Study Shelf Videos (2025)

19/10/2025

Rule and Reconciliation of Celestial Hosts

Just as Israel will have two functions in the kingdom, so it will be with us.

They will not only rule, but reconcile. They will be priests as well as potentates. Then it is that “the great commission,” found at the close of the Kingdom evangel (Matthew 28:19), will be fulfilled. They will make disciples of all nations and teach them in the ways of Jehovah.

The complement of this will be our principal privilege among the Celestial hosts. Not merely to rule them by the power of God, but to win their hearts by the grace and love of God, of which we are the principal objects and examples.

— A.E. Knoch (1874-1965)

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18/10/2025

Faith’s Adventure

Now to Him Who is able to do superexcessively above all that we are requesting or apprehending, according to the power that is operating in us, to Him be the glory in the ecclesia and in Christ Jesus for all the generations of the eon of the eons! Amen! (Ephesians 3:20-21).

Life is an adventure; and so much more so for the believer. God’s life in us produces a lifetime of adventure. God is at work in the seemingly monotonous and meaningless aspects of life – even more so, in our failures, in our weaknesses, in our inadequacies, in our insufficiencies. In the middle of all of this God has chosen to live out His life “in us” – Divine life within (what appears to be) the confines of mere human existence.

Now such is the confidence we have through Christ toward God (not that we are competent of ourselves, to reckon anything as of ourselves, but our competency is of God) (II Corinthians 3:4-5).

God’s sufficiency turns the ordinary into the extraordinary; not always by the change of the circumstances – but always by the presence of His life “in us.” Every day can be lived in expectancy from God, the “power that is operating in us.”

What a thrill to be a part of the Divine ministry of our Father. To be privileged to anticipate with great excitement the future that He has in store for us, both in this present evil age, and in the glorious ages to come!

That, in the oncoming eons, He should be displaying the transcendent riches of His grace in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:7).

— Clyde Pilkington

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17/10/2025

Showcasing God’s Grace, Strength and Glory

This world, with all of its glitz and counterfeit glory, is fading fast (I Corinthians 7:31)

Its wealth, its power players, its proudest minds – they’re not part of God’s end plan. In fact, God is intentionally setting them aside.

Instead, He’s chosen something better: you. Not because you’re mighty or impressive by the world’s standards, but because you’re not. God deliberately selects the weak, the overlooked, and even the despised to carry out His purposes. Why? So that no one can brag or take credit. It’s all about showcasing His grace, His strength, His glory (I Corinthians 1:26-29).

— Mark D. Vogt

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16/10/2025

Containers … and More

There is really only One Person in the Universe – God Himself. The creation is the means of manifesting Him

We humans are basically containers, created as persons in His image, to contain and manifest Him as The Person. God is the “All,” and we are merely the means of His Self-manifestation.

We are vessels, and activity is not the function of a vessel. Do we see what this means? Not that we have a life to live with God as our helper. Not that we must pray more, give more, love more, witness more. Not basically that we are God’s partners, or fellows, or co-workers, but that God Himself is the “All” in us. He is the One Who prays, gives, loves, witnesses. He lives our life, our common everyday life.

But, having absorbed and accepted that we are containers, we are more. We are united to Him Whom we contain in a way a vessel can never be united to what it contains. We are also Christ’s Body. A body is solely the agent of its head. In head and body, activity of the members comes to the forefront. A body is made for action. A head is useless without a body, so the Body in Ephesians is specifically spoken of as the fullness [plērōma] of the Head – “the fulness of Him that filleth all in all” (1:23). Head and Body are necessary to each other.

Norman P. Grubb (1895-1993)
God Unlimited

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15/10/2025

The Cosmic Audience

Just as with the plagues in Egypt, the message of the sacrificial system wasn’t only for humanity – it broadcast a lesson to the entire spiritual realm: sin and death will not have the last word.

Every drop of innocent blood spilled in obedience to God was a declaration of His ultimate plan – a plan that would culminate in a Sacrifice so pure, so complete, that it would end the need for all others.

— Stephen Hill

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14/10/2025

The True Number of Believers

It has not been revealed to us what percentage of the professing ecclesia are also members of the genuine ecclesia.

It is likely that the true number of the members of the ecclesia is much larger than supposed by some, while remaining much smaller even so than presumed by many. Beyond this, we ourselves have no opinion here; for to say any more would be to be disposed above what is written (cf. I Corinthians 4:6).

Indeed, faith can be feigned (i.e., “simulated”; cf. I Corinthians 15:3), not genuine; even so, this is not to say that in any certain case we may know that it is. It is simply not our place or province to judge such matters, whether on an individual basis or on a global basis.

It is enough for us to confirm our own faith (cf. I Corinthians 1:23-25; I Thessalonians 4:14), and to be persuaded as well of the genuine faith of our close associates, ones who convince us thus accordingly (cf. II Timothy 1:5; I Timothy 1:2). The rest we may well leave to God (cf. II Timothy 2:16-19), being happy and content in so doing.

— James R. Coram (1946-2022)
Keeping the Unity of the Spirit, in the Midst of Confusion

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13/10/2025

Faith Comes from God – Not Arguments

Here’s a powerful truth: Faith is a gift.

Philippians 1:29 says that it’s been granted to us to believe. Romans 12:3 says that God gives each person the measure of faith. That means faith isn’t something we talk someone into – it’s something that God gives.

So instead of trying to prove God, we simply live as those who know Him. We reflect His truth, His love, and His grace (joy). We can talk about our faith, answer questions, and share what we believe – but we don’t argue to “win.” That’s not the point.

— Steve Martin / Mark D. Vogt

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12/10/2025

God Is Love

We are never told that God is justice, or God is power, or God is wisdom. These are His attributes, not His essence

The distinction is of vital import in the conflicting maze of reasoning concerning God’s ways and words. Justice and power and wisdom are relative, but love is absolute. He is never so just as when He justifies the unjust, for that is in line with His love. He is never so strong as when His weakness overpowers human strength, for that links it to love. He is never so wise as when His foolishness confounds the wisdom of men, for that glorifies love.

All of His attributes appear and withdraw at the beck of love. All serve it and never go counter to its commands. We cannot reason that God will do thus and so because He is just, or strong or wise. Love may not give leave. But we can safely lay our heads on the bosom of His love and there learn the great lesson that He is love, and has both the power and wisdom to carry out the dictates of His affection. What clearer proof can be given that all that He has done and is doing is leading up to that grand ultimate when He will be All in all, and love will rest in being loved?

— A.E. Knoch (1874-1965)
Concordant Commentary, page 371

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11/10/2025

The Most Precious Thing in All Thinking

I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of; for to have been born in God’s thought, and then made by God, is the dearest, grandest and most precious thing in all thinking.

— George MacDonald (1824-1905)
The Pulpit Treasury (1883)

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10/10/2025

Commencement – Continuation – Consummation

The Scriptures reveal a commencement with all out of God; a continuation with God over all; and a consummation with God All in all.

Out of Him and through Him and for Him is all (Romans 11:36).

God and Father of all, Who is over all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4:6).

Then comes the consummation … when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be All in all (I Corinthians 15:24-28).

This truth revolutionizes our conception of God. It throws light on the meaning and purpose of this trouble-filled life. It makes a new book out of the Bible.

— Unknown

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09/10/2025

All in Father’s Design

Father’s purpose in us is to awaken and enlighten us to the truth that this world and life are not our reality.

It is His way of reminding us of who we really are, and what we really are, in Christ as part of His grand design for the ages, that He has a wondrous plan, purpose and place for us against which the things of this life pale in comparison, about which Paul said that all of this life is really nothing compared to the “far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory …” (II Corinthians 4:15-18) which one day will be “revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).

Just think: One day Dad will use what the world sees as our pitiful imperfections – our brokenness, our divinely implanted flaws – as the display of His “abundant grace” (II Corinthians 4:15). Even in this life the outworking of death (“the dying of the Lord Jesus,” :10) in us has a glorious purpose: that the “life of Jesus might be manifested in our mortal bodies” which will eventually (and even now in some measure) “through the thanksgiving of many super-abound to the glory of God” (:15).

We read in :6 that God “commanded the light to shine out of darkness,” taking us back to Genesis, and in the same way God’s light “has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of His glory …” Imagine that! The same creative power of God that brought all of creation into existence is at work in us for the purpose of revealing “the light of the knowledge” of His Glory to the world around us, illuminating, as it were, “the face of Jesus Christ” to others!

When we read in :7 about “treasure in earthen vessels,” we are taken back to when God used just a very few of His people to defeat a huge army arrayed against Israel. These few had a light in earthen vessels, and then when the vessels were broken the light shone forth to reveal God’s awesome work. In the same way, God is working in His “not many” (I Corinthians 1:26) vessels of service; and it is in our brokenness that His light, “the light of the glorious gospel of Christ” (II Corinthians 4:4), shines forth to the world to reveal God’s awesome work!

This ministry spoken of in :1 is in the continuing context of chapter 3, and is a ministry of our being living, walking “epistles” (3:3), the purpose of which is to give “life” (:6). Our wonderful Father uses the troubles, perplexities, persecutions – all of the trials and tribulations of this life (4:8-9) – to deliver us to death, for the marvelous breaking of His vessels. Thus, while the world is busy attempting to show off their supposed superiority of supremacy, God ultimately reveals the futility of the “darkness” of their “blinded minds,” demonstrating the “excellency” of His power through us.

What a wonderful and glorious privilege and benefit it is for us that our Awesome Father has chosen us to use as weak, flawed, broken vessels in His service, so that ultimately the whole creation will see and understand the amazing knowledge and wisdom in all that He has done and said He will do.

Oh! the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Or who has first given to Him, and it shall be repaid to him again? For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to Whom be glory throughout the ages. Amen! (Romans 11:33-36).

— André Sneidar

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09/10/2025

The Firstfruits

… the firstfruits of Achaia … (Romans 16:5).

… firstfruits of His creatures (James 1:18).

… the firstfruits unto God … (Revelation 14:4).

In every harvest there is that small portion of the crop that matures early, before the vast majority of the rest. The firstfruits are a token of that which is to come – the full harvest.

Under the Old Testament economy the firstfruits belonged to God, and were holy unto Him.

In every generation, and in every place, God has had His firstfruits; those who come to harvest earlier than the rest. What a blessed privilege to be the firstfruits of the Lord; and just as God has brought us to faith, so He, too, will bring the rest of His creation.

— Clyde Pilkington

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Study Shelf Videos

19/10/2025

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17/10/2025

16/10/2025

15/10/2025

14/10/2025

13/10/2025

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