The Kingdom of the Heavens > The Kingdom of the Heavens

The Kingdom of the Heavens

The Heavens are All Around Us!

January 2, 2023 1 Comment

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.”

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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.

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?

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The Implications of Jesus’ Humanity, Revisited

April 24, 2022 2 Comments

Jesus came as a man–fully human–and lived under the control (“filling”) and power of the Holy Spirit, in exactly the same way we can, if we will permit him to do it. In this respect, the only difference between Jesus, as a human, and us, is that Jesus was never anything but fully under the Spirit’s control. Jesus invites us to live as He did, obeying the Spirit’s direction and living by the Spirit’s power.

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An ambiguous instance of “repentance” before the Ephesian elders, Acts 20:21

March 6, 2022 0 Comments

Paul’s farewell message to the Ephesian elders reminded them of his former preaching in their church, in which “repentance toward God” was linked with “the things concerning God’s Kingdom,” a realm in which God is obeyed.

Repentance, The Kingdom of the Heavens

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Of Assyria, Egypt, and God’s Sovereignty in My Life

July 24, 2021 0 Comments

The continued existence of ethnic Coptic and Assyrian Christian minorities in Egypt and the Middle East demonstrates God’s faithfulness and the possibility of a literal fulfillment of Isaiah 19:23-25. If God can preserve these ethnic groups across two millennia of persecution in order to fulfill a prophecy, can he possibly need my “help” doing anything in my own life?

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Repentance in Jesus’ Early Message, Matthew 4:17-22 and Mark 1:14-20

July 22, 2021 2 Comments

Jesus’ early preaching was that his hearers must repent. because the Kingdom had already arrived and was “at hand”–standing right in front of them, in his person. Therefore, they were to repent–change their behavior–and believe the good news (Gospel) he was preaching to them.

A God who Speaks, Changed treatment of each other, Repentance, Salvation, The Kingdom of the Heavens, Through Jesus

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Matthew 5:3–Blessed Are the Beggars!

June 18, 2021 2 Comments

Only beggars qualify to enter the Kingdom of the heavens around us, where God is king and his power supplies. The self-sufficient are disqualified by their own inability to fully trust in God while trusting in themselves.

God's rationality, Must Trust God to Enter, Peril of Seeking Power, Peril of Seeking Respectability, Repentance, The Kingdom of the Heavens, Trusting sight over God's words, What is sin?

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God’s Working with Us is Not About Our Present, Temporary Happiness or Comfort

June 16, 2021 11 Comments

To enter God’s kingdom, moment by moment, I must repent of my claims of ownership of my own life. Instead, I must be willing to do things His way, even if it is His will that I crash and burn in this world. He is reality. His unseen Kingdom will one day be seen, and it will eventually be obvious to everyone that His reward is more real than anything in this world.

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