I enjoyed that faith is not a matter of trying to believe what we cannot believe. We cannot force someone to believe. But we just need to present to the precious Triune God! How the Father worked in eternity past for our selection, the Son accomplishing redemption and the Spirit transfers us all these riches of the Triune God! Then when they accept the word, they have faith! Then they are brought into a life relationship with the Father and an organic union with Christ! Praise the Lord for the work of faith that turns us from idols to the living God! Praise the Lord for the labor of love and the endurance of hope! With these 3 things there is holy life for the church life!
Amen! I enjoyed too in that we see in 1 Thessalonians + life-study the preaching of the Triune God by Paul – the Father’s selection in eternity past,the Son came as the Saviour, the Deliverer and the gospel preached came in power and in the Holy Spirit. Praise the Lord for the Spirit’s transmitting the things of God into us!!! This word preached by Paul was the embodiment of the Triune God, and this word becomes faith within the hearer when the hearer believes this word and accepts it.
Dear saints its lovely to see your work of faith and your labour of love. Today my boss send me far away ; six hour drive’ so i sended the lifestudy meassages to my own email adress and let it read to me by my smartphone while driving , its no problem to hear it over and over again to let it sinck into our being and be contituted with these glorious truth’s. Keep your eyes on the road though and your hands firm on the stearingweel . Its doesn’t matter if you miss somthing while focusing on the road, next session you get it.
Tjerk, What app are you using to get your phone to read life-studies to you? This sounds great. (I also enjoyed your songs on your youtube channel–treasureinvessel). ~Nathan
Dear bro Nathan , it was already installed on the android ,don’t know the name of it. See my latest upload on Youtube how it works
Praise God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Dear Tjerk, I wasn’t able to find the video that you uploaded on youtube. Can you include the link in a comment?
amen brother!
Amen.
I am enjoying matter of faith “”Faith is not a matter of trying to believe something that we are not able to believe. Whenever you preach the gospel, do not force anyone to believe. Instead, PRESENT the Triune God as the ONE MOST DEAR, PRECIOUS, and VALUBLE.
When others hear the presentation of such an attractive One, they will appreciate what you are saying and receive your word. The word they accept will then become their faith. This is what it means to believe.
Faith implies God, grace, power, light, and many other items.:)))
“The work of faith denotes the proper actions of a genuine believer. It is not the performing of a certain task or the doing of certain good deeds to help others. No, it is our daily action as believers, the action that is a product of faith”
THANK YOU LORD THAT WE CAN EXPEREINCE IT.
Saints, do you realize what happens when the Triune God is ministered to a person through the Word? That person receives the word and this word becomes faith in him! At that moment such a person experiences a new birth – he is born of God! We were all sinners, but through faith we have become sons of God.
Wow, Amen! And what is faith? Faith is not a matter of trying to believe something that we are not able to believe. We shouldn’t force people to believe…. Rather, we need to present the Triune God as the One most dear, precious, and valuable… when others hear about this One, they will appreciate this One and receive the word… the word they accept becomes their faith. Ameeeeeen!
I enjoyed seeing that the work of faith, the labor of love and the endurance of hope has it’s source from the Triune God who was imparted into us through faith, which issues actions that affects our living. This faith leads us to a labor in love in serving our living God and produces an endurance in hope of His return! What a holy, sanctified and separated life!
I was impressed by this message in the matter of work of faith. I feel like in my life I interpret work of faith as just doing something (ie the action itself). But today, the Lord has rolled away the veils and has gone deeper! The work of faith is not what we do but it is what issues out of our faith and is our daily actions as believers. It could be our service and it could be something we do but I realized that the work of faith is a product of our faith and not merely the action itself. Praise the Lord for the work of faith in us transforming us to be those who live a holy life for the church life!
Amen we are being sanctified to live a holy life for the church life,this is God’s intention!
AMEN!
It is not easy to serve God; rather, it is a labor. Paul even says that it is a struggle. Therefore, if we would serve the living God, we must struggle. Whatever God speaks in us and whatever He indicates to us, we need to follow Him. This is to serve Him as the living God. This service requires love toward Him. We should first love God, and this love will cause us to labor in serving Him.
In this message, I enjoyed the matter of faith coming from hearing in a fresh way. When Paul spoke the Word to the Thessalonians, he was actually speaking out the Triune God to them (because the Word is the embodiment of the Triune God). Once this Word reached the Thessalonians, it generated faith in them, and this faith is what enables them to do works for God. I enjoyed this in the context of our preaching the gospel to the ones around us. A lot of the time, my concept is that we are supposed to convince people to believe in God, or make them realize something they didn’t know about God. While this may not be entirely incorrect, I realized that when we speak about the Lord to the ones around us, we are actually just speaking out the Triune God to them. When this Triune God reaches them, then it generates faith in them. Even if new ones do not respond to our speaking outwardly, we must have faith that the Triune God is working in them by making them more open, meeting their real need, etc. Eventually, through our continual contact with the ones around us, we can dispense enough faith into them that it results in works (e.g. the new ones establishing Bible reading times with us, coming to meetings, confessing the Lord, and being baptized).
Faith has two aspects: the objective aspect and the subjective aspect. When we accept the word of God, it becomes both our objective faith and our subjective faith. Objective faith denotes the things we believe, and subjective faith refers to our action of believing. Through such a faith we are regenerated, born of God, and a relationship of life begins between us and God. Furthermore, through this kind of faith we are put into Christ. Formerly, we were outside of Christ. But now through faith we are in Christ. This means that there is an organic union between us and Christ. This is the beginning of the Christian life, and this life is a holy life that consummates in the church life. In this way the Triune God is transmitted into our being so that we may have a new life, the divine life. With this new life we have a relationship of life with God and an organic union with Christ. By means of this relationship and union we begin our Christian life, a life of holiness, a holy life for the church life.
I was touched that to serve our living God is a labor and we serve this living One because we love Him. Praise the Lord for such a word.
Those who have faith are very different from those who do not have faith….Faith comes through our acceptance of the word that is the embodiment of the Triune God. When we accepted this word, faith was prodced within us (praise the Lord!). This faith is both objective and subjective…
“Faith is not a matter of trying to believe something that we are not able to believe. Whenever you preach the gospel, do not force anyone to believe. Instead, present the Triune God as the One most dear, precious, and valuable.”
I am very thankful that I live with a dear couple in the Lord, who came back from the winter training overflowing with their fresh enjoyment, and have brought me into their participation of this reading program. Reading these LSs has been like being made to lie down in green pastures and being led beside waters of rest. When being presented with “the Triune God as the One most dear, precious,and valuable” my spirit sings and is refreshed. I may not be a “new believer” per se but I am most definitely the one being saved first.
Faith is not a matter of trying to believe something that we are not able to believe! When we see Him, we will appreciate Him and value Him. This is faith!
I enjoyed once again the matter of faith, the real meaning of believing, in this message.
“Faith is not a matter of trying to believe something that we are not able to believe. Whenever you preach the gospel, do not force anyone to believe. Instead, present the Triune God as the One most dear, precious, and valuable. When others hear the presentation of such an attractive One, they will appreciate what you are saying and receive your word. The word they accept will then become their faith. THIS IS WHAT IT MEANS TO BELIEVE… Through such a faith we are regenerated, born of God, and a relationship of life begins between us and God.”
And I also enjoyed that it is “by means of this relationship and union we begin our Christian life, a life of holiness, a holy life for the church life.”
I appreciated that we should first love God, and this love will cause us to labour in serving Him. Lord Jesus we love you and we give our heart to You. Thank You for being our objective faith and also being our subjective faith, You are the source of everything. Praise You Lord for opening Your word to us.
Do you realize what happens when God is ministered to a person through the word? It becomes faith within him when that person receives the word. Through such a faith that person is regenerated. This is the beginning of the Christian life, a life of holiness, a holy life for the church life.
The work of faith is our daily action as believers toward Faith.
The labor of Love is to serve Him as the living God. Our living God speaks to us all the time. Whatever God speaks in us, we need to follow Him. This is not easy because we always struggle in obeying Him. It is a labor. This service requires our love toward God. It is this love that causes us to labor in serving Him.
With endurance of hope, we are waiting for the coming back of the Son of God.
Faith is not a matter of trying to believe something that we are not able to believe. Whenever you preach the gospel, do not force anyone to believe. Instead, present the Triune God as the One most dear, precious, and valuable. When others hear the presentation of such an attractive One, they will appreciate what you are saying and receive your word. The word they accept will then become their faith. This is what it means to believe.
I enjoyed that: “Faith is not a matter of trying to believe something that we are not able to believe. Whenever you preach the gospel, do not force anyone to believe. Instead, present the Triune God as the One most dear, precious, and valuable. When others hear the presentation of such an attractive One, they will appreciate what you are saying and receive your word. The word they accept will then become their faith. This is what it means to believe.”
Amen . The Triune God is embodied in the word. I just realized once this word is accepted and declared by us it becomes our faith And this faith is the works of faith. In other words, faith has actions that is to sanctify us for the church life. Hallelujah!
“The work of faith includes all the actions that issue out of our living faith. This includes our relationship with others and all our behavior.”
“It is not the performing of a certain task or the doing of certain good deeds to help others. No, it is our daily action as believers, the action that is a product of faith.”
During some fellowship with an older sister, the sister declared to me that we are a people of faith, that we are believers. Praise the Lord! as we hear the Word and appreciate and receive it this produces faith in us. As this faith operates in us, causing us to turn from idols to God, this faith works — not by my performing, but by faith’s outworking. This causes me to behave and conduct myself differently. God is announced.
The work of faith is the foundation. From faith’s work develops love. Due to our love for the Lord there is a serving the living God which is a labor. This brings in our hope, and enduring hope, in the Lord’s return. The holy life for the church life isn’t through blood, sweat, and tears. Rather it is by faith, love, and hope.
I was impressed that the work of faith, labor of love, and endurance of hope, corresponds to turning to God from idols, serving a living and true God, and waiting for the Lord’s coming. We need the work of faith to turn to God from idols, the labor of love to serve a living and true God, and the endurance of hope to wait for the Lord’s Coming. PTL
We enjoyed seeing that the word that we receive and sound out becomes the faith that also goes out. The emphasis here is not merely receiving but also sounding out!
We also saw how faith in us produces a certain kind of work in our daily living, and it’s related to our turning away from idols. From that we have the labor of love related to our serving the living God. We love Him therefore we serve Him.
O Lord Jesus, You are so precious!
The Content of the Proper Gospel:
” A Gospel that is the divine word embodying the Triune God and telling us what the Father has done, what the Son has done, and what the Spirit is doing.”
When someone believes this word and accepts it, it becomes faith within Him.
Amen! The Triune God embodied in the Word is the Gospel we received and accepted when we were saved. This is the Gospel that came to us in word, in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance! Let us declare the Gospel to everyone!
“What shall we do? We should go and tell the world of this!!”