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The Kingdom is all around us

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

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.

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You Are Not The One to Build, Part 4: God is “calling!” What does that mean?

August 16, 2023 1 Comment

Linked text accompanying the You Tube video with the same name. God calls us. God’s call presents neither a question of what human has “authority” nor of human “leadership,” but of God’s right to make free use of what He gives.

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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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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.

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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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Our Father–The One in the Heavens: God with Us in the Lord’s Prayer

January 10, 2023 2 Comments

Recognition of the heavens all around us and of the imperatives used in the Lord Prayer, Jesus’ model for our prayers, transforms it into a very radical and dangerous prayer. In it, we are actually commanding the immediate manifestation of God’s increasing rule in our present existence and on Earth.

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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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