Peril of Seeking Power

About Racism

Ian Johnson June 15, 2020 4 Comments

The ultimate solution to our national racisms lies in the Church, in who we are in Christ. We are not called to uncritically support the current social order, no matter how unjust. We are called to show how social divisions are overcome by the Holy Spirit among us.

An abuse of God's image, Christianity and Social Evils, Church purpose versus church growth, Complex unity, Compulsory Christianity, Divisions in the Church, Emotions, God's sovereignty, Human Rationality, Injustice and Lawsuits, Peril of Seeking Power, Peril of Seeking Respectability, Racism, Rejecting God, Replacing Relationship with Morality, Restoration of God's Image, Show us the Way of Truth, Social control and statecraft, The Bible, Through the church, To be his ambassadors, To be in his image, To live in unity, Uncategorized, What is sin?

#AllLivesMatter, #BlackLivesMatter, change, Christ, Christianity, Dallas Willard, divisive language, equality, favoritism, God, heart change, Holy Spirit, human heart, Jacques Ellul, Jesus, peace, Racism, repent, repentance, Unity

Leaving Our First Love to Fight Each Other as “Heretics”

Ian Johnson June 14, 2020 4 Comments

Christianity lost its true influence in the world when it pursued the power it could gain as a mass movement, stopped loving, and started fighting. One of the overlooked consequences of this was the rise of Islam.

Church purpose versus church growth, Divisions in the Church, Heresy, Islam and Christianity, Islam as a Consequence, Leaving Our First Love, Our Oneness in Christ book revision, Peril of Seeking Numbers, Peril of Seeking Power, Religious violence and persecution, Wars as consequences, What Islam borrowed from Christianity

Arabia, Arian, Christ, Christian, Christian history, Christianity, Church History, Coptic, enmity, hate, heresy, heretics, Islam, Jesus, Love, Montanist, Muhammad, Nestorian, Persian church, Quran, Quran 5:14, Trinity, Unity

Are We Mistaken in Practice about the Real Purpose of the Church?

Ian Johnson June 13, 2020 3 Comments

The early church were mostly outcasts, who understood the cost of discipleship and shunned fame, power and wealth as measures of their success. But we have embraced all of those things, and lost our witness and the core of our life in Christ as a result.

Church purpose versus church growth, Our Oneness in Christ book revision, Peril of Seeking Numbers, Peril of Seeking Power, Peril of Seeking Respectability

Christianity, conformity, cost, cost of discipleship, crowds, gospel, Jacques Ellul, mass movement, numbers, popular, popularity, power, safety, seduction, self-denial, success, wealth

Unity in Diversity as an Attribute of God

Ian Johnson June 1, 2020 6 Comments

God is a complex unity–Three in One by nature–and is also one with us who believe, by adoption. He is not an absolutely simple unity, as is often taught. This false teaching comes from early efforts to make the Gospel more acceptable to the upper classes of Roman society by introducing Neoplatonist philosophy into it. But it instead destroys the Gospel by making God incapable of having any real unity with his children.

Heresy, Our Oneness in Christ book revision, Peril of Seeking Power, Peril of Seeking Respectability, Social control and statecraft, To be in his image, Trinity, Unity

Christian theology, Christianity, complex unity, complexity, Divine Simplicity, God, gospel, mindful consciousness, Neoplatonism, Nous, Platonism, Three in One, Trinity, Unity

What We Lose If Jesus is Not Human as shown by Jesus’ Preparation for his Ministry

Ian Johnson May 17, 2020 3 Comments

If Jesus is not human, like us, we also lose the promise of the Holy Spirit, the invitation to live by the direction and power of the Spirit like Jesus did while he was here, and everything that flows from that. Fully discussing this topic will require several posts. While Jesus lived among us bodily, he did not rely on…
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God Speaks to Us, God's Existence and Nature, In prayer, Jesus the Son, Leaving Our First Love, Peril of Seeking Power, Peril of Seeking Respectability, Son of Man, Trinity

baptism, Baptism of the Holy Spirit, crucifixion, God the Father, growth in grace, Holy Spirit, human nature, humanity, humility, Jesus, Jesus Christ, manipulation, meaning of Christmas, Nativity, personal growth, power, prayer, Spirit, temptation, unselfishness

Why Jesus’ Full Humanity is Important 1: Our Freedom, Truth, Victory, New Birth and Adoption in Christ

Ian Johnson May 11, 2020 7 Comments

Jesus is fully human. When he was born as a man, that man was in every way like us, except that he was without sin… The fact of Jesus’ full humanity is important because without it we have NOTHING–no life, no forgiveness, no peace with God, no promise of God’s kindness or guidance, no power, no resurrection, no hope.

Adoption, God was never our enemy, God's Existence and Nature, Heresy, His Children, Jesus the Son, Peril of Seeking Respectability, Reconciliation, Regeneration, Salvation, Show us the Way of Truth, Son of Man, Trinity, Victory

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Our Individual Oneness with Christ

Ian Johnson May 8, 2020 3 Comments

Jesus called Himself the whole vine—which includes each of the branches—not just the root or the trunk of the vine. Thus, we are one with Him as the branch is one with the vine. We are each a part of Him, just as he is the life of each of us…. if we live in Christ and His words live in us, anything we ask will be done for us, because the Father is glorified when we bear fruit.

God was never our enemy, God's Existence and Nature, Meaning of Unity, Reconciliation, Restoration of God's Image, Social control and statecraft, To live in unity, Trinity, Unity

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An old dream about dirges, Sunday school classes, and the expectation to hide problems

Ian Johnson April 30, 2020 4 Comments

How a dream about the word “dirge” led me to recognize two of the major problems of modern Western churches: our insistence on hiding problems to preserve our “witness” rather than dealing with them in the Spirit (hypocrisy) and our one-way, “fact”-intensive teaching style.

Discipline or Correction, Emotions, End of the Churched Society, God Speaks to Us, Heresy, Historical Background, Human Rationality, Illness as a Consequence, In the Church, Meaning of Unity, Our Oneness in Christ book revision, Purpose of the Church, Restoration of God's Image, Restoration of our Relationships, The place of visions, Through others, Through the church, To live in unity

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The Period of High Creativity that Followed, 2000-2006

Ian Johnson April 27, 2020 2 Comments

He wants to talk us through doing his will, instructing us every step of the way, as we learn to trust him. He is the one with the whole picture. Learning to hear his voice and trust him is the whole point of our friendship (the word “relationship” is entirely too sterile) with him on the present earth. This is what restores his image in us. Accomplishing his work is only a by-product.

A God who Speaks, Conversation with God, God Speaks to Us, On speaking terms again, Personal Background, Prophecy, Restoration of God's Image, Social control and statecraft, The Bible, The place of visions, To be in his image, Trusting sight over God's words, What is God's Word

Asperger Syndrome, Creativity, Friendship with God, Futiity of Politics, Hearing God, Learning to Hear God, Trusting God, Worship

Leaving Our First Love to Fight Each Other as “Heretics”

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Are We Mistaken in Practice about the Real Purpose of the Church?

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Unity in Diversity as an Attribute of God

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What We Lose If Jesus is Not Human as shown by Jesus’ Preparation for his Ministry

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Why Jesus’ Full Humanity is Important 1: Our Freedom, Truth, Victory, New Birth and Adoption in Christ

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Our Individual Oneness with Christ

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An old dream about dirges, Sunday school classes, and the expectation to hide problems

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The Period of High Creativity that Followed, 2000-2006

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Peril of Seeking Power

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