Ideas about the Kingdom of the Heavens around us and the unity of believers in Christ within it
God speaks to us individually, and also collectively as his Body. We must hear him and walk with him individually and also depend on each other for his voice. Believers all have the mind of Christ, but none of us alone has all of the mind of Christ.
God speaks to us through his Holy Spirit, who must teach us–by building within us–everything we truly know of God. God also speaks to the world through us, by his Spirit who is building his image within us.
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” God says he will speak to his sheep individually, call each by name, and lead us, and he does. Stephen and Saul of Tarsus are an example of this.
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?
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
God wants us to bear the lasting fruit he has placed within us. But this does not require our effort to bear fruit, it requires only that we remain in Jesus, pay attention to his words, and let him work through us. His only command is that we love one another as he has loved us, so letting his love reach others through us.
God is slow to bring the day of justice because he is patient, determined to give us all the time we need to repent and return to him. If we do not, it will be our choice, not his, to remain in the present world when he removes his care from it and it disintegrates under the weight of sin.
A God who Speaks, Consequences, Free will, God is Love, God Never Stopped Speaking, God Speaks to Us, God's Existence and Nature, God's purpose for us, God's rationality, judgment, patience, Regeneration, Rejecting God, Repentance, reprobation, Restoration of God's Image, Salvation, Sin, The Problem of Evil, Ultimate reality, What is God's Word, What is sin?
Most of the currents of modern Western history can ultimately be traced to the well-meaning decisions of Christian leaders in the early centuries to seek political sponsorship. This led to the inversion of the Gospel message, forced exile of “heretics,” the rise of Islam through the influence of exiled “heretics,” and most of the subsequent upheavals in the Western world.
A God who Speaks, Authority Contests, Changed treatment of each other, Compulsory Christianity, Desire to have our own way, Disrespecting poor believers, Divisions in the Church, Ethnic Division, God Never Stopped Speaking, God Speaks to Us, Heresy, Islam and Christianity, Islam as a Consequence, Peril of Seeking Power, Peril of Seeking Respectability, Religious violence and persecution, Repentance, Salvation, Social control and statecraft, Through the church, Truth and Falsehood, Wars as consequences, What is sin?
An introduction to the process by which, in seeking the approval and sponsorship of those in political power, and the delusion of holy conquest, Christianity, as defined by its victorious leaders, has consistently denied the possibility of a living, individual friendship with God. First in a series.
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?