The Creator who reveals Themselves in the pages of the Bible

I wrote this up some time ago and thought I'd pass it on in the hope that it may help clarify the teaching on the triune nature of God that is revealed in the Holy Scriptures (i.e. the Bible).  I hope that it helps Christian believers get a firmer grasp of the Creator who revealed Himself, and too, I pray it is an aid to those friends of mine reading this who are not Christians but who are earnestly desiring to understand who the God of creation is.  Enjoy and I hope it does just that.

Yahweh the Triune God
A Concise Doctrinal Statement (without being too much so)

Holy Scripture, in its totality, displays and describes God the Creator of all things as being One, and yet simultaneously holds forth this one God as being eternally existent in three distinct persons: Father, Jesus and Spirit. These three persons are portrayed in Scripture as having distinct roles from one another, but still being equal in essence. That is to say, they all are fully, completely God but they are not identical, rather they are “tri-united”. We are also shown that the relationships, roles and authority structure between them are not merely temporary, time-bound arrangements, but rather, have their origin within and between the Father and Son and Spirit from all eternity.

The Praying Life

"If we do not pray, we fail to realize that we are in the presence of God. We cannot recognize what he is. Such an attitude would render us incapable of grasping the fact that God meets us in Jesus Christ. Now, when we are aware of this mystery, we must pray. Jesus Christ is there -- he, the Son of God; and we who belong to him -- we, for whom there is no other possibliity than to follow him, to speak through his mouth --are with him. We have found the right road, and now it behooves us to walk in it. On this path, the Gospel and the Law, the promise and the commandments of God, are one and the same thing. God opens this road to us; he commands us to pray. Thus it is not possible to say, "I shall pray," or "I shall not pray," as if it were an act according to our own good pleasure. To be a Christian and to pray are one and the same thing; it is a matter that cannot be left to our caprice. It is a need, a kind of breathing necessary to life."

-- Karl Barth (!), an excerpt from Prayer

Agape working up a sweat

    Creatures of habit we are, we are. Nowhere can this be observed more clearly than on the Lordsday with regards to the seating of the saints during worship. Now, I've been abundantly blessed to have grown up as a son of the Covenant and I've attended a number of congregations while doing so and while being married. And one thing that a person becomes acutely aware of is that one doesn't mess with a person's, or a family's, staked out plot of seat(s) in a worship sanctuary! Those seats become, in most minds and congregations, eternally fixed in the created order and are by their very nature sacrosanct, holy, set apart. As my wife would say, this is "functional fixedness" naked and unadorned.
     It must be said that this really is lamentable among God's people, and we should be up for battling this tooth and nail inside the Bride and her local congregations. Why, you may ask, would I say such a thing? Well, apart from the fact that the  "performance" seating arrangements in most churches encourage such behavior, I say such a thing because to intentionally, or habitually, continue to sit in the same seats/section week after week, with little or no exposure to other believers in your church, is detrimental to the genuine fellowship and agape of the whole local congregation.  Spiritual atrophy will begin to be the norm. The status quo (as I read recently, is Latin meaning "the mess we are in") will become the rhythm of the lives of God's chosen people. Maturity in the Spirit's fruits will wane and diminish in general, and soon the idea of “love” becomes only a nice, sentimental platitude to be dissected, sermonized, and stared at until Jesus comes again. Most importantly though, hovering above all that, is that we won't be actively portraying, nor living, as Christ's unified Body. Rather, we will display to one another – 52 times a year no less – that we really believe we are merely disconnected, autonomous body parts floating about in the seas of Anonymity and Isolation.

The Age of Orthopraxy

"The truly cool are those who are on fire. They are the ones who truly don’t care what others think. You will find them warning the lost of the wrath of God. You will find them preaching on the streets. You will find them being called fools by the world, and that which is of the world in the church. May we all find grace to be such fools."

    I read this quote above from an email R.C. Sproul, Jr. sent out recently and was truly encouraged by it.  Primarily because this attitude and spirit is my hope and prayer for Christ's Bride as well, and specifically for the Christian tradition I subscribe to because, quite honestly, we stand in the most need of it.

    In Reformed denominations, we the "frozen chosen", have been for far too long, through our leaders, standing on the seashore bickering, and stabbing each other in the back over fine points of internal theology and/or how to "fish" out in this Sea-world we live in; or, if we're not doing that, we simply stand back and criticize those brothers and sisters who really are out there in boats "fishing" (i.e. pushing the Good News of the Son of Man into all the dark corners of this fallen world). This simply must stop! Instead of pedantic arguments over theological minutiae, or apathy, or panting after peer recognition and affluence, or forming study committees, we need to get our keesters in boats and get out there and start fishing with the rest of the brothers! 

      Why I can say that is because, as I understand it, we are all in God's grand meta-narrative... 

Teach your Children Well

"Let it be remembered, that I do not speak to the wild, giddy, thoughtless world, but to those that fear God. I ask, then, for what end do you send your children to school? “Why, that they may be fit to live in the world.” In which world do you mean, — this or the next? Perhaps you thought of this world only; and had forgot that there is a world to come; yea, and one that will last forever! Pray take this into your account, and send them to such masters as will keep it always before their eyes. Otherwise, to send them to school (permit me to speak plainly) is little better than sending them to the devil. At all events, then, send your boys, if you have any concern for their souls, not to any of the large public schools, (for they are nurseries of all manner of wickedness), but private school, kept by some pious man, who endeavours to instruct a small number of children in religion and learning together."

Excerpt from a sermon of John Wesley entitled  “On Family Religion”