Joe: Hi everyone, welcome back to our discussion from Chapter 2 in Volume 2 of the
"Basic Elements of the Christian Life." In this segment we'll continue our discussion on
"A Simple Way to Touch the Lord." Michael, in order to begin our talk today, I'd like
to read a short segment from the book and ask a question that's here in the book.
So it says, "All this is indeed wonderful, the wonder of wonders, that Christ became
a man, accomplished redemption for us, became the Spirit and now has entered into us to
be our life and everything to us; but the question we must now raise is this: how can
we touch and experience Christ in a practical way as our very life moment by moment?"
Michael: Well, Joe, Paul gives us a wonderful answer in Romans chapter 10 verses 12b-13
which says that "The same Lord is Lord of all and rich to all who call upon His name.
For whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Now we may have the concept
or the thought that this just refers to our initial salvation, but if we check with our
experience we realize that every day we need to be saved from our sin, from our self, from
our human weaknesses and many other negative things. And then on the positive side we also
need to experience the riches of Christ to supply us, to nourish us, to cause us to grow
up into the Head, into Christ in all things. And this why Paul urged his young disciple
Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:22, and I'll just read the verse for you, it says,
"But flee youthful lusts, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call upon
the name of the Lord out of a pure heart." So we see that by calling on the name of the Lord,
"Oh Lord Jesus," whether out loud or quietly, calling on the name of the Lord
affords us a way to practically touch our living and rich Lord and to experience His
instant moment by moment salvation. Joe: So in this segment we're talking about
this simple practice in this simple way to touch the Lord, which is to call upon the
Lord's name. Can you talk a little about the believers' testimony in the Bible related
to their calling on the name of the Lord? Michael: Absolutely. In the early church in
Acts chapter 9:14, Ananias makes the comment that Paul when he was Saul had authority from
the chief priests to bind all those who called upon the name of the Lord in Damascus.
So Paul was able to find and persecute the early believers by virtue of the fact that they
were ones who called on the name of the Lord. Then in his epistle to the Corinthians,
First Corinthians 1:2 says, "To the church of God which is in Corinth... with all those
who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place." So we see it was the practice
of the early church and the believers to call upon the name of the Lord in every place.
And today as believers we can also have this experience whether we're driving in our car,
whether we're at home, or in school, on the job, or fellowshipping with other Christians,
we can be ones who also experience His wonderful salvation by calling upon the name of the Lord.
Joe: Michael, thank you for joining us for
this segment and thank you all for joining us again. We look forward to one more segment
on "A Simple Way to Touch the Lord."