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As we have discussed the limitless, unconditional grace of God, the question of how I can experience that grace on a daily basis naturally arises.  How does having my sins—past, present, and future—FORGIVEN and even FORGOTTEN by God (Jeremiah 31:33, 34) actually change the way I live? I ONLY understand this fact because I believe God has chosen to personally open the eyes of my heart as He experientially speaks to me. I have not necessarily learned correct doctrine, read the Bible in the…

For the past few weeks we have been investigating the full-on, unlimited grace of God, which alone can fill the sails of our own, personal, Ship of the Kingdom. Today, I want to look at what appears to be the furthest thing from an armada of these ships attacking the Gates of Hell, as we were created to do. After the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., the prophet Jeremiah proclaimed a message to the defeated Jews that included this surprisingly appropriate word for…

In the last couple of blog postings I have related my reluctant, five-year, theological journey to becoming an Evangelical Universalist (EU), i.e., ultimately all God’s creatures will be saved and in Heaven with Him! For those interested in investigating this idea further, I have recommended three books for further study:  1.) My 63-page book, free as a PDF copy – Limitless Grace – A New Look at Hell (1).pdf 2.) Hope Beyond Hell, by Gerry Beauchamin – My original introduction to EU. Very thorough and…

As a practical, house-bound shut-in, I am limited to this blog and the phone calls and e-mails I receive in response, both in agreement and disagreement. That’s not a substitute for church, but it’s the best I can do. I deeply appreciate your participation with me. In last week’s blog posting, I related my fitful, reluctant 5-year journey to become an Evangelical Universalist (EU). Yes, I now believe that Hell is TEMPORARY, REDEMPTIVE DISCIPLINE, rather than PERMANENT, PUNITIVE PUNISHMENT! All of God’s wrath and…

Last week’s concluding Scripture in this blog posting was Ephesians 2:8, 9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that (faith is) not of yourselves (not anything you have of your own), it (that faith) is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast”. I interpreted these two verses to be telling us that we can neither muster enough careful obedience, nor scholarly reason, nor even the simple faith to believe the gospel! We cannot even “make a…

Last week we concluded our posting by proposing what I believe to constitute what “walking by faith,” or  “walking in the Spirit,” ( i.e., “Jesus living through me – Galatians 2:20) actually looks like: 1.) We are walking by faith like “little children“ (Matthew 18:2-5), only knowing and believing what our Heavenly Daddy has told us, experientially, in our hearts (ginosko knowledge), rather than simply intellectually, in our heads (eido knowledge).  2.) As “little children,” we “walk in the light” with our brothers and…

Martin Luther taught that there are only two foundational messages  God is teaching us in the Bible: HUS LAW AND HUS CRACE. They form the two edges of the Sword of the Word of God (Hebrews 4:12, Revelation 1:16). In God’s plan for mankind, they are both absolutely crucial, both supplying a message the church must believe, embrace, stand firm upon, and then proclaim.  The sword of the word of God always has these two edges. As we have been investigating the Ship of the…

Surprisingly, this problem seems to have afflicted the Reformed branch of the Christian faith—those that are the most eager to build the Ship of the Kingdom we have been discussing. We can meticulously build it, carefully, according to the Bible, as we have done in these postings, yet nothing really happens. No wind in the sails!  That’s because we are all born  unconsciously addicted to obedience to the law as our way to live. It may be the law of the Bible, Sharia law…

For the past weeks, we have been investigating the three institutional weapons God has given us to use in accomplishing our original task for which we were created—ruling over the earth. We have used a diagram reflecting Dutch Reformed theologian/politician Abraham Kyper’s “sphere sovereignty” theology to illustrate how those institutional weapons function together.  Each sphere has its own, unique contribution. This idea is depicted beautifully by the diagram—the “Ship of the Kingdom”—reproduced below. This diagram represents the “big picture;” how the daily activities of…

Last week we discussed the fact that there is no neutrality in life; as Jesus said in Luke 11:23 that we are all either “for Me or against Me.” This is true in EVERY AREA of life, including civil government, i.e., POLITICS! This is an “inconvenient truth” which a huge percentage of our evangelical churches either ignore or resist. When was the last time you heard a pastor preach a sermon on the biblical characteristics of civil government, followed by a discussion on which…