The Kingdom of the Heavens > God's Existence and Nature > The Invisible God's Self-Existence

The Invisible God’s Self-Existence

You Are Not the One to Build, Part 2: How can a just God not revoke gifts and callings of bad people—yet care for his own reputation?

July 11, 2023 3 Comments

Linked text to accompany the second in a series of videos about God’s gifts and callings for people, which he sometimes gives to notorious evildoers who clearly did not earn them. How can this be fair or just? It has to do with his plan for the whole cosmos.

Eternity, forgiveness and mercy, God is light, God is Love, God was never our enemy, God's Existence and Nature, God's purpose for us, God's rationality, Merit, patience, Reconciliation, Regeneration, Restoration of God's Image, Salvation, The Invisible God's Self-Existence, The Kingdom of the Heavens, The Problem of Evil, To be his ambassadors, To live in unity, To see God's glory

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Why have I always resisted the idea that departed believers are really still here “with” Jesus?

May 29, 2023 0 Comments

For we know that if the earthly house of our tent is dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens.  For most certainly in this we groan, longing to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven,  if indeed being clothed, we will not be found naked.  For indeed we who are in…
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Complex unity, Desire to have our own way, Eternity, Eternity Present, Forgetting God, God is Love, God's Existence and Nature, God's purpose for us, His Children, Jesus the Son, Omnipresence, Restoration of God's Image, self-serving worship, The Invisible God's Self-Existence, The Kingdom is all around us, The Kingdom is all around us, The Kingdom of the Heavens, To be in his image, Trinity, Unity, What is sin?

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Going to Be With the Lord

April 16, 2023 1 Comment

No faith is needed where the thing hoped for can be seen. And the difference between not yet seeing and fully seeing Is the whole difference between being in the body and being out of it and “with” the Lord.

Eternity, God's Existence and Nature, God's purpose for us, God's sovereignty, Immanence, Must Trust God to Enter, Omnipresence, The Invisible God's Self-Existence, The Kingdom is all around us, The Kingdom of the Heavens, To be in his image, To see God's glory, Ultimate reality, What is God's Word

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Our Father–The One in the Heavens: God with Us in the Lord’s Prayer

January 10, 2023 2 Comments

Recognition of the heavens all around us and of the imperatives used in the Lord Prayer, Jesus’ model for our prayers, transforms it into a very radical and dangerous prayer. In it, we are actually commanding the immediate manifestation of God’s increasing rule in our present existence and on Earth.

Desire to have our own way, Forgive as we forgive, forgiveness and mercy, God is Love, God Speaks to Us, God's Existence and Nature, God's sovereignty, Immanence, In prayer, Omnipresence, Promises, Rejecting God, Restoration of our Relationships, Salvation, Sin, The Invisible God's Self-Existence, The Kingdom is all around us, The Kingdom of the Heavens, Ultimate reality, What is God's Word, What is sin?

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The Heavens are All Around Us!

January 2, 2023 1 Comment

In the very first chapter of the Bible, In telling us about God’s creation of all that is, other than himself, God tells us something very important about the “heavens”–namely, that they are all around us. They are in the air we breathe, from which we have life. He does not limit his activity to a distant “Heaven.”

A God who Speaks, Eternity, God Acts by Speaking, God Never Stopped Speaking, God Speaks to Us, God's Existence and Nature, Immanence, Omnipresence, The Invisible God's Self-Existence, The Kingdom is all around us, The Kingdom of the Heavens, through his creation, Ultimate reality, What is God's Word

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What I Believe–stated simply

July 24, 2022 7 Comments

In this post, I give a short, one web page, summary of what I believe, in language as simple as I can manage. It gives only a quick, “big picture” of my understanding of God, my relationship to him, and my role on Earth. Comments are invited.

Church purpose versus church growth, Complex unity, Conversation with God, Divisions in the Church, Eternity, Free will, God Acts by Speaking, God is Love, God Never Stopped Speaking, God Speaks to Us, God was never our enemy, God's Existence and Nature, God's purpose for us, God's rationality, God's sovereignty, His Children, His Friends, Immanence, Islam as a Consequence, Language and Speech, Male and female, Merit, Omnipresence, Reconciliation, Refusing to hear, Regeneration, Rejecting God, Repentance, Restoration of God's Image, Salvation, Show us the Way of Truth, Sin, Sins versus sin, The Invisible God's Self-Existence, The Kingdom of the Heavens, The Problem of Evil, To be his ambassadors, To be in his image, To live in unity, Transcendence, Trinity, Ultimate reality, Unity, Wars as consequences, What is God's Word, What is sin?

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The Implications of Jesus’ Humanity, Revisited

April 24, 2022 2 Comments

Jesus came as a man–fully human–and lived under the control (“filling”) and power of the Holy Spirit, in exactly the same way we can, if we will permit him to do it. In this respect, the only difference between Jesus, as a human, and us, is that Jesus was never anything but fully under the Spirit’s control. Jesus invites us to live as He did, obeying the Spirit’s direction and living by the Spirit’s power.

A God who Speaks, God Acts by Speaking, God Never Stopped Speaking, God Speaks to Us, God's purpose for us, His Children, His Friends, Holy Spirit, Jesus the Son, Promises, Show us the Way of Truth, Son of Man, The Invisible God's Self-Existence, The Kingdom of the Heavens, Through Jesus, To be in his image, Trinity, Ultimate reality, What is God's Word

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Burning Cultural Bridges? Repentance and Paul in Athens, Acts 17:22-31

February 20, 2022 1 Comment

Paul’s speech to the rulers of Athens in the Areopagus was a long exercise in deliberate irony, first building and then promptly burning cultural bridges. Paul did this to show them the folly of their deliberate ignorance of the true God.

A God who Speaks, Desire to have our own way, Eternity, Forgetting God, God Acts by Speaking, God is Love, God Never Stopped Speaking, God Speaks to Us, God's Existence and Nature, idolatry, Immanence, Refusing to hear, Rejecting God, Repentance, Sin, The Invisible God's Self-Existence, Truth and Falsehood, What is sin?

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The Pharaoh who played “let’s make a deal” with God

October 10, 2021 1 Comment

When God sent Moses to deliver his people from Egypt, the Pharaoh who ruled Egypt responded to some of the plagues with false repentance. That is, he tried to “make a deal” with God, and even admitted that he was in the wrong, only to renege on his agreements as soon as God removed the plague. With each “deal” on which he reneged, his heart became more hardened. But this is always what happens when, out of fear or remorse, we try to “make a deal” with God rather than obey him.

A God who Speaks, Events and Signs, God Acts by Speaking, God Speaks to Us, God's Existence and Nature, God's sovereignty, idolatry, Omnipresence, Refusing to hear, Repentance versus Remorse, The Invisible God's Self-Existence

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God’s Working with Us is Not About Our Present, Temporary Happiness or Comfort

June 16, 2021 11 Comments

To enter God’s kingdom, moment by moment, I must repent of my claims of ownership of my own life. Instead, I must be willing to do things His way, even if it is His will that I crash and burn in this world. He is reality. His unseen Kingdom will one day be seen, and it will eventually be obvious to everyone that His reward is more real than anything in this world.

A God who Speaks, God Speaks to Us, God's Existence and Nature, God's purpose for us, God's rationality, God's sovereignty, Immanence, Must Trust God to Enter, Promises, Repentance, The Invisible God's Self-Existence, The Kingdom of the Heavens, To see God's glory, Transcendence, Ultimate reality, What is God's Word

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