The BIG Picture (Q&A)

In the dispensation of Grace, God has changed a lot of the details of life, or the rules of living, as opposed to those for Israel under the law. We do not live in the law dispensation, so we cannot expect to experience life in the same way that we read in the Old Testament or the Gospels. We also cannot expect God to respond to us today as He did in the old ways under the law. Where the old ways of law were focused on the external , the way of grace today puts focus on the internal .   Under the old law dispensation, Jews required signs (1 Cor.1:22), God's glory was present behind a veil in a stone temple, signs and miracles were visible in the natural realm, bodies were healed, prison doors were opened, etc. In other words, the focus was on the physical because God was working according to the rules of life defined under this old law dispensation. Today, the rules of the grace dispensation do not focus greatly on the physical and the exte...

In 2 Corinthians 11:23-28, Paul list out a string of sufferings and hardships that he had to endure for the sake of spreading the gospel to the Gentiles. You and I today will probably not be subjected to such a troublesome list as we must bear in mind that it was determined upon Paul to suffer for the name of Christ. It was a necessity of his calling and required according to his ministry and destiny. Acts 9:16 For I [the Lord] will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. We will all however face challenges throughout our lives; small daily problems that remind us of our reliance on Christ to large trials that build up over a period of time and buffet our resolve and our faith. These are part of life, and they come to us because we belong to a sinful human race and we live in an imperfect world controlled by principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places, (Ephesians 6:12).  Paul, our apostle who we know ha...