Ideas about the Kingdom of the Heavens around us and the unity of believers in Christ within it
God gives us tests to use to determine whether a message we hear came from him or from somewhere else. Most of these tests apply regardless of whether the message comes from an internal voice or through the mouth or writings of another person who claims to speak for God. They start with the overarching test “do I recognize my Shepherd’s voice in what is said?”
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?
This is an index of posts defining, discussing or illustrating the concept of sin, its relationship to idolatry and idolizing oneself, and the distinction between sin (singular) and sins (plural).
Most of the currents of modern Western history can ultimately be traced to the well-meaning decisions of Christian leaders in the early centuries to seek political sponsorship. This led to the inversion of the Gospel message, forced exile of “heretics,” the rise of Islam through the influence of exiled “heretics,” and most of the subsequent upheavals in the Western world.
A God who Speaks, Authority Contests, Changed treatment of each other, Compulsory Christianity, Desire to have our own way, Disrespecting poor believers, Divisions in the Church, Ethnic Division, God Never Stopped Speaking, God Speaks to Us, Heresy, Islam and Christianity, Islam as a Consequence, Peril of Seeking Power, Peril of Seeking Respectability, Religious violence and persecution, Repentance, Salvation, Social control and statecraft, Through the church, Truth and Falsehood, Wars as consequences, What is sin?
Romans 2:4-5 is a warning aimed not at the wicked world, but at the self-righteous–even believers–who harshly judge others while forgetting that it was the kindness of God that led them to repentance.
A God who Speaks, Consequences, Forgetting God, forgiveness and mercy, God is Love, God Never Stopped Speaking, God Speaks to Us, God's Existence and Nature, God's Other Attributes, idolatry, judgment, patience, refusal to repent, Refusing to hear, Rejecting God, Repentance, reprobation, Sin, through his creation, Truth and Falsehood, What is sin?
Paul’s speech to the rulers of Athens in the Areopagus was a long exercise in deliberate irony, first building and then promptly burning cultural bridges. Paul did this to show them the folly of their deliberate ignorance of the true God.
A God who Speaks, Desire to have our own way, Eternity, Forgetting God, God Acts by Speaking, God is Love, God Never Stopped Speaking, God Speaks to Us, God's Existence and Nature, idolatry, Immanence, Refusing to hear, Rejecting God, Repentance, Sin, The Invisible God's Self-Existence, Truth and Falsehood, What is sin?
King Saul is an example of a leader appointed by God–at the rebellious insistence of the people–who followed his people’s idolatrous rebellion against God. Generally, in spiritual matters, worldly leaders follow their constituents rather than lead them. After God warned the people about the way their king would take, and sent a sign of his displeasure, they showed remorse–false, incomplete repentance–but did not change their ways. Ultimately, King Saul also followed their lead.
When God sent Moses to deliver his people from Egypt, the Pharaoh who ruled Egypt responded to some of the plagues with false repentance. That is, he tried to “make a deal” with God, and even admitted that he was in the wrong, only to renege on his agreements as soon as God removed the plague. With each “deal” on which he reneged, his heart became more hardened. But this is always what happens when, out of fear or remorse, we try to “make a deal” with God rather than obey him.
Simon Magus was told to repent of his attempt to buy the Holy Spirit. We should also repent of our modern forms of claiming we can possess God for our own use or profit.
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