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Conversation with God

Our ability to converse with God is a part of his image

What Really Happened in the Garden

April 16, 2024 0 Comments

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.

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God’s Work and Voice in Me, Part 7F: To Speak or Not to Speak, that is the Question

October 30, 2023 1 Comment

If God is still speaking to us, why don’t we hear him more? This presentation reviews the reasons given in Scripture.

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God’s Work and Voice in Me, Part 7D: Voices Anyone? An immodest proposal,

October 17, 2023 0 Comments

As one who has long had the experience of being aware, at times, of God’s voice, I propose to the Church at large that we should 1) treat spiritual “voices,” in general, as real and not as mere symptoms of mental illness, 2) learn to distinguish God’s voice from the other voices in our world, and 3) resolve to follow God’s voice. #3 is the key, because we will not be able to discern God’s voice unless we are his sheep, who hear and follow it.

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Part 7B: What Does a “Relationship” with God Mean?

September 22, 2023 2 Comments

A strange thing happened in the 1970’s–we learned for the first time that what we need is a “personal relationship” with Christ. But this terminology is not scriptural, and was left largely undefined, with curious results. That “relationship” became self-defined! What does it mean? What should it mean? What are a believer’s relationships with God? Jesus is our shepherd, older brother, King, teacher and friend, but the word “relationship” is not found. We are called God’s children, house, temple and sheep, but never said to be “in a relationship” with him.

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Commands I Can’t Keep If God Doesn’t Speak to Me

March 20, 2023 0 Comments

If God never speaks to me, it will be impossible for me to keep his commands to keep a soft heart toward his words, to hear and obey him “TODAY”, while I am still hearing him. Beginning the discussion of entering God’s rest today, while God is speaking to me–and the consequences of Israel’s rejection of his voice.

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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.

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Adam and Eve–Idolatry in the Fall

July 11, 2021 10 Comments

When the first humans, who already knew all good, chose to disobey God and experience evil, they initiated every kind of idolatry known to later generations. This included worship of created things, of themselves, their own wisdom and their own desires, of their bodies, and, most importantly, of a false picture of the true God as miserly and hostile toward us.

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From Early Christianity to Islam and Back — 1. The Earliest Christianity

July 13, 2020 6 Comments

This post is the first in a series of six outlining a broad view of how things in the Church and the world got to be as they are now, including contributions early Christianity and Islam made to each other. This post attempts to outline the basic positions of early Christianity. Comments are invited!

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Answers to Some Reader Questions about Prayer, Prayer Burdens and National Sins

June 7, 2020 2 Comments

A reader recently asked some very perceptive questions about my views concerning prayer, prayer burdens, and prayer for national sins. Here, I am publishing my answers to those questions. (The reader also asked some personal questions, which I omit from this posting): You asked:  “Also that what matters is your relationship with the Lord not what denomination someone is or…
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Hearing God Speak – Conversational Prayer — One Pursuit

May 1, 2020 0 Comments

This guest post from One Pursuit blog is another writer’s good account of God speaking directly to us. He also makes the very good point that we too often think of “answered prayer” only as “seeing action” in the world, not as hearing his voice.

Conversation with God, God Acts by Speaking, In prayer, On speaking terms again

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