Ideas about the Kingdom of the Heavens around us and the unity of believers in Christ within it
An index to the series of blog articles on the subject of repentance.
An abuse of God's image, Confession of Sin, Consequences, Desire to have our own way, Forgetting God, forgiveness and mercy, Free will, God is Love, God's Existence and Nature, God's purpose for us, God's rationality, patience, refusal to repent, Refusing to hear, Rejecting God, Repentance, self-serving worship, Sin, Sins versus sin, The Problem of Evil, To live in unity, What is sin?
When Jesus unfavorably compared the unrepentance of the Galilean towns where he had preached to the repentance Tyre, Sidon and Sodom would have shown to the same preaching. the repentance of which he spoke clearly included behavioral change.
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.
A God who Speaks, An abuse of God's image, Conversation with God, Desire to have our own way, Free will, God Never Stopped Speaking, God Speaks to Us, God was never our enemy, God's purpose for us, God's rationality, God's Voice, His Friends, idolatry, Knowing good and evil, Restoration of God's Image, To fill and govern the Earth, Trusting sight over God's words, Truth and Falsehood, Ultimate reality, What is God's Word
The problem with Sodom was its arrogant indifference to the poor and vulnerable, as shown by the violent hate crime it attempted to commit against two visiting angels. This arose, in turn, from its affluence and its sensual focus. All of these problems characterize the modern world, including the Church (where they lead to often-violent divisions). The traditional Christian interpretation of the Sodom story prevents us from seeing this.
An abuse of God's image, Christianity and Social Evils, Church purpose versus church growth, Desire to have our own way, Desire to have our own way, Disrespecting poor believers, Divisions in the Church, God's sovereignty, Greed, Historical Background, Our Oneness in Christ book revision, Racism, Rejecting God, Sin, To be in his image, Trusting sight over God's words, What is sin?
The ultimate solution to our national racisms lies in the Church, in who we are in Christ. We are not called to uncritically support the current social order, no matter how unjust. We are called to show how social divisions are overcome by the Holy Spirit among us.
An abuse of God's image, Christianity and Social Evils, Church purpose versus church growth, Complex unity, Compulsory Christianity, Divisions in the Church, Emotions, God's sovereignty, Human Rationality, Injustice and Lawsuits, Peril of Seeking Power, Peril of Seeking Respectability, Racism, Rejecting God, Replacing Relationship with Morality, Restoration of God's Image, Show us the Way of Truth, Social control and statecraft, The Bible, Through the church, To be his ambassadors, To be in his image, To live in unity, Uncategorized, What is sin?
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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A God who Speaks, An abuse of God's image, Conversation with God, Emotions, Events and Signs, God Speaks to Us, God's rationality, His Children, His Friends, Human Rationality, In prayer, Language and Speech, Personal Background, Prophecy, Rejecting God, Replacing Relationship with Morality, The Bible, To live in unity, Trusting sight over God's words