Archive for the ‘Trinity’ Category
Members Only? YUCK!
Filed under: By Bill Winn, Christian Living, Gospel, Love, Relationships, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity | Tags: Included, Inclusion, Members Only
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Don’t we all have some childhood memory of a day or time when we were excluded from a group to which we wanted desperately to belong? Isn’t there still just a little something inside us that cringes when we see a ‘members only’ sign? Are not all of us offended to some degree when we are shut out or excluded?
The wretchedness of segregation with its ‘whites only’ placards has left a scar on our society from which we are hopefully recovering. My favorite game, golf, has been notorious for excluding others to one degree or another.
What is it about us that enables us to feel pain inside when we are excluded? Why does it hurt so much?
Well, the answer is simple: Jesus! Yes Jesus is the reason we hate to be excluded or left out. It is because of Jesus that we ARE included in the life he and his Father share in the Holy Spirit.
Triune God has existed eternally in perfect love and fellowship, unencumbered freedom and wholeness, and complete and lasting union. It is here that the cause of creation is found. Did you know why you were created? It was not, first, to worship or glorify God. You were created by God for God.
In short, you were created for inclusion. You were created because before the foundations of the world were laid the Blessed Trinity set Their love upon you and determined to include you in Their circle of life and love. You were created simply and plainly so that the Father could share His love and life with you.
In the person of Jesus Christ you HAVE been included in the Triune Life of God. In His earthly ministry Jesus has gathered you up in Himself and placed you in the center of a circle of fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Often we hear it said that somehow we have the capability of being separated from God… because of sins or unbelief or some other such nonsense. The truth is we have no power to be here. Either we are connected to God or we cease to exist. So when we hurt because of some physical exclusion it is merely a shadow of a larger reality. That reality is that in Jesus we are INcluded where it really matters- in the very life and being of God.
So now the reason you hurt when you are told that you are excluded is simply because you are INcluded. If someone were to twist my arm it would surely hurt, but only because my arm is attached to my body. If the arm were separated from me that person could twist it all day long and it would not hurt. You are included in Jesus and the lie that you are excluded hurts simply because there, on your Spiritual DNA, is written the truth that you belong to the Father, Son, and Spirit and you always have and you always will.
So let us resolve to include others in much the same way we have been included in the Trinity… without reservation, judgment, or prejudice.
~Bill Winn
Pinocchio and the Resurrection
Filed under: By Jonathan Stepp, Gospel, Perichoresis, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity | Tags: Easter, Jesus, Resurrection, Salvation
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This post is an edited version of an article that first appeared in the March, 2009, edition of The Adopted Life.
Jesus’ resurrection is often explained in terms of his Divinity. The reasoning tends to go something like this: Since the Son of God can’t stay dead, when Jesus rose it proved that he really was the Son of God. That’s true, in as far as it goes. However, as with so much of the gospel, the complete picture is lost by neglecting Jesus’ humanity when trying to work out what is happening. Jesus himself is the good news that we call “the gospel”. He is the gospel because he is fully God and fully human. That means that he is the union of Divinity and humanity, the union of the Trinity with the human race. And that is good news for us! When we look at Jesus we see that we are with God and God is with us; there is no separation.
Therefore, whatever we look at about Jesus’ life – including the resurrection – we need to see how his humanity explains the event as much as his Divinity explains it. The resurrection is way more than Jesus just proving that he is God the Son by getting up after a hard day’s work and heading home.
To think more fully about the resurrection we might do well to start by thinking about the Father’s purpose for humanity. Scripture tells us that the Father created us so that he could adopt us as his children in Jesus (Eph. 1:5). The Catechism of the Episcopal Church expresses it this way: “The divine Son became human, so that in him human beings might be adopted as children of God.” (The Book of Common Prayer, pg. 850.) The Father did not create us so that he would have some people to save from sin. He created us so that we could share in the joy, love, and peace of the life he has always had with the Son in their Spirit.
This purpose and plan raises a dilemma: how can creatures become children of their creator? That was Pinocchio’s dilemma, if you recall. He was a puppet, but he and Geppetto wanted him to be a real boy and be Geppetto’s son. Like created puppets that want to be real boys, we have to ask how we mere creatures can love, live, and even dance together in the Divine dance of the Trinity. Of ourselves and on our own it is impossible. The only way we will ever be able to really be children of the Father is if the only Son of the Father – the second person of the Trinity – shares with us the Father/Child relationship that he has always had with the Father. We cannot ever, by our effort, make ourselves into children, but the Father can give us that relationship by giving us his Son and pouring out their Spirit on us.
This is the primary purpose for which the Son of God became flesh and made his permanent dwelling with us: to accomplish the plan of adoption by sharing with us his relationship with the Father in the Spirit. His secondary purpose in coming was to deal with our fallen, sinful nature and put that nature to death. The Father’s plan of adoption would have been frustrated by our sin because our sin would have forever blinded us to the adoption accomplished by the Son becoming one of us. So, the Son comes into our humanity to make us children of the Father and to heal the blindness of our sin so that we might see, believe, and enjoy this relationship we’ve been given.
This dilemma of creatures becoming children also has a second aspect besides sin: it is the nature of our bodies. Pinocchio also struggled with this dilemma, being made of wood as he was. He could hardly be Geppetto’s son if he continued to have a wooden head.
Our bodies are corruptible and mortal but true children of the Father must be incorruptible and immortal. We can hardly be children of the immortal Father if we are mortal. How can mortal creatures become immortal children? The only immortal Son – the second person of the Trinity – must share with our corruptible human nature his incorruptible immortality. And this is exactly what he did in his resurrection as the man Jesus. When the Son of God rose in the immortal, incorruptible body of his resurrection (Luke 24:39), he transformed the nature and destiny of the human body and resurrected our human nature in his resurrection.By doing this he makes it possible for us to live forever, not as corruptible creatures, but as incorruptible children. In Jesus the Father is thus bringing many children to glory (Heb. 2:10).
So, Jesus’ resurrection serves at least three purposes (and probably more if we take time to think about it). In order of relevance to the fulfillment of the Father’s plan of adoption, I would say those three purposes are:
1. To raise humanity up as an immortal body in which we may be full children of the Father.
2. To transform our fallen, sinful humanity into glorified humanity which is capable of relating to the Father without the blindness of sin.
3. To prove that Jesus really is the Son of God and Son of Man.
May this Easter season be a celebration in your life of all the goodness that comes from our Father in the immortality of his Son Jesus Christ!
~ Jonathan Stepp
Easter Extravaganza 2013
Filed under: By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Evangelism, Gospel, Love, Rap, Relationships, Song, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity | Tags: God Likes You, Gospel, Hope, Incarnation, Jesus, Rap, Relationships, Resurrection, Song, Trinity
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Fresh AZHEIZ- Mastertjb (Easter March 2013)
Our proclamation of the Gospel on Easter/Resurrection Day at New Life Fellowship Baltimore this year came in the form of singing, dancing, drama, videos and rapping! I wish you could have been there and experienced all the gifted presentations! Because of my in-home studio you can at least hear one of the Resurrection raps I did and get a sense of the flavor of our service that day 🙂
I “flipped the script” on an old Bow-Wow rap song called ***”Freshazimiz” and, in the light of the Gospel, changed it into “FreshAzHeIz”, and rapped to the original trax, placing Jesus at the center!
The Gospel declares to all of humanity that when Jesus died, all of humanity died 2(2 Cor 5:14); and When Jesus rose, all of humanity rose IN HIM (1 Peter 1:3)! The scriptures also say that “as He is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17). This all means that RIGHT NOW, as God the Trinity sees us, we are each as Fresh as Jesus Iz! HaHa! Enjoy! 🙂
***Fresh Az I’m Iz. (C) 2005 SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT. All Copy Rights and Ownership go to Bow Wow and His producer J.D. and every one else that played a role in this song and its album. I am making no money on this and only rap it at Church to my congregation. 🙂
Follow Me (Follow You)
Filed under: By Craig Kuhlman, Love, Relationships, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity | Tags: And Then There Were Three, No fear shame guilt or doubt, Phil Collins
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Regular readers of our blog will no doubt be familiar with this headline and the one who made it, especially as this Sunday caps a season focused on, around, and in him. If we stated, “And then there were three,” we would all know to whom we were referring.
Perhaps Phil Collins did also when, in 1978, he sang “Follow you Follow me,” with hauntingly beautiful lyrics by band members of Genesis, released on their ninth studio album labeled “…And Then There Were Three…” I have come to hear the timeless 1978 original and their first to reach the American Top 40, along with their performance almost thirty years later, Live in Rome (2007) as one of the most beautiful Trinitarian love songs of what Jesus is communicating with his followers. I would encourage all of you to purchase it on your digital media of choice so you can play it as often as you feel moved. I encourage you to listen to the song as you read these written words. You can also listen and view it on YouTube.
Every time I listen to the words, I can’t help but imagine Jesus singing them to each of us…
Stay with me,
My love I hope you’ll always be
Right here by my side if ever I need you
Oh my love
And our response as we proceed through life in relationship with Jesus, sometimes our faith is unwavering…
In your arms,
I feel so safe and so secure
Everyday is such a perfect day to spend
Alone with you
And at other times when we look at the stuff around us, we may hold personal doubt…
I will follow you will you follow me?
All the days and nights that we know will be
I will stay with you will you stay with me?
Just one single tear in each passing year
But then realize there is no need to ever question Jesus’ relationship with us…
With the dark,
Oh I see so very clearly now
All my fears are drifting by me so slowly now
Fading away
I can say
The night is long but you are here
Close at hand, oh I’m better for the smile you give
And while I live
Why is it that we doubt? The fact that he chose to empty himself of his Glory, live on earth as he did, and then die a painful death (while we were still sinners), only to be resurrected and ascended to heaven with all humanity, should quiet our concerns forever, permitting each of us to always stand in relationship with God with no fear, no shame, no guilt, and no doubt.
How can we claim such a thing? Knowing that acts of sin and the shame and guilt that come with it is always nearby? Because of the events of this week, the Father doesn’t look at us the way we look at ourselves. He looks at us through the eyes of the resurrected Jesus, who died for our sins, past, present, future. Because of that, from the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit’s view, there is no reality of fear, no shame, no guilt, and no doubt.
Because we stand in relationship with God from the same vantage point (albeit it’s harder for us to accept ourselves than it is for God to do that), we can respond to the call, Follow me, with no fear, or doubt.
In each passing year (from 1978), when Collins had long brown hair, to the 2007 tour in Rome with no hair, and Tony Banks on the amazing keyboards when his hair went from dark to gray, as we age and experience change, hopefully our faith is growing (not graying) as we follow him, and we will always feel so safe and secure. Our fears drifting by so slowly now, fading away.
As we heed his words to Follow Me, and we reflect on what happened during this Easter week that ended with the inclusion of all humanity (God’s plan from the foundation of the world), let’s rejoice that we stand before him with no fear, no shame, no guilt, and no doubt.
~by Craig Kuhlman
Theology In The Everyday!
Filed under: by Cathy Deddo, Christian Living, Evangelism, Gospel, Relationships, Trinity | Tags: Christian Living, Evangelism, God Likes You, Gospel, Hope, Jesus, Relationships, Trinity
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Theology In The Everyday (Cathy Deddo) – TAH
In our congregation at New Life Fellowship of Baltimore, Maryland, we are focused on conversing about and praying three prayers to God the Father, Son and Spirit together: “Help Us See Who Jesus Is and Who Each of Us Are in Him More Clearly and Personally?”, “Help Us See Who Jesus is and Who We Are in Him More Clearly and Corporately?”, “Help Us to Be and Do Who We Are Together in Him More Clearly and in Our Present Time and Place?”
God the Trinity is hearing and answering our prayers for vision very quickly and Cathy Deddo’s message above is a great start to the “greater clarity” we are looking for from Him! We are sure you will find it helpful too, which is why we are making it available as an audio here. You can also find it as a video here! Grace Communion International is a great group of people to be with, in many of our locations, as we seek to embrace The God Revealed in Jesus Christ! You might want to check one out near you 🙂 If you are ever in Baltimore COME VISIT OUR MULTICULTURAL CONGREGATION! You are Included in the Love and Life of the Father, Son and Spirit, and we won’t let you get in or out of our services without proclaiming it to you! We’re STUCK on The Good News! HaHa! 🙂
God’s Good News For Our Marriages!
Filed under: By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Gospel, Humor, Relationships, Sermons, Trinity | Tags: Christian Living, Gospel, Hope, Jesus, Marriage, Relationships, Single life, Suffering, Trinity
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13.02.17 God’s Good News For Our Marriages (Matt 19.1-12) – TAH
Because Jesus is involved in ALL relationships (both good and bad!), there is Good News for all Relationships! Marriage, then, should be taken seriously – but NOT too seriously! HaHa! Single people will appreciate this Good News audio, too, says Pastor Tim. Check it out!
Small Gadget. Stunning Grace!
Filed under: By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Gospel, Humor, Love, Prayer, Relationships, Trinity, Uncategorized | Tags: Christian Living, Gospel, Grace, Hope, Jesus, Prayer, Relationships, Trinity
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While attending a leadership meeting, taking things out of my backpack, one of my pastor friends noticed my stuff and exclaimed “Inspector Gadget!” I laughed right along with him – proud and guilty as charged! Something similar happened just this past week as I drove a friend to a conference. Pulling out and setting up my iPod, GPS, iPad (GPS plan B!) Bluetooth, phone (phablet and GPS plan C!), and all the accompanying cords and chargers my friend exclaims “Techno Pastor!” I laughed heartily with him as he named and exclaimed me appropriately! Apparently this “gadgety” look follows me everywhere because at a dance this past weekend, as I simply pulled out my phone, a friend of mine exclaims “Pastor Gadget!” All that is enough to make the point that I not only like my gadgets, I actually use them………..and “wuv dem, vewwy, vewwy MUCH!” Haha!
So, imagine my sadness on Superbowl Sunday (after my Ravens victory), when I couldn’t find my favorite Bluetooth and put it back in its special compartment that night! Grrrrrrrr… Where was it??? Slightly frustrated at that late hour of 2am (when I naturally become a “whiney baby”), I decided to be mature and go to sleep. “I’ll find it in the morning after I am rested!” No such luck! Grrrrrr...”Oh,where is my “favowit” Bluetooth?!” “Tim, get a hold of yourself, it is just a little Bluetooth and you have another…and another!” “I know but I want my ‘favowit’ one! Waaaaiillllll!! I don’t wanna use last years model – I want THAT one! Wah-wah-wah-boo-hoo!” After looking everywhere, even reaching out to those who had attended our Superbowl Party to see if it “accidentally” got placed into one of their bags before leaving our home (you know, one of those potentially thieving “friends” who probably liked it as much as me when they saw it! Hmmpf!), I finally KNEW where it was…and it grieved me to no end!
You see, before the Superbowl Game, I had gone to get snacks at the local Giant store. As I left the store I distinctly heard something hit the ground. I looked around, briefly, but didn’t see anything. I proceeded home and all was well – till I couldn’t find my Bluetooth at 2am! Thinking back, I thought, “I must have dropped it in the parking lot and failed to see it! Oh, no! I better rush over there NOW and see if it is still there – or shattered!” I rushed to that part of the parking lot where I remembered dropping something but, again, no luck. Plus, now all kinds of cars were there and surely it had gotten smashed (“Lord, can’t I at least see the remaining pieces of that tiny thing and pay last respects at the burial?! Pleeeeeease?!” Bawl….). Not a piece anywhere! “I know! It’s in the lost and found of the store, turned in by another wonderful gadget loving person!” Nope!!! Triple Grrrrr…
Heading home, defeated, I resigned………to buy another one just like it, RIGHT AWAY, the NEXT DAY! Ha!
It wasn’t to be! For some reason I felt convicted (while researching the Internet for another one) to quiet down, enjoy my “old, rotten Bluetooth’s representing last year’s model”, and to remember the complex financial challenges that had recently sprung up on our family over the past few weeks. That sobered me up right quick! I decided to let that tiny gadget go and trust Father for the more important things. I also decided to become quite “ungadgety” and just get quiet. No TV. No iPod. No CD’s. No radio. No nothin’! Just me, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit! Funny thing happened in that silence! As I prepared to go out on a quiet drive, I heard a “Whisper” – “Have you looked under your bed? Look under your bed!” There was such a certainty about the prodding I didn’t hesitate. Falling to my knees and lifting up the bed sheets I looked to the right. Nothing. Then I looked to the left and – Walla! Right in front of me my small, beautiful, darling, “favowit” Bluetooth! Yay!
It was a real come to Jesus moment! I KNEW Who had directed me and answered my prayer in that silence! Our relational God! No doubt! Talk about a “Holy Ghost” dance! It was on, as I SHOUTED “Thank You Abba Father! Thank You Jesus! Thank You Holy Spirit! HaHaHaHa! Go Jesus, Go Jesus!” I honestly had something akin to “butterflies”! After settling down from the shout came quiet and another “Whisper”. This time “She” said something like “If I care about you and your small Bluetooth, then surely I care about your bigger issues, too, right?! So, no more worrying for you cause I’ll handle the “small” stuff like your Bluetooth AND the “big” stuff like your finances, okay?!” Butterflies again!
Don’t you know that within one week of speaking to me in that way, one of those huge financial issues was solved in a creative and surprising way by this Relational God in and as Stunning Grace?!
My reason for sharing this encounter I had with the Father, Son and Spirit is to remind you that He doesn’t love you, me, or us, despite and apart from our weird idiosyncrasies, but in and through them (and you KNOW you’ve got some too! Ha!) He REALLY Loves, Likes, and addresses us, YOU, as Love, right in the middle of them! He is FREE, as Grace Himself, to meet and address us, YOU, personally, any and everywhere – and does! Period! As my friend Paul Young, author of “The Shack” says repeatedly “If anything matters, everything matters!” In my weirdness, gadgets matter (or at least are fun!….teehee…)
And, just as God the Trinity whispered His Love and Assurance to me in a small thing, perhaps, through me, He is whispering to you now (maybe even SHOUTING), “(Your Name), it is my privilege to meet you anywhere, even in the small seemingly insignificant things of your everyday life, as Love and Stunning Grace! So, no more worrying for you cause I’ll handle the “small” stuff like your _______________ and the “big” stuff like your ___________, okay?!” 🙂
The ONLY Reason You Exist!
Filed under: By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Evangelism, Gospel, Love, Relationships, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity | Tags: Christian Living, Evangelism, Gospel, Hope, Jesus, Purpose, Trinity
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13.01.20 The ONLY Reason You Exist (John 2.1-11) – TAH
God the Father, Son and Spirit refuses to be Who He is without YOU, and Jesus was sent to Share His Love and Life with YOU (whether you like it or not! haha!) I’m begging you to understand and embrace this truth shared graciously in and with you by Jesus, so that you will begin to enjoy life more as it really is! Who knows, you may even find yourself freely sharing it with others! Be encouraged!
Athanasius of Alexandria
Filed under: Christian Living, Perichoresis, Relationships, Trinity | Tags: Athanasius, Bill Winn, Black History, Church History, Contra Gentes, Early Church, Incarnation, On the Incarnation, Patristic, St. Athanasius
Leave a comment Well here at the end of Black History month in the U.S.A. I thought I would take the time to acquaint or reacquaint the readers of Trinity and Humanity with one of the greatest heroes of the Christian Church who happens to have been from Africa.
Over the course of nearly 2000 years the Christian Church has had before it a singular question: “Who is Jesus?” In the Christian Church ours is the task of viewing all of our thoughts about God through the lens of Jesus. We have many resources available to us, such as the Bible, the Creeds, the witness of the Early Church Fathers, and most importantly the Father, Son, and Spirit’s personal witness to us in Jesus. But still the quest for us is to know Jesus as he knows us with his Father and the Spirit. In the history of the Christian Church there are certain figures that are remembered for their contributions in answering the question: “Who is Jesus?” Some of those names are Peter, Paul, Polycarp, Tertullian (who coined the word Trinity), Irenaeus, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus, Alexander of Alexandria, and even up until the time of Augustine of Hippo and beyond. There is one man though whom I am excited to tell you about. He is like the Superman of Early Church Fathers. His name is Athanasius of Alexandria. He was born around 298 A.D. and died 2 May, 373 A.D. Athanasius was a Coptic Egyptian. His detractors called him “The Black Dwarf”. His life was extraordinary. He basically penned the Nicene Creed at the Council of Nicea in 325. Athanasius held the line against something called the Heresy of Arius. Arius and his followers denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. Arius taught people that Jesus was a created being and that he was not God. Athanasius was Triune God’s champion in the fight against this heresy. He endured multiple attempts on his life by the Arians and even the Roman government sought to have him imprisoned and killed but alas he died of natural causes peacefully around the age of 75 surrounded by his friends.
Sometimes we suffer (as C.S. Lewis called it) from chronological snobbism. This just means that sometimes we think we are better than the Early Church because we are more modern or more knowledgeable. We make a huge mistake if we discount the work of the Early Church Fathers as primitive or naive. Especially in Athanasius do we find a very sophisticated, systematic, and developed theology. Athanasius connects the dots for us on many areas of Christian thought and probably no one has written more brilliantly and succinctly than him on the Incarnation. His treatise, On the Incarnation of the Word, is the benchmark in terms of commentary on the Son of the Father becoming human. Athanasius was also the first person to list all of the 27 books of the New Testament, nearly 100 years before the New Testament was canonized, and he even listed them in the order we have them today.
Athanasius is a giant among the Early Church Fathers who has much to say for our benefit today. I implore you to read On the Incarnation of the Word and Contra Gentes.
Thank you Father, Son, and Spirit for the life and work of St. Athanasius and for sharing with him your burden that the human race come to know you as we are known by you and share in your eternal life of love and acceptance. Amen!
~Bill Winn
A Voice From Heaven!
Filed under: Bible, By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Evangelism, Gospel, Relationships, Sermons, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity | Tags: Bible, Christian Living, Evangelism, Gospel, Grace, Jesus, Relationships, Trinity
Leave a comment 12.12.30 A Voice From Heaven (Luke 3.7-22) This message proclaims the Good News of Jesus Christ and shows that things aren’t always as they first appear when we read scripture! This message of apparent “bad news” from John the Baptizer is actually called “the Good News” by Luke. How can that be based on how Luke describes John’s fiery preaching? Well, AT THE BEGINNING of this Gospel, Luke proclaims that his writing is a Word from the Lord about the Lord! Plus, John is communicating what he heard from “a Voice from Heaven”. This overarching context of the Lord Who proclaims Himself through the scriptures (and in our brokenness!), must be remembered as we read through the scriptures!