To bear fruit

What Really Happened in the Garden

Ian Johnson 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.

Complex unity, Confession and Repentance, Conversation with God, Desire to have our own way, Forgetting God, Free will, God is Love, God's Existence and Nature, God's purpose for us, Guilt versus Shame, Knowing good and evil, Language and Speech, Male and female, Marriage, Marriage, Marriage and Reproduction, Meaning of Unity, Repentance, Replacing Relationship with Morality, Sin, To be in his image, To bear fruit, To fill and govern the Earth, Trinity, Unity, What is sin?

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

Ian Johnson 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.

A God who Speaks, Conversation with God, God Never Stopped Speaking, God Speaks to Us, God's purpose for us, God's Voice, His Children, His Friends, Language and Speech, Peril of Seeking Power, Peril of Seeking Respectability, Social control and statecraft, The Kingdom is all around us, The Kingdom of the Heavens, Through Jesus, To bear fruit

1960s, 1970s, Charismatic Renewal, delusional, delusions, friend, God is Dead, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Jesus Movement, king, Lord, Relationship, Relationship with Jesus, sheep, shepherd, Teacher, vine

You Are Not the One to Build, Part 6B: Spiritual Gifts: God Works through us for His Purpose

Ian Johnson September 4, 2023 1 Comment

The modern emphasis on first identifying my “gift” so that I may then “help” God develop it gets the matter exactly backwards. The important thing isn’t identifying my gift, it is offering my body as a living sacrifice so that the Spirit may exercise any gift He chooses through me. Then any gift I am observed to be actually exercising can be identified as my gift, and its exercise will be genuine and have God’s power.

A God who Speaks, Desire to have our own way, Disrespecting poor believers, Divisions in the Church, God Speaks to Us, God's purpose for us, Historical Background, In the Church, Meaning of Unity, Other Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Personal Background, Personality cults, Prophecy, Through others, Through teachers, Through the church, To be his ambassadors, To bear fruit, To live in unity

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You Are Not the One to Build, Part 5: God’s Callings for All of His Children and Friends

Ian Johnson August 20, 2023 1 Comment

God “calls” all believers to love one another and to be conformed to the image of His Son–to be made, by God, to be just like Jesus. There is also a number of other things to which God “calls” all believers–almost all of them things we simply let him do to or through us, and all of them summed up by loving each other and being remade into His image.

A God who Speaks, Adoption, Choosing darkness over light, God Acts by Speaking, God is light, God is Love, God Speaks to Us, God's Existence and Nature, God's purpose for us, God's rationality, God's sovereignty, God's Voice, His Children, His Friends, Must Trust God to Enter, Pride in accomplishments as our own, Promises, Refusing to hear, Rejecting God, Restoration of God's Image, Salvation, Show us the Way of Truth, The Kingdom is all around us, The Kingdom of the Heavens, To be in his image, To bear fruit, What is sin?

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

Ian Johnson 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?

acclaim, God, God's glory, God's reputation, King David, King Solomon, reputation, Solomon's Temple

You are not the one to build…

Ian Johnson 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

direction, fruit, fruitfulness, God's will, life direction, ministry, not now, purpose

God Speaks to Us through His Spirit

Ian Johnson 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

Ian Johnson 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!”

Ian Johnson 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

being forgotten, being remembered, Death, hope, Living a good dash, resurrection, true life

The Fruit of Righteousness and the Fruit of the Spirit

Ian Johnson 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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What Really Happened in the Garden

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

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You Are Not the One to Build, Part 6B: Spiritual Gifts: God Works through us for His Purpose

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You Are Not the One to Build, Part 5: God’s Callings for All of His Children and Friends

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

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You are not the one to build…

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God Speaks to Us through His Spirit

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The Kingdom of “the Heavens” in Matthew

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“I Want to Be Forgotten!”

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The Fruit of Righteousness and the Fruit of the Spirit

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