Review this material on a monthly basis, and if you wish, tell a friend about it. Additional lessons will be added to this series in the future.

Transcription

1 Thank you for requesting this additional Bible study material. It is my privilege to supply you with accurate and in-depth information. The Christian life requires execution (II Timothy 2:15) and that is only possible when we understand what God has provided for us and what He expects from us. Go slowly as you study this material. Write down the starred (*) verses, using the corrected translations provided in the back of this packet. If you see a word you don t understand, go the the Directory of Terms provided with this packet and in the back of Practicing Your Christianity (PAC). I m always glad to answer your questions if you want to send me a note. Review this material on a monthly basis, and if you wish, tell a friend about it. Additional lessons will be added to this series in the future. Before you begin, be sure to use the #1 problem-solving device God has provided for us Rebound. Rebound means simply naming your know sins to God (I John 1:9) so that you do not quench (I Thessalonians 5:19) and grieve (Ephesians 4:30) the Holy Spirit. If you attempt to study Bible doctrine with known sin present in your life, you will gain only human understanding because the Holy Spirit will not be able to do His job. He was sent by Jesus to be your mentor (John 16:7-11) and coach. Paul said we must be filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). This is only accomplished when we name our know sins to God. The term carnality means being out of fellowship with God and under the control of the sinful nature. The term spirituality means being filled by the Holy Spirit and being controlled by Him. The term maturity means staying filled with the Holy Spirit on a consistent basis and executing the spiritual life to the maximum glory of God. I pray you will maintain your spirituality each day and grow (II Peter 3:18) to maturity as quickly as possible. My prayer is that God will use you as an effective witness (Acts 1:8) in this stage of the angelic conflict and that you will have the greatest joy (John 15:11) possible through occupation with Christ. (Galatians 2:20) Now, get going! (and read those verses I identified above) Rick Hughes 1

2 Set 1, Lesson 1 WHO IS GOD? In order to love God, you must learn Who and What God is. The day you fall in love with God will be the best day of your life! In order to understand God, you need to know some basic principles about Him. God exists and has always existed. God had no beginning and will never have an end. God can t tempt, be tempted, or sin. God gave you physical and soul life. God loves you with a perfect love that will never change. God has a plan and purpose for your life, and only perfect God could create a perfect plan specially designed for you. God wants you to know that plan and fulfill it so that He can bless you to the maximum. God gave you the blueprint for His plan in the Bible in its original languages. There is one true God. He is a Person and exists in three unique Persons. God the Father God the Son God the Holy Spirit II Corinthians 13:14 (Please write out any verses which are starred*. You will find accurate translations on a separate sheet.) The Trinity is a technical theological word that means that God is one in essence (in His character) but three equal, infinite, and eternal Persons. *Isaiah 48:16 Let s use two examples to explain this difficult -to-understand concept. A simple example is an egg. When you look at an egg, you see a shell, but an egg is actually composed of three distinct parts: The shell, white and yolk. An egg is one unit with three parts, each totally different from the others but all necessary to form the egg. God is one in essence, but three distinct Persons form the Trinity. Light is a more complex example of the Trinity and one which can be more closely related to it. The components of light are analogous to the three Persons of the Trinity who are combined in one essence. When you look at a light, you see merely a glow that illuminates an area, but light is actually composed of three distinct units. Without each of these units, light would not exist. Actinic is neither seen nor felt and, therefore, is like God the Father. Calorific (heat) is not seen but felt and, therefore, is like God the Holy Spirit, who fills you and guides you when you have no unconfessed sin in your life. Luminiferous is both seen and felt and, therefore, is like God the Son, who came to earth as Man. *I John 1:5 Through these examples, you can begin to understand the concept of the Trinity; God is one in essence but three distinct Persons. In the Bible in order to make this distinction, the Hebrew language of the Old Testament primarily uses two different nam es for God. The plural noun Elohim implies that God is several Persons in One. (Genesis 1:26, 3:22) The singular noun JHWH (Adonai, Jahweh, or Jehovah), which means self -existing One, is used to distinguish between the Persons of the Trinity and always e mphasizes one particular person in the Trinity, usually God the Son. ( Practicing Your Christianity PAC, p. 6, has a more detailed explanation of the languages of the Bible.) 2

3 THE INTEGRITY/LOVE OF GOD God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit e ach have the same identical integrity/love, a divine policy established on certain immutable standards, including righteousness, justice, grace, omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, immutability, veracity, sovereignty, and eternal life. The integrity of God is the same as the love of God. God s love is eternal and the whole of His integrity. His love and integrity each have the same components. LOVE (equal to His integrity) God always has been and always will be perfect love. *I John 4:8 God s love can never be compromised, diminished or limited, regardless of how you fail or how you succeed. Even God s pre - knowledge of your sins didn t affect His love for you. He has always known your sins, but still He sent Jesus Christ to the Cross where He suffered horribly and died spiritually as a substitute for you. God s love can t be bought by your good behavior or lessened by your poor behavior. God loves the unbeliever as much as He loves the believer even though the unbeliever has rejected His love. God loves all believers with personal love because every believer is given the righteousness of God at salvation; therefore, God loves carnal and spiritual believers equally. Do not think that God doesn t love you because you sinned and shocked yourself. This thinking leads to guilt, one of the worst possible sins. God loves the unbeliever with impersonal love, not personal love, because the unbeliever doesn t have divine righteousness. God s love for every member of the human race cannot change. God must always act in accordance with His abs olute love, whether in blessing you or punishing you. If His integrity requires the punishment of sin, God is not free to disregard or omit that punishment. You can know with absolute confidence that God will always love you with a perfect love regardless of what you do or don t do. Only God can love you the way you ought to be loved. Love isn t an emotion but a demonstration of thought. The combination of integrity and divine love is the foundation for everything God does and everything God is. INTEGRITY (equal to His love) In human terms, integrity is defined as adherence to moral and ethical principles and is used to describe a good person. But this definition is inadequate in describing the integrity of God. God is perfect in every way. He always does a right thing in a right way. (PAC, pp ) His perfection will never change, neither increasing nor decreasing. God has always been absolute integrity, and He always will be. (Exodus 15:11, 19:10-16; Isaiah 6:3) His perfection is reflected in all of His attributes, but Biblical integrity from the source of God is best understood by the Biblical doctrine of the love of God. God's integrity is maintained by His will and is an integral part of His unchangeable self. Emotion is not part of God s integrity. Don t try to humanize God and make Him subject to emotion. 3

4 God s integrity/love has ten components: Righteousness, justice, grace, omniscien veracity, sovereignty, and eternal life. ce, omnipotence, omnipresence, immutability, 1. RIGHTEOUSNESS (a component of God s integrity/love) Divine righteousness (+R) is the principle and standard that approves or disapproves your thoughts, words and deed s. Divine perfect righteousness (+R) functions under divine integrity/love. God is perfect righteousness (+R); therefore, His integrity/love demands perfect righteousness (+R) from you. Since God is righteous (+R) all of the time, He is always fair. God ca nnot love personally that which is not perfect. In grace God provides through salvation all that He demands; at the moment of salvation, every believer receives God s perfect righteousness (+R) as his very own. Because you have that righteousness (+R), you become a permanent member of God s family and are accepted for future permanent residence in heaven. His perfect righteousness (+R) demands that you have Bible doctrine in your soul so that you can understand His essence. *Psalm 97:2 *Isaiah 64:6 Righteousness produced by the unbeliever or by the carnal believer is called R and is always unacceptable to God. (Isaiah 64:6) What the righteousness of God (+R) condemns, the justice of God punishe s but always in the love of God so that the divine solution comes through the grace of God. What the righteousness of God (+R) approves, the justice of God blesses through the grace of God, namely the fullness of blessing from God as a love gift to the believer. God's judgments are perfect because they come from His perfect righteousness (+R). God is not only absolute good in contrast to the policy of Satan which is absolute evil, but He is also justice and righteousness (+R). 2. JUSTICE (a component of God s integrity/love) (PAC, pp ) Perfect righteousness and justice always go together. (Deuteronomy 32:4; Job 37:23; Psalm 19:9, 50:6, 58:11, 89:14; Romans 3:26, 12:3; Hebrews 10:30-31) In perfect righteousness, divine love exi sts; but in perfect justice, divine love is expressed. The justice of God is the source of punishment or blessing, administering whichever one His perfect righteousness demands. In justice God s hatred for sin is revealed. Justice demands justice. As long as God is what He is, as long as His integrity/love is perfect (and it always will be), He must demand integrity from all mankind and punish both sin and evil. Unchangeable sin and evil always bring unchangeable condemnation and judgment. His penalties for sin and evil are not vindictive but vindicating to His essence and person. God is always fair. It is impossible for God to be unfair. Divine justice is portrayed in salvation through each person s acceptance or rejection of God s plan. Sin isn t the issue in salvation; justice is. Because of Christ s propitiation of every one of our sins on the Cross, God s justice is free to pardon and justify any member of sinful humanity who believes in Christ. God s justice prevailed at the cross and will again prevail at the Last Judgment. Every member of the human race receives divine justice sooner or later: Sooner by believing in Christ, later by spending eternity in excruciating pain in the Lake of Fire. (PAC, pp 7-8) *Psalm 89:14 Psalm 23:1 When you are disciplined by God for unconfessed sins, the justice of God administers the discipline because God loves you and wants you back in fellowship with Him. 4

5 3. GRACE (a component of God s integrity/love) Grace is the limitless bounty of God toward man, freely given and undeserved. Grace is connected with merit only in that the believer receives it because of the merit of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Grace is before you, behind you, above you, and beneath you. The arms of God are always ready to catch you. Grace is infinite love by God toward all mankind and the expression of divine personal love toward the believer. God contacts you through His grace, whether in pun ishment or blessing, both of which are done for your benefit. God gives you His perfect grace with the hope that you will utilize it to the greatest advantage. Grace is all that God is free to do for mankind on the basis of the Cross, including salvation (PAC, pp. 9-10) and, for the Christian, tremendous blessings both on earth and in Heaven (PAC, p. 21). These grace gifts become yours only if you accept God s protocol for receiving them: Executing the spiritual life. If the grace of God is understood by th e believer filled with the Holy Spirit, that believer has advanced in the spiritual life motivated by reciprocal love. When the grace of God is expressed to the carnal believer, that believer is punished by the love of God. (Hebrews 12:6) When the grace of God is expressed to the believer in rebound, that believer resumes the spiritual life after sin and failure. When the grace of God has resumed on the high ground of PLEROMA, that believer goes on to maximum glorification of God. *Romans 3:24 *Psalm 31:7 God s love for you is expressed in grace. Your love for God is expressed in gratitude. The grace of God can t be repaid, but the divine love that sponsored grace can be returned. This reciprocation of God s love is called reciprocal love and is the motivation for executing the spiritual life. Grace is the policy of divine love toward you. You re saved by grace, you live in grace, and you will die with grace by your side. 4. OMNISCIENCE (a component of God s integrity/love) Omniscience means that God knows perfectly and eternally all that is knowable, whether actual or possible. (Psalm 33:13-15, 139:2, 147:4; Matthew 6:8, 10 :29-30; Hebrews 4:3; Acts 15:8) Omniscience describes God s attribute of complete and simultaneous knowledge of all things, including what actually occurs in all past, present and future events plus what could have happened had we made different decisions. Divine knowledge is eternal (Acts 15:18), incomprehensible (Romans 11:33), and wise (Ephesians 3:10). Every detail of creation and history is in God's mind at all times. Therefore, the future is as clearly knowable to God as the past. But God's foreknowle dge of the future is not predetermination. He foreknows the decisions of every person but never interferes with anyone s volition (free will). He may influence a believer s choice by the gracious giving of Bible doctrine, but He never coerces positive volition either toward salvation or toward Bible doctrine. (PAC, pp 2-3) *Psalm 33:13-15 God knows everything about you your past, present, and future. And He still loves you with a perfect love that will never change. 5. OMNIPOTENCE (a component of God s integrity/love) Omnipotence means that God is all -powerful, infinitely able to do all things as long as they are compatible with His holy essence. God can do all He wills to do, but He may not will to do all He can. He will not make right wrong, nor will He act foolishly. (Isaiah 44:24; II Corinthians 4:6; Ephesians 1:19-21, 3:20; Hebrews 1:3) He will not abuse His power or co mpromise His justice. Each member of the 5

6 Trinity uses His omnipotence in a special way. The omnipotence of God the Father is related to the believer s portfolio of invisible assets. (PAC, pp ) The omnipotence of God the Son is related to the preserva tion and perpetuation of human history, so that neither the earth nor the people on the earth can be destroyed until the end of human history. The omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit is the power for learning Bible doctrine and then living the spiritual lif e. (PAC, pp ) The power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is available to every Church Age believer for the execution of the spiritual life. Further, through His power, God keeps you alive until the perfect moment for your death. As long as you are alive, God has a plan for you, and you can harness His power through the filling of the Holy Spirit in order to execute His plan. *Isaiah 44:24 God s power is available to you 24/7 through faith. God in His omniscience knows simultaneously and eternally every circumstance and situation of life while God in His omnipresence is a witness to every situation and every circumstance of history as it occurs. 6. OMNIPRESENCE (a component of God s integrity/love) Omnipresence means that God, in His eternal and infinite essence, is personally present eve rywhere. (Deuteronomy 4:39; Isaiah 66:1) God penetrates and fills the universe. (Psalm 139:7-8; Jeremiah 23:23-24; Acts 17:27) Omnipresence means that God's life is from within Himself, having neither beginning nor end. God created space with its billions of light years. Therefore, divine omnipresence is both in space and in time and totally outside of space and time. If space and time were defined in terms of boundaries, God would exceed them to the point of infinity. God is above and beyond all space and fills everything beyond space. God is free to be on Mount Sinai with Moses and at the same time to be present in all places. God is free to become flesh and dwell among you. (John 1:14) God in His deity dwells in three places: The universe, the third heave n, and the body of every Church Age believer. (John 14:23; Ephesians 4:6; II John 9; Philippians 2:13) God dwells in the heavens, which include the earth and the atmosphere around the earth, the stellar universe including the planets, and the third heaven which is outside of the universe. The Father indwells each believer as the Author of your portfolio of invisible assets, Grantor of the escrow blessings, and Mastermind of the protocol plan. Christ indwells the body of every Church Age believer as the Shekinah Glory to guarantee blessing to the believer and as the Guarantee of eternal security. (John 14:30; 17:22-23; Romans 8:10; II Corinthians 13:5; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 1:27; I John 2:24) The Holy Spirit indwells you to make your body a temple for th e indwelling of Jesus Christ as the Shekinah Glory, as well as to provide a power base for your spiritual life. (Romans 8:11; I Corinthians 3:16; 6:19-20; II Corinthians 6:16) *Jeremiah 23:24 God is with you and in you. The same is true for every Christian, regardless of his geographical location. 7. IMMUTABILITY (a component of God s integrity/love) Immutability means that God is unchanging. (Psalm 102:27; Malachi 3:6; James 1:17) He can t change. He can t ever be better or worse than the perfect Person He always has been and always will be. Immutability means that God uses His power in a manner con sistent with His person and integrity/love; therefore, His policies and acts are never arbitrary. They are never conditioned on human responses. They are totally compatible with His plan and His purpose. The immutability of God is demonstrated by His person and His Word. *Matthew 24:35 The immutability of God's character means that God never loses His integrity or lets others down. *James 1:17 6

7 Some believers don t understand God s immutability because they misunderstand anthropomorphic representations of God in the Bible. God doesn't hate, get angry, change His mind, have hands or eyes. These words represent in terms man can understand the perfect attitude of God toward variations in man or history. When man changes. God seems to change, but in reality God remains consistent with His own unchanging essence. While God remains consistent (immutable), He handles different things in different ways consistent with His immutable integrity. This concept can be illustrated by a weather vane, which changes direct ion depending on the direction of the wind, yet remains anchored in the same place. God s essence is anchored in His immutability. "Repent," a translation of the Greek word METANOEO, meaning a change of mind, is sometimes used to refer to God. (Exodus 32:14; Genesis 6:6; I Samuel 15:35; Psalm 90:13; Jeremiah 15:6, 26:3) This translation seems to deny the immutability principle, but in fact this is an anthropopathism which ascribes to God a human characteristic which He does not actually possess. Such concepts are used to explain divine policies, which are beyond our mortal comprehension, in simple terms of human frame of reference. They do not really describe Who and What God is. *Psalm 33:11 *Malachi 3:6 *Hebrews 13:8 God is never moody. He will never treat you differently from day to day. 8. VERACITY (a component of God s integrity/love) Veracity means that God is absolute truth; therefore, you can believe everything God tells you in His Word in the original languages. His veracity guarantees the genuineness of the Word of God. (Deuteronomy 32:4; I John 5:20; John 6: 32, 15:1; Hebrews 8:2) Bible doctrine, called truth in the Bible, is the expression of His integrity. God is not merely true toward other persons, but He is true to His own essence. Man says, "I speak the truth, but God says, "I am the Truth." (John 14: 6) God has been truth from eternity past and will always be truth. God's truth is directed toward Himself and revealed to the believer in His Word, the Bible. In God every truth in every form of knowledge dwells in absoluteness. *I John 5:20 God never lies to you. He is incapable of lying. He is God. 9. SOVEREIGNTY (a component of God s integrity/love) Sovereignty is God's absolute authority over everything, including both possible occurrences and actual occurrences. Over possible events, God is sovereign in that He either leaves them as only possibilities and not actual events, or He has destined them to occur yet in the future. In relation to actual events, God is the final and absolute authority. (Psalm 145:14; Matthew 20:15; I Timothy 6:15) God isn't responsible to anyone. However, His sovereignty is res tricted by His own perfection; God is compelled to discipline the carnal believer, just as He is compelled to reward and bless the believer who has maximum Bible doctrine in his soul. The authority of God over creatures rests on three facts: First, God is the Creator of all things, and His authority extends to every creature and to all things. The Creator has absolute and sovereign ownership of all things. The cattle, gold, and silver, everything, all belong to God (Psalm 50:10) even though men recognize am ong themselves the private ownership of property. Second, through redemption God has purchased you through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. Therefore, He has authority over all those who are in union with Christ as well as over all those who have not re cognized Christ as their Savior because Christ provided redemption for all mankind. Third, the authority of God is related to the amount of Bible doctrine in the believer s soul. The more metabolized doctrine a believer has in his soul, the more he recognizes God s authority over him. *I Timothy 6:15 7

8 Because God is sovereign, He is worthy of worship and service. 10. ETERNAL LIFE (a component of God s integrity/love) Eternal life is the attribute of God that describes His absolute existence outside the boundaries of time. God s eternal life had no beginning and will have no end. God does not possess eternal life. He is life. God s own life, eternal life, is imputed to the believer at salvation and becomes an everlasting relationship with God reserved in Heaven for every person at the moment of faith in Jesus Chr ist. Everyone s soul will exist forever, but only believers will spend eternity in Heaven, a place of perfect peace and happiness. Believers will live forever in a resurrection body. Unbelievers will live forever in the Lake of Fire, in some kind of body, suffering horribly. Eternal life in Heaven is a gift of God through faith in Jesus Christ as Savior. *Deuteronomy 33:27a God has always existed and will always exist. As a member of His family, you will be perfectly cared for by Him forever. 8

9 Set 1, Lesson 1 WHO IS GOD? Question and Answer Sheet 1. Where can you find the blueprint for God s plan for you? 2. How can you come to know God? 3. Knowing God means knowing how many Persons? Please list them. 4. What must you do to receive God s love? 5. Is there anyone God does not love? 6. List and briefly describe the ten components of the integrity/love of God. 7. Name the policy of divine love for you. 8. What component of the integrity/love of God disciplines you when you sin and don t rebound? 9. What members of the Trinity indwell the believer? For what purposes? 10. Why should the doctrine of God s immutability comfort you about your salvation? 11. How do you know that the Bible in the original languages of Greek and Hebrew is accurate? 12. How is God s eternal life different from yours? 13. Where will unbelievers spend eternity? 14. Why will you not be there? Your name Your Address Please send this completed answer sheet (using the back or other sheets of paper if necessary) to Rick Hughes PO Box 100 Cropwell, Alabama I will respond as soon as possible and send this sheet back to you with additional comments. 9

10 Set 1, Lesson 1 CORRECT TRANSLATIONS OF VERSES Deuteronomy 33:27 The eternal God is our refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. Psalm 23:1 [This psalm is the testimony of anyone who reaches the high ground of the spiritual life: PLEROMA.] The Lord is the one who keeps on shepherding me [God s grace policy through eternity]. Therefore, I can t lack anything. Psalm 31:7 I will rejoice and be happy in Your grace. [Happiness is maximum orientation to the grace of God.] Psalm 33:11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever, and the thoughts of His right lobe remain from generation to generation. Psalm 33:13-15 The Lord looks from heaven. He watches everyone on the earth. From the place of His throne, He looks on all the people of the earth. He reads their minds and considers all their deeds. Psalm 89:14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne [the throne of God]. Steadfast love [unfailing love] and truth [Bible doctrine] advance before you. [This verse summarizes the doctrine of reciprocity. God has absolute integrity/love. He has never made a mistake about anything. When we violate the essence of God, He doesn t take it lightly, and we are punished. God s justice always gives us a fair shake because He punishes us in love; therefore, there is blessi ng in punishment. Doctrine and love advance simultaneously and are the superstructures of the spiritual life.] Psalm 97:2 Clouds and darkness are round about Him [Jesus Christ in this world]. Righteousness and justice are the habitation of His throne. Isaiah 44:24 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer and the One who formed [created] you [your human life] from outside of [after leaving] the womb, I, the Lord, am the Maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by Myself and spreading out the earth all alone. Isaiah 48:16 Come [Israel] near to Me. Listen to this: From the first I have not spoken in secret. From the time it took place, I was there. And now the Lord God [God the Father] has sent Me [God the Son, Jesus Christ] and His Spirit [God the Holy S pirit]. [This verse emphasizes the oneness and equality of the Trinity.] Isaiah 64:6 For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteousnesses [human good deeds] are as contaminated as filthy rags. [No matter how good a man may be, hi s human righteousness is completely unacceptable to God.] And we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. [Unbelievers who have rejected God s grace provision for salvation must face the alternative to grace, which is a lways judgment. They will be brought before the Great White Throne where they will be judged not for their sins which were already judged on the cross but for their good deeds, which are as valuable as filthy rags. Revelation 20:11-15.] Jeremiah 23:24 Ca n anyone hide himself in secret places where I shall not see him? says the Lord. Don t I fill heaven and earth? [God is ever-present. He is not limited by time or space. He is both immanent and transcendent.] Malachi 3:6 For I am the Lord. I change not. Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away. Romans 3:24 We are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. [A justified person is someone who is vindicated in the eyes of God, ther efore, someone who has perfect righteousness. We attain perfect righteousness through the instrumentality of Jesus Christ s grace on the Cross. He paid for our freedom from the Slave Market of Sin. Justification is based on the doctrinal principle of grace.] II Corinthians 13:14 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ [the spiritual life] and the [personal] love of God [the Father] and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. Amen. [These were Paul s last written words to the Corinthians. This vers e gives the function of each member of the Trinity in relationship to believers. Through grace Jesus Christ died on the Cross and gave us His spiritual life. 10

11 Grace is part of the whole of the love of God. The filling of the Holy Spirit is the power of the spiritual life. The believer needs all three. Every member of the Trinity has a relationship with us in the spiritual life.] I Timothy 6:15-16a Which [the Rapture] He [Jesus Christ] will bring about at the proper time, He who is the blessed [happiness fro m God] and only Sovereign, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who alone possesses immortality. [We can do nothing to hasten the resurrection of the Church at the Rapture (Exit Resurrection). It will come when the Church Age is complete. Jesus Christ is K ing of Kings and Lord of Lords now, but He won t be revealed as such until the Second Advent. Usually, as power increases, happiness decreases; however, Jesus Christ is described in His deity as having perfect happiness related to His divine essence.] Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ: the same yesterday, today, and forever. [God has never varied in the least since eternity past, and He will never change even slightly through all eternity future. The Being of God is unalterable, absolute, totally consistent.] James 1:17:17 Every good gift [the grace gifts of God, either spiritual or material] and every perfect gift [the completed gift which is built on other gifts and so may be in varying states of completion: Bible doctrine, a completed canon of Scripture, a spir itual IQ, a human spirit, a pastor/teacher] is from above and comes down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither shifting shadow. [God has not left us in the dark; He is the Source of light in the soul. In order to have light, we must make decisions daily to take in the Word. God never changes. In the essence of God, there is no variation or shifting shadow. ] I John 1:5 This then is the message [the Word of God] which we have heard of Him and declare to you, that God is lig ht [glorious a statement of His essence] and in Him is no darkness [evil or sin] at all. [God is light in the sense of His divine integrity/love essence: sovereignty, righteousness, justice, grace, eternal life, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immu tability and veracity. Darkness is the essence of man because of sin. Just as light and darkness are incompatible so also are the holiness of God and sin.] I John 5:20 We have learned that the Son of God has come [the First Advent], and He has given us th e faculty for spiritual perception in order that we may know the True One and that we are in Him [positional sanctification], who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This One is the true God and eternal life. [Sin can t exist in positional sanctification and ultimate sanctification. Sin is expressed by the believer in experiential sanctification because he has free will.] 11

12 SPECIAL PSALM FOR STUDY PSALM 23 Psalm 23 is the testimony of David, a mature believer who had reached the high ground of the spiritual life: PLEROMA. It can be our testimony if we study Bible doctrine consistently under a pastor -teacher who knows the original languages of the Bible and if we are motivated to learn about God by reciprocal love for God. (PAC, pp ) Psalm 23:1 The Lord is the One who keeps on shepherding me [grace policy through eternity]. Therefore, I can t lack anything. :2 He causes me [any spiritual believer] to lie down in pastures of choice grass. He leads me to waters of refreshment. [When applied, the Word of God provides spiritual cleansing which makes bitter experiences sweet and brings rest and refreshment.] :3 He restores my soul [through the rebound technique]. He guides me in the wagon tracks made by the wheels of His righteousness. [He establishes a path for forward advance toward the high ground of the spiritual life maximum glorification of God and PLEROMA.] He rescues me because of His integrity. :4 In addition to this, when I walk in a death -shadowed valley [the period of time when you are dying: dying grace], I cannot fear evil [the harm of death: misery, pain, adversity associated with some of the ways in which people die] because You [the Lord Jesus Christ] walk with me [the mature believer] ; Your rod [discipline] and Your staff [deliverance and blessing through rebound] they comfort me. [Because of inner happiness and inner peace gained through the study of Bible doctrine, as a mature believer you have no room for fear. God has promised to go through the valley of the shadow of death with you. The Lor d walks every mature believer across the bridge from time to eternity. For the mature believer the time of dying will be a period of great happiness and peace, of power and blessing. We each have the blessings of our death shadowed valley. Evil can t touch us because we understand the integrity of God. God pours blessings into our cup because of His integrity. God s timing is perfect. God s love toward us never changes. No instrument of fear or death can take us from this life apart from God s timing.] :5 You have prepared before me a table in the presence of my enemies [the blessing and prosperity of spiritual maturity through utilization of the problem-solving-devices]; You have anointed my head with oil [security of supergrace blessings]. :6 My cup [of blessings] is overflowing. [David s impact overflowed to those around him. He had invisible impact through blessing by association. All mature believers do.] No doubt about it, only prosperity, reciprocal love, and grace in action [mercy] shall pursue me all the days of my life [both in living and dying,], and I will remain in the house of the Lord forever [in heaven for eternity]. [When God blesses, those blessings are permanent. When you reach spiritual maturity, you have the capacity to enjoy everything Go d gives you. When you arrive at that place in life, God will be well -pleased because God is glorified in blessing you. David, the author of this psalm, was blessed with fantastic blessings because he understood and utilized reciprocal love. Such a believer has no fear of either life or death because he has absolute confidence in God s absolute love for him. David s spiritual maturity was the reason David s cup overflowed. Note that David s cup of blessings was not merely kept filled but overflowed. David s cup overflowed because he learned from his punishment and learned from God s Word. If David hadn t been punished, he would have remained in carnality and would never have been able to write this psalm. The integrity of God blessed David through His righteo usness. The integrity of God punished David through His justice. This psalm doesn t say that righteousness and justice will pursue David all the days of his life but that love will pursue him. The unfailing love of God is the entirety of God s essence and includes all of the attributes of God, including righteousness and justice. David continued learning doctrine and eventually reached the point of having the love of God pursue him. He couldn t have reached spiritual maturity without rebound. There is bless ing in punishment. However, the less time spent in sin the better. Rebound. Rebound. Rebound as soon as you realize you have sinned.] (PAC, pp ) 12