Monday, September 24, 2007

The Trinity

How often have you guys thought about the Trinity - what kind of impact it has on our beliefs, is it really a core doctrine, why the need for the nicene creed, and how it affects our day to day lives? I have to admit I haven't really thought a lot about the Trinity...ever. I've known that it was a core belief. I've known the basic tenants of it since I was a child. I've even known how to defend it at a very basic level for a long time. But I've never really thought long and hard about it before. Until recently, that is. The Trinity has been at the forefront of my mind a lot lately, and I've come to realize just how utterly essential this doctrine is to everything that we hold. It affects our beliefs, it affects how we view God, it affects how we view ourselves, and so, not surprisingly, it does have an impact on how we live our daily lives. We must live our lives in light of a trinitarian worldview. We need to know that God has always been in relationship with God and has loved that relationship for eternity past. There has never been a time when God lacked perfect fellowship. Simply put, the Trinity destoys all our hopes of being the center of God's "life." God has always been the center of God's "life" and He has never needed us. The Trinity is a wonderfully humbling thing. And oh how wonderful it is to be humbled by a loving God who loves showing us how perfect He is. Hopefully, Lord willing, I'll be posting more on this subject in the future. I'm sure they will be pitiful in light of this glorious truth, but I pray that I will learn so much more of the nature of my God through this study and be brought so much lower than I currently think myself to be. God bless.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

...it was the worst of times

What an awesome thought that this earth is the worst of times for us! It will never get any worse than this life. I was talking about this with a friend of mine today and we both had had pretty rough days at work in general. Things just hadn't gone too well. And we both were filled with joy at the thought that the glory that awaits us will make all of this look like nothing. Our time down here doesn't even compare to what awaits us. What a hope we have in Jesus. We have died with Him and our life is now hidden in Him awaiting the time when we will be revealed with Him in glory. I love how I Peter 1:8-9 talks about our lives here on this earth. Right now we don't see Jesus as we will at the revelation of His glory (I Jn. 3:2), but we love Him and believe in Him and because of this glimpse we see now in the word we rejoice with joy inexpressable and full of glory. Let us take rest in that. We rejoice explosively because of the little bit that has been revealed to us about our Savior. Imagine what heaven will be like!

Monday, September 10, 2007

God loves being God

Lately, I've been looking at a lot of cool things in creation. Last Saturday, I watched part of a show on the Discovery channel called "Blue Planet." In the one we watched they took a submersible two miles down to the floor of the ocean. Down there there is no light. The weight of the water is a pulverizing 3800 pounds/square inch. The temperature at the thermal vents is around 750 degrees. It's an amazing world. And at the bottom of this world there are animals that create their own light called bioluminescence. This light helps them catch food and evade attack. While I was watching that the thought struck me that even in the darkest places, there is still light. The analogy is pretty obvious in that even in the spiritually darkest places, there is still light. It might be small and weak, but it is still there and it still illumines and transforms. The show continued and they showed these incredible creatures that looked alien. I had never seen anything that looked like them. And the amazing thing is that even under all that weight of water, their physical structure looked more delicate than anything I've seen above water. And then today, I got on the hubble telescope web page and looked at amazing pictures of far away galaxies and stars. I realized that these things have been there since God spoke them into existence during the first six days of time itself and man had never seen them. God didn't create creation for man. God created everything for God. God loves being God. God loves displaying His glory for the very sake of demonstrating the overflow of His nature even if man isn't there to appreciate it. It brought to mind Job 38:25-27: 25 “Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt, 26 to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert in which there is no man, 27 to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground sprout with grass?

God brings rain on land where there is no man because God wants to pour it out and show the greatness of His glory. We are not the center, we never were the center, and praise God we never will be the center. He was, is, and always will be the center of everything and in Him everything lives and moves and has their being. All things are from Him, through Him, and to Him, to Him be the glory forevermore. We were made to feel small.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

D. James Kennedy

D. James Kennedy died earlier this morning in his sleep. From what I understand (which isn't much) he had been having some health problems lately and had decided to retire from his ministry. I never knew much about him but I was aware of him and some of his impact (especially as it related to ECT) and from what I've read lately he was a faithful servant of God and served the church in America greatly. I'm sure he will be greatly missed by many. Another saint has gone home. Praise the Lord!