Desire to have our own way

You Are Not the One to Build, Part 6B: Spiritual Gifts: God Works through us for His Purpose

Ian Johnson September 4, 2023 1 Comment

The modern emphasis on first identifying my “gift” so that I may then “help” God develop it gets the matter exactly backwards. The important thing isn’t identifying my gift, it is offering my body as a living sacrifice so that the Spirit may exercise any gift He chooses through me. Then any gift I am observed to be actually exercising can be identified as my gift, and its exercise will be genuine and have God’s power.

A God who Speaks, Desire to have our own way, Disrespecting poor believers, Divisions in the Church, God Speaks to Us, God's purpose for us, Historical Background, In the Church, Meaning of Unity, Other Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Personal Background, Personality cults, Prophecy, Through others, Through teachers, Through the church, To be his ambassadors, To bear fruit, To live in unity

fruit, Fruit of the Spirit, gifts, gifts of the Holy Spirit, Gifts to the Church, Holy Spirit, Love, love one another, Spiritual Gifts

Anger

Ian Johnson October 12, 2022 0 Comments

I write this post to myself. I was once a very angry man. But I believed I now had anger under control. More recently, I’m not so sure. Manipulative people and manipulative institutions both deliberately goad the anger of those they want to control–anger is a great motivator. The media, celebrities, politicians, organizations and advertisers do the same thing. Other people, though, habitually but unconsciously manipulate by continually rehearsing their angry reveries for others to hear, wishing either to bring their hearers into their angry world or to intimidate by fear of what they might do in anger. And I am weak to all of these ploys. So I present the following study, which consists only of quotations from Scripture about human anger, its causes and antidote.

Changed treatment of each other, Conversation with others, Desire to have our own way, Divisions in the Church, Emotions, Forgive as we forgive, forgiveness and mercy, Forgiveness and Unforgiveness, Free will, God is Love, God's purpose for us, His Children, Human Rationality, Injustice and Lawsuits, Language and Speech, patience, Repentance, Restoration of God's Image, Restoration of our Relationships, Salvation, To be his ambassadors, To live in unity

anger, angry, arguments, bitterness, contention, Death and life are in the power of the tongue, discord, gossip, lies, Love, lying, mercy, peace, reconcile, reconciliation, root of bitterness, strife, temper, tongue, whispering, wrath

Paul’s Mourning over those who have Not Repented, 2 Corinthians 12:21

Ian Johnson April 3, 2022 2 Comments

When Paul wrote his second letter to the Corinthians, he feared he would later come to them and find that they had not repented of their underlying mixed motives and attitudes of self-centered worship and sensual focus. The result would be the same strife and disorder he had reproved in his first letter.

Desire to have our own way, Desire to have our own way, Divisions in the Church, Forgetting God, Forgiveness and Unforgiveness, God's Other Attributes, Greed, Pride in accomplishments as our own, refusal to repent, Repentance, Salvation, self-serving worship, What is sin?

attitude, attitudes, Corinthians, disorder, immorality, mixed motives, mourning, not repented, Paul, repent, self-centered worship, sensual, sensuality, strife, uncleanness

Eli, the High Priest, Talking when Action was Required

Ian Johnson September 26, 2021 2 Comments

True repentance would have required high priest Eli to act to remove his sons Hophni and Phinehas from office. Hophni and Phinehas were using God and their offices as a magical charm and using others, as many in the Church do today. The people also learned to do these things from their example. Instead of removing them, Eli just nagged them, and he and all Israel paid the penalty.

A God who Speaks, Desire to have our own way, Desire to have our own way, God Acts by Speaking, God's Voice, Prophecy, Refusing to hear, Repentance, Repentance versus Remorse, Sin, What is sin?

Eli, false religion, God as an idol, magical charm, nagging, remorse, repentance, Samuel, true repentance, using God, using people

Simon Magus told to Repent of His Attempt to Buy the Power of God: Acts 8:9-22

Ian Johnson September 6, 2021 2 Comments

Simon Magus was told to repent of his attempt to buy the Holy Spirit. We should also repent of our modern forms of claiming we can possess God for our own use or profit.

Church purpose versus church growth, Desire to have our own way, Divisions in the Church, Greed, Heresy, idolatry, Peril of Seeking Power, Repentance, Repentance versus Remorse, Selling Forgiveness, Truth and Falsehood

baptism, buying God, buying the Holy Spirit, commerce in God, Holy Spirit, magic, repent, repentance, selling God, Simon Magus, sorcery

Judas Iscariot: Remorse Too Late in Matthew 27:3-5

Ian Johnson August 18, 2021 0 Comments

Judas demonstrates the difference between worldly remorse and true repentance. Judas was truly remorseful after he saw Jesus would die because of his betrayal, and he tried to fix things himself. When that failed, he hanged himself. He was remorseful, but never repented of doing things his own way.

Confession and Repentance, Desire to have our own way, Desire to have our own way, Divisions in the Church, Greed, Repentance, Repentance versus Remorse, What is sin?

godly sorrow, greed, Judas Iscariot, remorse, repentance, sorrow of the world

CONCLUSION: THE SELFISH FOCUS OF HERETICS

Ian Johnson June 3, 2021 0 Comments

Even a very respectable denomination’s or church organization’s determination that a teaching is “heresy” cannot be taken, without examination, as absolute truth for two reasons. First, a deliberately divisive person’s–a true “heretic’s”– motives are selfish rather than doctrinal and usually well-hidden behind doctrine. Second, such people sometimes take control of even respectable denominations.

Authority Contests, Denominationalism, Desire to have our own way, Divisions in the Church, Heresy, Our Oneness in Christ book revision, Peril of Seeking Power, Personality cults

church organization, Conclusion, denomination, division, False prophets, false teachers, following, heresy, selfish, selfishness

The Problem with Sodom

Ian Johnson May 5, 2021 6 Comments

The problem with Sodom was its arrogant indifference to the poor and vulnerable, as shown by the violent hate crime it attempted to commit against two visiting angels. This arose, in turn, from its affluence and its sensual focus. All of these problems characterize the modern world, including the Church (where they lead to often-violent divisions). The traditional Christian interpretation of the Sodom story prevents us from seeing this.

An abuse of God's image, Christianity and Social Evils, Church purpose versus church growth, Desire to have our own way, Desire to have our own way, Disrespecting poor believers, Divisions in the Church, God's sovereignty, Greed, Historical Background, Our Oneness in Christ book revision, Racism, Rejecting God, Sin, To be in his image, Trusting sight over God's words, What is sin?

2 Peter 2, affluence, arrogance, Deuteronomy, Ezekiel 16:49-50, False believers, False prophets, false teachers, Gibeah, Gomorrah, indifference, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jude, poverty, Prophets, rejection of the good, Sodom, unbelief

The Bad Example of Cain

Ian Johnson September 16, 2020 5 Comments

Cain’s underlying sin was his arrogant insistence that he could come to God on his own terms. This is the “way of Cain” of which Jude speaks—self-sufficiency, insisting on coming to God on one’s own terms, murderous jealousy of those who truly seek God and are accepted by him, and “repentance” only of the consequences of these sins and not of the sins themselves. It all starts with an attitude of self-sufficiency.

Desire to have our own way, Desire to have our own way, God Never Stopped Speaking, Our Oneness in Christ book revision, Rejecting God, Sin, What is sin?

anger, arrogance, Cain, dead works, faith, false repentance, jealousy, murder, murderer, pleasing God, pride, rejecting God, self-sufficiency, trusting in myself

False Believers and Divisive Persons in Jude

Ian Johnson August 23, 2020 3 Comments

Jude’s description of divisive persons in the church points to false believers who try to look like us but have infiltrated the church for their own advantage, to serve their own greed and lusts. They are dead trees, and dead trees bear no fruit. In dealing with them, we need to contend for the truth and resist contending against them personally.

Authority Contests, Desire to have our own way, Desire to have our own way, Disrespecting poor believers, Divisions in the Church, Greed, Heresy, Our Oneness in Christ book revision, Peril of Seeking Power, Rejecting God, To live in unity

You Are Not the One to Build, Part 6B: Spiritual Gifts: God Works through us for His Purpose

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Anger

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Paul’s Mourning over those who have Not Repented, 2 Corinthians 12:21

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Eli, the High Priest, Talking when Action was Required

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Simon Magus told to Repent of His Attempt to Buy the Power of God: Acts 8:9-22

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Judas Iscariot: Remorse Too Late in Matthew 27:3-5

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CONCLUSION: THE SELFISH FOCUS OF HERETICS

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The Bad Example of Cain

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False Believers and Divisive Persons in Jude

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