Ideas about the Kingdom of the Heavens around us and the unity of believers in Christ within it
God is a complex unity–Three in One by nature–and is also one with us who believe, by adoption. He is not an absolutely simple unity, as is often taught. This false teaching comes from early efforts to make the Gospel more acceptable to the upper classes of Roman society by introducing Neoplatonist philosophy into it. But it instead destroys the Gospel by making God incapable of having any real unity with his children.
The three persons who eternally and inseparably comprise the One God are God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Father is God. In John 6:31, Jesus called him “God the Father.” In John 4:21-23, Jesus identified “the Father” as the God the Jews and Samaritans both worshipped. Jesus also prays to his “Father” in numerous places1–2,…
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Let your work appear to your servants, your glory to their children.
Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us.
Establish the work of our hands for us. Yes, establish the work of our hands
He has shown us the way into a new life, a life beyond death, a life that is at peace with God. We must receive his life and follow him, living in the Spirit as he did. That is all. No “merit” is involved. God doesn’t look at our “merit.” Jesus doesn’t save us by giving us his “merit;” he saves us by giving us himself. This is the key to freedom.
Let love of the brethren continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body. Hebrews 12:1-3. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves…
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The restoration of my callings, after the break to pursue my own pride, was started, ironically, by the Board’s expert psychologist at a Board of Law Examiners’ hearing in December 2006–near the beginning of the four year break. He testified that my condition had been under medical control for over 20 years, and there was no reason I shouldn’t be…
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Eternity is not defined by time. Time is defined by eternity, and the Eternal One who created it and has an existence outside of it. God brought time, as a creative process, into his Creation out of eternity. God’s eternity, watching over all time, renders time itself a creative process, a process his children can trust to work ultimately for our good. The time that has gone before us, our own time on Earth, and the time after us to Jesus’ coming, all of history, are all a part of the same creative process that started when God created the heavens and the earth. History in its completion is an aspect of Creation and a manifestation of God.
Immortal, invisible, God only wise, In light inaccessible hid from our eyes, Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days, Almighty, victorious, Thy great name we praise. To all life Thou givest, to both great and small; In all life Thou livest, the true life of all; We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree, And wither and perish,…
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Confusion, and the need to find what I believed around people who did not believe precisely the same things I believed, has characterized a good deal of my faith journey in Christ. I have frequently associated with churches, not because of their formal doctrinal stance, but because of the people who were there–because I felt God had called me to…
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