Is There Anything God Can’t Forgive?
God can’t forgive a grudge I am holding against you. I have to do that. And God can’t forgive a grudge you are holding against me. You have to do that. To know God’s forgiveness, I must choose to live in it.
Author Archive: Ian Johnson
I have been in Christ since 1991, and have been writing about the general subject area of this site since 1996. My less relevant qualifications are: B.S. (Chemistry) and B.A. (Linguistics), 1976, Wichita State University. M.S. (Biochemistry), 1982 (course work finished in 1980), Iowa State University; J.D., 1982, University of Iowa; M.A. (History), 1984, University of Iowa; plus one year of a History Ph.D. program, 1984-1985, University of Kansas. I was employed from 1991 to 2016 as a research paralegal in a firm that handled mostly complex civil litigation, including toxic tort litigation (in which I was always involved). That firm merged with a larger litigation firm in 2016, where I have been employed ever
What Really Happened in the Garden
God created the first human, male and female, as a being like himself with whom he could share his life and his creation. But the disobedience of the first humans introduced shame, which drove them away from God and hindered them from agreeing with God about their sin and returning to him. This is always the effect of shame, which comes from us, not from God.
Complex unity, Confession and Repentance, Conversation with God, Desire to have our own way, Forgetting God, Free will, God is Love, God's Existence and Nature, God's purpose for us, Guilt versus Shame, Knowing good and evil, Language and Speech, Male and female, Marriage, Marriage, Marriage and Reproduction, Meaning of Unity, Repentance, Replacing Relationship with Morality, Sin, To be in his image, To bear fruit, To fill and govern the Earth, Trinity, Unity, What is sin?
Sin, Offense, Guilt and Shame–Definitions, God’s Work and the Social Order.
Defines the common sets of terms pertaining to sin, offense, guilt, shame and honor, with a discussion of God’s work and initial comments on the importance of their confusion in maintaining the social order.
The Son of Man has Power on Earth to Forgive Sins
When Jesus said that the son of man has power to forgive sins on Earth, he was referring to his humanity–and ours. God has already forgiven. Like Jesus, we have the power–and the mission–to offer forgiveness on Earth.
The Power of My Forgiveness and Unforgiveness, Revisited
My forgiveness or unforgiveness of you has real power. If I hold onto a grudge against you, or you hold onto a grudge against me, it binds both of us, limits the Body of Christ, and affects the whole world, until it is released. So we must properly deal with grudges.
Music, Prophecy and the Hand and Voice of God
Explanations of Scriptures that support the statement that true musicians, whether they know Christ or not, have at least a buried or potential gift of prophecy. Explores the vital spiritual role of music, a part of the image of God in us.
Time, life, and congratulations to my granddaughter
It’s true–time moves faster as you age. dt/dt, the rate of movement of time with respect to itself, should always equal 1, but it doesn’t. When you’re 3 and your favorite question is “why?”, dt/dt is about 0.0001. You want everything NOW, and everything takes FOREVER, until after you “grow up.” When you’re approaching 70, and your favorite question is…
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And be in us our King of Peace
The hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” celebrates the arrival of God among us in the form of Jesus. The post highlights that God does not simply bring peace to the world; instead, he will ultimately judge and create a new, peaceful world. Those who have faith in God’s promises will have inner peace amid the world’s chaos and opposition.
A Note to a Future Historian
This note is really not written to the whole world. It is written to a historian–a single person–who will find it on some archive that contains portions of this blog in some future year, likely far in the future. Therefore, while I am posting this note, I will neither make a video of it nor actively promote it. The prophecy…
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Part 7J. The Importance of Kindreds
The importance of broad family and kindred groups to God’s work on Earth and my initiative to my own.