I finnaly made it back from working in Pine Bluff and then immediately had to start packing to move. Did the move thing and then turned right around and helped the Kiasor's move. It took a week for COX to get the right guy to come to our new house to get the internet hooked up (today) so I am back on line and have a bunch of blogs to read and a question to ask about the Ageless Now theory.
If we live and by that I mean exsist in that one moment called now, are we living in the same exact now that Adam and Eve, Moses, Abraham, David and everybody lived in or will live in? Are we contemporaries of that moment. If that moment is ageless and time passes through it, then history and future are only relative as a point of reference to each other. Doesn't all life pass through that moment at the same "time", now?
Friday, October 8, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
The Ageless Now 1.2
God exists for us in that moment, between seconds, in the twinkling of an eye. He has existed and will exist every time someone’s now happens. He is the Ageless Now. Our lives pass by like film in a movie projector and we live only on what the light shines. Every frame of our lives will at one point be, now, but God being the light is eternal, always there, never changing. Eternal is the best term we have for something without beginning and end. Eternal is not always used in this fashion but remains our best word. God lives in the eternal now. It is in Him that we live and move and have our being.
Acts 17:28
For in him we live, and move, and have our being;
We move through time but God remains the same yesterday, today and forever.
Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
When God spoke during the burning bush incident, he was confronted with a question from Moses,
Exodus 3:13
And Moses said unto God, Behold, [when] I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What [is] his name? what shall I say unto them?
He did not say, “My name is Elohiym, creator of the universe”, nor “ Jehovah Jireh your provider” nor “El the almighty one”. Instead he uses the name which means “To be, to exist”.
Exodus 3:14
And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
God is the God of now. He is relevant to everyone from the beginning of history to the end of the world. Every person, no matter what day and age they lived, live or will live, will experience their whole life during that one continuous moment. Now.
Let us take a look at John 3:16,
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Everyone is going to perish. Everyone's body no matter how long it lives is going to die, so this verse is obviously not talking about the human body but the part of us that has the ability to commune with God. Our spirits are dead to God when we are born because of sin. But God sent His Son to our world to save us from our sins and to give us life, everlasting life. If we believe this to be true then our old, dead, sinful spirit is quickened to life so that we might live for Christ and or God while we are living in our human bodies on earth. This is much easier said than done. In order to live for Christ we have to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus in the way that he leads us. Satan, who is attached directly to our dead spirit, and who's existence depends solely on our participation with him will do everything in his power to keep his relationship with us. "Live for the moment, you can serve God later". These are the words from Satan. But they are a lie. We can not live for God later, we can not even serve Satan later, we can only live, Now. God sent His Son so that we might "live" every Now, thus giving us everlasting life. Satan wants us to "perish" every Now, thus keeping us in everlasting death. This is the epic of the human condition.
Paul the apostle writes, referring to Isaiah 49:8
2 Corinthians 6:2
For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.”
I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.
Now is the time to choose.
I am headed to Pine Bluff for three weeks of work so will only blog on the weekends. Thanks for reading and following.
Acts 17:28
For in him we live, and move, and have our being;
We move through time but God remains the same yesterday, today and forever.
Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
When God spoke during the burning bush incident, he was confronted with a question from Moses,
Exodus 3:13
And Moses said unto God, Behold, [when] I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What [is] his name? what shall I say unto them?
He did not say, “My name is Elohiym, creator of the universe”, nor “ Jehovah Jireh your provider” nor “El the almighty one”. Instead he uses the name which means “To be, to exist”.
Exodus 3:14
And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
God is the God of now. He is relevant to everyone from the beginning of history to the end of the world. Every person, no matter what day and age they lived, live or will live, will experience their whole life during that one continuous moment. Now.
Let us take a look at John 3:16,
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Everyone is going to perish. Everyone's body no matter how long it lives is going to die, so this verse is obviously not talking about the human body but the part of us that has the ability to commune with God. Our spirits are dead to God when we are born because of sin. But God sent His Son to our world to save us from our sins and to give us life, everlasting life. If we believe this to be true then our old, dead, sinful spirit is quickened to life so that we might live for Christ and or God while we are living in our human bodies on earth. This is much easier said than done. In order to live for Christ we have to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus in the way that he leads us. Satan, who is attached directly to our dead spirit, and who's existence depends solely on our participation with him will do everything in his power to keep his relationship with us. "Live for the moment, you can serve God later". These are the words from Satan. But they are a lie. We can not live for God later, we can not even serve Satan later, we can only live, Now. God sent His Son so that we might "live" every Now, thus giving us everlasting life. Satan wants us to "perish" every Now, thus keeping us in everlasting death. This is the epic of the human condition.
Paul the apostle writes, referring to Isaiah 49:8
2 Corinthians 6:2
For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.”
I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.
Now is the time to choose.
I am headed to Pine Bluff for three weeks of work so will only blog on the weekends. Thanks for reading and following.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
The Ageless Now 1.1
Ageless Now
Growing up, I had a hard time when trying to understand what I would be doing after my body died and went to heaven, “forever”. What in the world would I do, forever? My parents told me that I would be praising and worshiping God the whole time. Well, maybe it is just my carnal mind, but do that forever? I mean really, that is a long, long time.
But even though that bugged me what bothered me more was how was it that God, who was going to be there forever, had already been around forever. I was able to come to grips with forevermore but not with foreverbefore. How could God have been around all this time and yet still be around forever? How old is God anyway?
I heard someone once give this comparison about the length of forever. If a sparrow picked up a grain of earth and flew to the other side of the galaxy, then deposited it on some distant planet, flew back and continued this trek until the whole world was moved, in that amount of time it would just be becoming mornings first day in Heaven. Wow, is that cool or what? Does it give you any idea of the vastness of forever? Does it help you consider the awesomeness of our time with God or even worse the sheer terror of the length of time one might have to spend in hell without God? But even this analogy niggles my niggle.
The problem with forever and always is the same problem I have with all the other words we use to describe this thought: eternity, everlasting, evermore. They all deal with time. They are all a long, long time.
Even God, in his revelation of Jesus Christ given to John, describes Himself in terms of time when he says in Revelation,
Revelation 22:13
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
Concerning the things of this world and all its happenings, God is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. But what about before the world began and what about after the world is over?
Take a look at this.
Matthew 22:31-33
31. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,
32. I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
33. And when the multitude heard [this], they were astonished at his doctrine.
And so was I. This short passage was an eye opening, mind fix for me. This concept unlocks the mystery of a timeless God. So far, every term we have used is directly connected with time. It is how we connect. It is where we live. But God does not live in time, he is not constricted by the pouring of sand through the hourglass. He is not a God of hours, minutes or seconds. He is the God of the living. This is the same concept we talked about when we discussed Faith. We can only have hope while we are alive. After we are dead there is no more ability to have hope. God is not the God of the dead because we do not have the ability to believe in him or serve him after we are dead. Only while we are alive do we have this opportunity. And it is only at one point in our lives that this opportunity exists. Now. Only now can we serve God, not earlier, that is the past, not later, that is the future, only now. We can plan to serve God later and we may have served him in the past but only now, while we are living can serving him be an option. This is why God is not the God of the dead but of the living.
Growing up, I had a hard time when trying to understand what I would be doing after my body died and went to heaven, “forever”. What in the world would I do, forever? My parents told me that I would be praising and worshiping God the whole time. Well, maybe it is just my carnal mind, but do that forever? I mean really, that is a long, long time.
But even though that bugged me what bothered me more was how was it that God, who was going to be there forever, had already been around forever. I was able to come to grips with forevermore but not with foreverbefore. How could God have been around all this time and yet still be around forever? How old is God anyway?
I heard someone once give this comparison about the length of forever. If a sparrow picked up a grain of earth and flew to the other side of the galaxy, then deposited it on some distant planet, flew back and continued this trek until the whole world was moved, in that amount of time it would just be becoming mornings first day in Heaven. Wow, is that cool or what? Does it give you any idea of the vastness of forever? Does it help you consider the awesomeness of our time with God or even worse the sheer terror of the length of time one might have to spend in hell without God? But even this analogy niggles my niggle.
The problem with forever and always is the same problem I have with all the other words we use to describe this thought: eternity, everlasting, evermore. They all deal with time. They are all a long, long time.
Even God, in his revelation of Jesus Christ given to John, describes Himself in terms of time when he says in Revelation,
Revelation 22:13
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
Concerning the things of this world and all its happenings, God is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. But what about before the world began and what about after the world is over?
Take a look at this.
Matthew 22:31-33
31. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,
32. I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
33. And when the multitude heard [this], they were astonished at his doctrine.
And so was I. This short passage was an eye opening, mind fix for me. This concept unlocks the mystery of a timeless God. So far, every term we have used is directly connected with time. It is how we connect. It is where we live. But God does not live in time, he is not constricted by the pouring of sand through the hourglass. He is not a God of hours, minutes or seconds. He is the God of the living. This is the same concept we talked about when we discussed Faith. We can only have hope while we are alive. After we are dead there is no more ability to have hope. God is not the God of the dead because we do not have the ability to believe in him or serve him after we are dead. Only while we are alive do we have this opportunity. And it is only at one point in our lives that this opportunity exists. Now. Only now can we serve God, not earlier, that is the past, not later, that is the future, only now. We can plan to serve God later and we may have served him in the past but only now, while we are living can serving him be an option. This is why God is not the God of the dead but of the living.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
CTT: Comunication 2.2
Genesis 1:1-3
1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Here in the first three verses of the Bible we have the Trinity hard at work, working together. God the Father has in mind to create light so he uses God the Spirit and says, God the Word “let there be light.” In the next verse we read that God the Father sees all that He, the Spirit and the Word have accomplished and saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:4
And God saw the light, that [it was] good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
So who is this Holy Spirit?
Genesis 2:7
And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
There is the Holy Spirit. He is the breathing of life. He is the invisible power that creates the Word of God. We are made in this same image.
God the Holy Spirit: (bottom line):
When we communicate, three things happen. 1. God the father, that is us, determines what is going to be said. 2. We breath in, a gift from the one true God by the way, and then breath out. As we breath out, our vocal cords, mouth and tongue, which are god the father, form the holy spirit (breath) into audible sounds or words which others and ourselves hear, 3. god the son.
So when Jesus said things like, "I only say what the Father tells me to say" he wasn't lying. If you are the Word of God the only sound you will make is that which comes from God the Father. If you speak to someone in English, it is not going to come out of your mouth in Spanish.
Jesus is the Son of God because it is God who formed him into the Word using the Holy Spirit to create that Word. He is God's "son" because it is that terminology that God uses to relate to us in that we are the creator and maker of our words.
Jesus Christ is the only begotten of God because God has only himself in which to speak from. Everything God says is his begotten. Jesus was His word made flesh thereby having a relationship with man and taking on the term Son.
God wants us to be able to relate to him, to know him, to love him and obey him. He has gone to great lengths to create for us ways to know who he is and he places these truths in everyday, common things like communication.
1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Here in the first three verses of the Bible we have the Trinity hard at work, working together. God the Father has in mind to create light so he uses God the Spirit and says, God the Word “let there be light.” In the next verse we read that God the Father sees all that He, the Spirit and the Word have accomplished and saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:4
And God saw the light, that [it was] good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
So who is this Holy Spirit?
Genesis 2:7
And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
There is the Holy Spirit. He is the breathing of life. He is the invisible power that creates the Word of God. We are made in this same image.
God the Holy Spirit: (bottom line):
When we communicate, three things happen. 1. God the father, that is us, determines what is going to be said. 2. We breath in, a gift from the one true God by the way, and then breath out. As we breath out, our vocal cords, mouth and tongue, which are god the father, form the holy spirit (breath) into audible sounds or words which others and ourselves hear, 3. god the son.
So when Jesus said things like, "I only say what the Father tells me to say" he wasn't lying. If you are the Word of God the only sound you will make is that which comes from God the Father. If you speak to someone in English, it is not going to come out of your mouth in Spanish.
Jesus is the Son of God because it is God who formed him into the Word using the Holy Spirit to create that Word. He is God's "son" because it is that terminology that God uses to relate to us in that we are the creator and maker of our words.
Jesus Christ is the only begotten of God because God has only himself in which to speak from. Everything God says is his begotten. Jesus was His word made flesh thereby having a relationship with man and taking on the term Son.
God wants us to be able to relate to him, to know him, to love him and obey him. He has gone to great lengths to create for us ways to know who he is and he places these truths in everyday, common things like communication.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
CTT: Communication 2.1
Every time we communicate, we exhibit the Trinity be it through verbal speech, hand gestures, eye contact, writing, however we communicate to get a point across, even pictures and sounds.
When you communicate, you are the little g “god” of what you say. You are the creator of your words. You are “god the father”. Your words, though, do not begin in your mouth but originate from your mind. If you only think words but do not say them or communicate them in any way, then you remain only, god the father. Please don't think I am equating this with God; only comparing its similarities and do remember this is only "my" way of "seeing" it, just an idea that I think helps explain the concept in a way that we can relate to.
When you say the words, then “god the son” is exhibited. When your words are spoken they are born, they are visible to others through hearing. Your thoughts become flesh, so to speak, for others to see and hold in their lives. When you read a book, study a lesson, thumb through a magazine, or scan through a stack of coupons, you are listening to what someone wants to tell you. We are all bombarded each day with a deluge of nonverbal communication.
When you drive to work or to the store a civil engineer speaks to you. He hangs a sign on a post and tells you what the speed limit is, or to watch out for an oncoming curve or a dip in the road. He hangs lights at a four-way to tell you to go, slow down or stop. He sets signs at intersections so that he can tell you the names of those streets. A retailer rents billboard space along your path telling you what you should buy and where you should buy it. In the checkout line, a photographer takes a picture and puts it on magazine to tell you what someone looks like. A writer creates a catchy headline asking you to look further into the subject. A restaurant owner smokes his BBQ beef outdoors. He uses hickory wood in order to capture your attention, no signs, no verbal shout outs, just the aroma. The list is absolutely endless.
All of these communications originated from someone. Some god the father wanted to tell you something and when they did, god the son was used. God was able to take his creative word and form it into living, breathing flesh known as Jesus. We are able to take our creative word and turn it into signs, magazine pictures, print, marketing ploys, etc. The civil engineer cannot stand on the road and physically inform every motorist of an oncoming traffic hazard, so he sets a sign. That sign is in effect, himself. This sign could remain long after the death of the civil engineer and yet it still speaks.
When I read my Bible, I am listening to people who have been dead for thousands of years. Am I listening to dead people? No, because they were not dead when they wrote it. We will get into this in another blog..
So, we have established that we are god the father of our communication and when we communicate, we are god the son. Two separate parts, same person. Now, how about the Holy Spirit?
Can I first touch on the power of the Holy Spirit? Maybe the best way to understand the power of the holy spirit in communication is to switch roles. Be the driver for a moment, the one going to work or the store. As you approach the sign that shows a curved arrow with a 25 mph sign below it, you have to make some decisions. First, do you believe what the sign says? Second, if you do believe the sign you have to react by slowing down and prepare for the curve ahead. The civil engineer has effectively gotten his message across to you when you saw and acknowledged the sign but he has no power to make you obey and prepare. It is the job of god the holy spirit, working in you, to get you to obey what you have just heard from the civil engineer through his curve sign. Most likely, you will obey the sign because you can see ahead of you the correlating evidence and so the question to obey seems rather obvious. Of course you are going to obey, if you do not you will drive off the road and no telling what will happen after that. But what if the curve is just over a hill and you can not see it until it is to late? Then you have to believe the civil engineer without the aid of your overpowering sense of sight. As soon as you read or understand the sign, god the holy spirit comes into play. He is the power that gets you ready to react to what you have come to understand if you choose to believe. Maybe this is one nasty curve up ahead and the civil engineer is so concerned about your well being that he has placed two other signs previously that read, “curve ahead and prepare to slow down.” He understands that because of this particular danger it would be a good idea to let god the holy spirit begin working on you.
Every form of communication is designed to get you to react. In order for you to react the way that that communicator wants you to react, he has to convince you to believe. This is the non-tangible god the holy spirit. The communicator will use a plethora of ways to try to achieve this goal; colors, sounds, fonts, shapes and sizes, tone, gestures and the list goes on. Even the raising of the eyebrow or the pursing of the lips can tell you all you need to know. You know the look. You have seen it before on your mom or dad’s face, and when you did, you knew right away that if you did not change what you were doing you would be in big trouble.
Every form of communication has its variables of spirit. When we converse with each other every day, the spirit of our conversation is usually basic and simple. If we want to get a point across more dramatically we might choose more spirited words or raise the tone of our voices. This is the holy spirit of our communication. A painted purple spot on a tree says in a very calm and unobtrusive way that this is my property and I would like you to stay off please. A sign reading, “No Trespassing,” has a little more spirit in it. Two or three signs placed not too far apart gives the message even more spirit. What if they are painted red? What if they have flashing lights around them? They all say the exact same thing but each one has variation of spirit behind it. This is power of god the holy spirit working through god the son having been spoken by use of a sign from god the father.
So we observe the power of god the holy spirit directly tied to god the father and god the son in communication yet we see that he is unique in his job.
When you communicate, you are the little g “god” of what you say. You are the creator of your words. You are “god the father”. Your words, though, do not begin in your mouth but originate from your mind. If you only think words but do not say them or communicate them in any way, then you remain only, god the father. Please don't think I am equating this with God; only comparing its similarities and do remember this is only "my" way of "seeing" it, just an idea that I think helps explain the concept in a way that we can relate to.
When you say the words, then “god the son” is exhibited. When your words are spoken they are born, they are visible to others through hearing. Your thoughts become flesh, so to speak, for others to see and hold in their lives. When you read a book, study a lesson, thumb through a magazine, or scan through a stack of coupons, you are listening to what someone wants to tell you. We are all bombarded each day with a deluge of nonverbal communication.
When you drive to work or to the store a civil engineer speaks to you. He hangs a sign on a post and tells you what the speed limit is, or to watch out for an oncoming curve or a dip in the road. He hangs lights at a four-way to tell you to go, slow down or stop. He sets signs at intersections so that he can tell you the names of those streets. A retailer rents billboard space along your path telling you what you should buy and where you should buy it. In the checkout line, a photographer takes a picture and puts it on magazine to tell you what someone looks like. A writer creates a catchy headline asking you to look further into the subject. A restaurant owner smokes his BBQ beef outdoors. He uses hickory wood in order to capture your attention, no signs, no verbal shout outs, just the aroma. The list is absolutely endless.
All of these communications originated from someone. Some god the father wanted to tell you something and when they did, god the son was used. God was able to take his creative word and form it into living, breathing flesh known as Jesus. We are able to take our creative word and turn it into signs, magazine pictures, print, marketing ploys, etc. The civil engineer cannot stand on the road and physically inform every motorist of an oncoming traffic hazard, so he sets a sign. That sign is in effect, himself. This sign could remain long after the death of the civil engineer and yet it still speaks.
When I read my Bible, I am listening to people who have been dead for thousands of years. Am I listening to dead people? No, because they were not dead when they wrote it. We will get into this in another blog..
So, we have established that we are god the father of our communication and when we communicate, we are god the son. Two separate parts, same person. Now, how about the Holy Spirit?
Can I first touch on the power of the Holy Spirit? Maybe the best way to understand the power of the holy spirit in communication is to switch roles. Be the driver for a moment, the one going to work or the store. As you approach the sign that shows a curved arrow with a 25 mph sign below it, you have to make some decisions. First, do you believe what the sign says? Second, if you do believe the sign you have to react by slowing down and prepare for the curve ahead. The civil engineer has effectively gotten his message across to you when you saw and acknowledged the sign but he has no power to make you obey and prepare. It is the job of god the holy spirit, working in you, to get you to obey what you have just heard from the civil engineer through his curve sign. Most likely, you will obey the sign because you can see ahead of you the correlating evidence and so the question to obey seems rather obvious. Of course you are going to obey, if you do not you will drive off the road and no telling what will happen after that. But what if the curve is just over a hill and you can not see it until it is to late? Then you have to believe the civil engineer without the aid of your overpowering sense of sight. As soon as you read or understand the sign, god the holy spirit comes into play. He is the power that gets you ready to react to what you have come to understand if you choose to believe. Maybe this is one nasty curve up ahead and the civil engineer is so concerned about your well being that he has placed two other signs previously that read, “curve ahead and prepare to slow down.” He understands that because of this particular danger it would be a good idea to let god the holy spirit begin working on you.
Every form of communication is designed to get you to react. In order for you to react the way that that communicator wants you to react, he has to convince you to believe. This is the non-tangible god the holy spirit. The communicator will use a plethora of ways to try to achieve this goal; colors, sounds, fonts, shapes and sizes, tone, gestures and the list goes on. Even the raising of the eyebrow or the pursing of the lips can tell you all you need to know. You know the look. You have seen it before on your mom or dad’s face, and when you did, you knew right away that if you did not change what you were doing you would be in big trouble.
Every form of communication has its variables of spirit. When we converse with each other every day, the spirit of our conversation is usually basic and simple. If we want to get a point across more dramatically we might choose more spirited words or raise the tone of our voices. This is the holy spirit of our communication. A painted purple spot on a tree says in a very calm and unobtrusive way that this is my property and I would like you to stay off please. A sign reading, “No Trespassing,” has a little more spirit in it. Two or three signs placed not too far apart gives the message even more spirit. What if they are painted red? What if they have flashing lights around them? They all say the exact same thing but each one has variation of spirit behind it. This is power of god the holy spirit working through god the son having been spoken by use of a sign from god the father.
So we observe the power of god the holy spirit directly tied to god the father and god the son in communication yet we see that he is unique in his job.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
CTT: God the Holy Spirit prt. 5
So now if God is in the business of building a relationship with us then His claim of being God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, and they being all one, should be something that we can relate to.
There are many things we see everyday that are, in their basic form, three in one. Trees for example have the underground part called roots, the woody part, trunk and branches and then the leaves. Three separate parts all making up one tree. The egg has an outer shell, yolk and white. Three parts one egg. Then there are the elements on the periodic table. Each one has the ability to be a solid, a liquid and a gas, and yet in every stage, remains itself. We are considered to be, body, soul and spirit. The list is almost endless. But there is one, that I like most, that seems to fit the God Head best.
Who does it matter to, this Trinity theology? Man. I cannot imagine that birds and animals or plants and rocks question the Almighty three-in-one subject. Not until man shows up on the scene does this matter, matter. But when man shows up he brings with him the best example for the Trinity, communication.
There are many things we see everyday that are, in their basic form, three in one. Trees for example have the underground part called roots, the woody part, trunk and branches and then the leaves. Three separate parts all making up one tree. The egg has an outer shell, yolk and white. Three parts one egg. Then there are the elements on the periodic table. Each one has the ability to be a solid, a liquid and a gas, and yet in every stage, remains itself. We are considered to be, body, soul and spirit. The list is almost endless. But there is one, that I like most, that seems to fit the God Head best.
Who does it matter to, this Trinity theology? Man. I cannot imagine that birds and animals or plants and rocks question the Almighty three-in-one subject. Not until man shows up on the scene does this matter, matter. But when man shows up he brings with him the best example for the Trinity, communication.
Monday, August 9, 2010
CTT: God the Holy Spirit, prt4
God the Holy Spirit (His power) is Truth:
The power of the Holy Spirit is not a magic wand. We cannot just say, “I wish this particular problem would go away”, and poof, it is gone. Rather we should say, “Holy Spirit, I have this particular problem and I would like it to go away”. Then have ears to hear and eyes to see, for the Holy Spirit will bring to us the answer that we may accomplish the goal. It may be altering a social habit, or pulling in the reigns on a personal tendency, or maybe forgiveness is in line for someone, or ourselves. Whatever the case, the Holy Spirit will show us the way. But it is our responsibility to “go” the way. He is not going to do it for us. The journey is the empowerment, for both ourselves and our relationship with the Father.
Jesus, who was full of the Spirit, still had to discipline himself to obey the word of his Father. He did this mainly through prayer, which we see as a daily routine for him. He tells us that He would only speak what the Father told him to speak.
John 12:49
For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
I can imagine all the things I would say to people who would not believe me if I were right about something and they were wrong, and not just wrong, but professed to everyone else how right they were and how wrong I was. That would tick me off, and I am sure that pride would have its way at some point or another. But Jesus, full of the Spirit, never did anything like that, he always chose to be obedient to the Father. And since that is the way Jesus overcame, I can relate to it. If Jesus was able to overcome because the Holy Spirit did it all for him then I could not relate to that because the Holy Spirit does not do that for me. But he does check my spirit and give me the opportunity to do it His way first.
We have talked about this earlier, but when Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane, He had a discussion with his Father about going to the cross. Jesus did not want to go and was looking for a way out, another way. Even though he was full of the Holy Spirit he still had to obey the Father. The Holy Spirit was not going to make him.
So in seeing these things about the Holy Spirit, we have to decide how we are going to view him. The Bible views him as the third person of the Trinity. Some view him as more of just a “force”; the long arm of God, the power of God, not as an individual, not part of the "us" in Genesis 1:26, “And God said, Let us make man in our image...”
If we can realize that the Word of God is Jesus, an individual, then we should be able to accept that the Holy Spirit is an individual also. I say this because I have a hard time seeing him as an individual myself, but more of as a force or the “Power of God”. I do not find this to be threatening though, because I know he is real, I know what he does, I have seen him at work, so for me it is not that big of an issue. I do believe that he is an individual, one of three in the God Head.
The power of the Holy Spirit is not a magic wand. We cannot just say, “I wish this particular problem would go away”, and poof, it is gone. Rather we should say, “Holy Spirit, I have this particular problem and I would like it to go away”. Then have ears to hear and eyes to see, for the Holy Spirit will bring to us the answer that we may accomplish the goal. It may be altering a social habit, or pulling in the reigns on a personal tendency, or maybe forgiveness is in line for someone, or ourselves. Whatever the case, the Holy Spirit will show us the way. But it is our responsibility to “go” the way. He is not going to do it for us. The journey is the empowerment, for both ourselves and our relationship with the Father.
Jesus, who was full of the Spirit, still had to discipline himself to obey the word of his Father. He did this mainly through prayer, which we see as a daily routine for him. He tells us that He would only speak what the Father told him to speak.
John 12:49
For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
I can imagine all the things I would say to people who would not believe me if I were right about something and they were wrong, and not just wrong, but professed to everyone else how right they were and how wrong I was. That would tick me off, and I am sure that pride would have its way at some point or another. But Jesus, full of the Spirit, never did anything like that, he always chose to be obedient to the Father. And since that is the way Jesus overcame, I can relate to it. If Jesus was able to overcome because the Holy Spirit did it all for him then I could not relate to that because the Holy Spirit does not do that for me. But he does check my spirit and give me the opportunity to do it His way first.
We have talked about this earlier, but when Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane, He had a discussion with his Father about going to the cross. Jesus did not want to go and was looking for a way out, another way. Even though he was full of the Holy Spirit he still had to obey the Father. The Holy Spirit was not going to make him.
So in seeing these things about the Holy Spirit, we have to decide how we are going to view him. The Bible views him as the third person of the Trinity. Some view him as more of just a “force”; the long arm of God, the power of God, not as an individual, not part of the "us" in Genesis 1:26, “And God said, Let us make man in our image...”
If we can realize that the Word of God is Jesus, an individual, then we should be able to accept that the Holy Spirit is an individual also. I say this because I have a hard time seeing him as an individual myself, but more of as a force or the “Power of God”. I do not find this to be threatening though, because I know he is real, I know what he does, I have seen him at work, so for me it is not that big of an issue. I do believe that he is an individual, one of three in the God Head.
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