Trinity and Humanity

How we think about God is important. Whether we think of Him as good, bad, or indifferent surely has an impact on how we relate to Him and to each other. What we believe about the character and nature of God will always affect the way of our being. And it is my opinion that what we believe about the character and nature of God as Father, Son, and Spirit is most important. Triune God is Love… and love does what love is… God is love so God does love. A good exercise is to take I Cor. 13:4-8 and replace the word “love” with “God.” God is patient, God is kind… get the idea? Beautiful isn’t it.

Well I believe that the second most important thing for us to ponder is the location of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Where are they in relation to us? Are they distant? Are they away somewhere in the Cosmos? Or… could it be that the angel of the Lord in Matthew 1 was right- that his name is Emmanuel- which means God is with us? You know it!

Recently my family visited a church service to attend a friend’s ordination. It was a happy and joyful time. There was a great deal of prayer and blessing for this person who was being ordained to the ministry of the Gospel of Jesus.

You know the old saying don’t you, “Eat the meat, and spit out the bones.” Well in any church service, you may have to spit out a bone or two because all church services are led by humans who are not yet fully human. So, during the service one of the pastors involved in the ordination referred to our collective prayers as “being on a conference call with Jesus.”

My jaw hit the floor. How could we be on a conference call with Emmanuel? What need of a conference call does the Indwelling Christ have? You see… statements like this assume an absent Jesus. When we pray to invite the Holy Spirit, Jesus, or the Father we are operating as though God is not with us.

Friends, it is crucial that we live and move through our daily lives in the truth that Jesus is indeed Emmanuel- God with us. I for one find great comfort in knowing he is always with me because he is good, he is kind, he is gentle, and he is LOVE!

~Bill Winn