The Kingdom of the Heavens > God's purpose for us

God’s purpose for us

What is God’s purpose for human beings?

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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You Are Not the One to Build, Part 1: God’s Work, God’s Reputation, and My Acclaim

July 9, 2023 4 Comments

The first of a series of videos about God giving people things to start which he does not then permit them to finish. God does this for his own glory, and, sometimes to protect his own reputation, as was the case in King David’s preparations to build a Temple–and also in my own life.

Background Information, Confession of Sin, Consequences, Desire to have our own way, God's purpose for us, God's rationality, Personal Background, Pride in accomplishments as our own, self-serving worship, Sin, To be his ambassadors, To bear fruit, To live in unity, Trusting sight over God's words, What is sin?

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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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You are not the one to build…

May 14, 2023 1 Comment

A summary of my calling and life direction. I am becoming comfortable with the idea that most of the positive effect of my life will occur after it is over and that, among humans, I will receive no credit for it.

A God who Speaks, God Speaks to Us, God's purpose for us, God's Voice, In prayer, Prophecy, Repentance, The Bible, Through others, Through teachers, Through the church, To be his ambassadors, To bear fruit, To live in unity

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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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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.

A God who Speaks, Conversation with God, Desire to have our own way, Forgetting God, Free will, God Acts by Speaking, God Never Stopped Speaking, God Speaks to Us, God's Voice, idolatry, Language and Speech, Refusing to hear, self-serving worship, Through Jesus, Trusting sight over God's words, Ultimate reality, What is God's Word, What is sin?

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God Speaks to Us through His Spirit

February 9, 2023 3 Comments

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.

A God who Speaks, God Acts by Speaking, God Speaks to Us, God's purpose for us, God's Voice, His Children, Holy Spirit, Promises, Refusing to hear, Rejecting God, The Bible, Through Jesus, Through teachers, Through the church, To be in his image, To bear fruit, Trinity, What is sin?

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The Kingdom of “the Heavens” in Matthew

January 15, 2023 2 Comments

Throughout his Gospel, Matthew repeatedly quotes first John the Baptizer, then Jesus, taking about the “Kingdom of the heavens”–with “the heavens” in this formula always stated in the plural and preceded by the definite article. In using this language, the intention was clearly to teach that God’s Kingdom is not limited to the far future but is present with us…
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Desire to have our own way, God's purpose for us, His Friends, Must Trust God to Enter, Pride in accomplishments as our own, The Kingdom is all around us, The Kingdom of the Heavens, To bear fruit, What is sin?

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“I Want to Be Forgotten!”

December 10, 2022 1 Comment

A rebellion against the power of death, written as a tribute to two important people in my life who have left this existence in recent Decembers.

God's purpose for us, Salvation, To be in his image, To bear fruit, To see God's glory, Ultimate reality, Victory, What is God's Word

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The Fruit of Righteousness and the Fruit of the Spirit

December 8, 2022 3 Comments

When Jesus says that he has chosen us to bear fruit that will last, the fruit he has in mind is the fruit of the Spirit–that is, the work the Holy Spirit does within us as we yield to him to make us like Christ. It is not our work, our “fruits,” at all–it is all his work.

Changed treatment of each other, Complex unity, Compulsory Christianity, Emotions, forgiveness and mercy, God is Love, God's Existence and Nature, God's purpose for us, Human Rationality, patience, Repentance, Restoration of God's Image, Restoration of our Relationships, Salvation, To be in his image, To bear fruit, To live in unity

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