A Layman’s Thoughts

иконографияПравославни икониSong of Solomon 4:9-10

Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck. How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!

My sister, my spouse! This jumped off the page to me and the Spirit began bringing other Scriptures to my mind and showing me a tiny bit about the intimacy of the relationship He wants to have with us. It’s amazing! Listen to how He sees us in Intimacy With Christ

We want to please God.  We read that without faith it is impossible to please Him.  Yet we get all wrapped up in performance.  The minute we “try to do better” we shift the focus from Him to ourselves.  What we do does not dictate who we are.  Who we are dictates what we do.

Listen to my latest message, Stop Trying, to learn more.  Walk in freedom, joy, and peace!

God is The Source! Every good and perfect gift is from above, but there is more to it than that. In Him we live and move and have our being. If you’re feeling down or stressed, the answer isn’t shopping or eating, or drinking, or any other thing that comforts the flesh. The answer is The Source.

Listen and be freed.

If you have ever wondered what is going on in this crazy world.  If you find yourself concerned, even frightened, about the direction things seem to be heading.  If Oprah Winfrey’s “many paths to God” doctrine has you scratching your head, if you can’t figure out what is going on with cults like the FLDS where 400 children were taken from their homes, this message is for you.

Grace and peace in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.  I hope you enjoy this one.

What is the World Coming To?

Scripture tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God, but just what does faith look like?  Is it something we can work up within ourselves?  Listen to my latest audio message and hear what the Word has to say.

I gave a message entitled “The Easy Yoke” last night.  The audio can be found at the link here, or over on the Audio page as usual.  This message stems from the passage in Matthew where Jesus says “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me… for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

I hope you find it encouraging.

I brought a message last week entitled “The Constant Battle“.  This came out of some struggles with the flesh I had been dealing with.  I found strip poker virtueltorneo poker gratisjugar omaha pokertorneos de poker gratisbajar juego pokercartas lineapoker descubiertojuegos de poker eroticospai gow poker portalesbwin pokerjugar poker internetjuegos de poquerjugar poker lineapoquer on linejuego de poker pcjuego de poker online gratisstip poker gratispoker caribe portal internetpoker gratis en internettexas holdem rulesjugar poker omahajuego al instante webaprender jugar pokercaribbean poker portal internetstrep poker on linejugar a poker gratispoker online sincomo jugar poker texastutorial pokerpoker pctorneos pokerbonus pokercrack rebel pokercaribbean stud pokercasino pokeromaha high pokerdescarga gratis de pokertexas holdem casinojuego al instante lineade juegos de pokerpoker pagina internetcartas webjuego poker on line,poker on line,streep poker on linejugar poker on linejuegos eroticos pokerpolli poquercomo jugar a pokeraprender pokerpoker de 5 cartaswww poquer the Word helpful and I hope you will too.  Have a listen.

I taught from Philippians 3 on Thursday night. The message is entitled Circumcision!.

This post is just a reminder that the Audio page contains the recordings of messages I’ve given recently. I’ve put new ones up today, so be sure to drop by.

I have been thinking a lot about my last two posts on Grace. Since I wrote them I have felt that I really did not say everything that was on my heart. Therefore I have decided to rewrite them and post new versions. This entry is simply to make you aware of my plan so that you realize that the similarities are purposeful.

John 3:16 tells us that God loved the world so much that He gave His One and Only Son. He did this, the Scripture goes on to say, so that anyone who believes in Him could have eternal life.

A lot of times we stop right there, and if we would really meditate on what that actually means, that would be OK, but people like me miss a very important implication. God in His providence saw that this would be the case, so He inspired John to write the next sentence too. John went on to write that God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn the world.

This is a message that many in the Church seem to have lost. For most of my life I was taught that I should point out people’s sinful actions. That I should be salt in the world by making clear, verbally and by my own conduct, exactly what the behavioral standard set by God Himself required of people.

But this is not what Jesus Christ did when He walked the earth. Moreover, it is not what He teaches that I am to do–if I am willing to be honest about what I read. If I am willing to trust Him with the ramifications of what Scripture actually does teach, if I will have faith rather than fear, I will remember that the salt to which Jesus Christ referred was not for rubbing into wounds, but rather for seasoning and bringing out flavor. Scripture makes this point with significant clarity in Colossians 4:6 where we read, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

The message that God was sending was this, “¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” II Corinthians 5:18-19 (NIV)

This message of reconciliation is nothing like the message of hell-fire and brimstone I heard preached in my youth. First of all, it says that God was not counting men’s sins against them. That is a dangerous sounding thought to the ears of a good Christian fellow such as me. While anyone who believes—that is to say, anyone who believes and thereby accepts the reconciling act of God in Jesus Christ—may have eternal life, it’s important to note that this is very different from saying that “everyone” may have eternal life. Anyone may, but not everyone will.

So God is not saying that sin doesn’t matter. Sin committed by our forefather Adam caused each of us to have a sinful nature. It did this because it gave to God’s enemy the authority (or dominion) over the world that God had given to mankind in the Garden of Eden. God’s record of having given this dominion is found in Genesis 1:26-28 where we read, “²⁶And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. ²⁷So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. ²⁸And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

This giving over of our authority over the world caused us each to be slaves to the (so called) god of this world. We sold ourselves into bondage.

The radical thing that God is saying is that forgiveness has already been given. He’s saying that payment of the sin debt of every person, has already been made. All that anyone needs to do is believe Him and thereby receive the gift God has made available. This is why the Word says, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” (John 1:12)

There’s more to come… stay tuned.

I’ve been ignorant for most of my life to this point. I was raised in a Christian home and became a child of God at around age 12. If you asked me I would have told you then, as I’d tell you now, that it is by grace we are saved, through faith, and that not of itself, it is the gift of God lest any man should boast. I would have told you that there was nothing you or I could do to make ourselves righteous in God’s sight.

Although I had this strong doctrinal base firmly rooted in my heart, I still didn’t really understand it. I spent many years thinking that somehow the way I was acting at a given point in time affected my relationship with God. If I was “misbehaving” He was upset with me and withheld His blessings, but if I could only purify myself by holding my behavior to a very high standard He would once again make His face to shine upon me and give me peace.

This was a sad roller-coaster of a way to live the life of a disciple. Sometimes I was doing well and God was pleased with me, and other times–most times–I was messing up and He was upset and had to punish me.

For the life of me I could not grasp how the writers of books and hymns could have actually experienced all the freedom, peace, and joy their writings claimed.

Grace is the Good News! Grace is the secret that God had kept hidden for ages and generations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Now I want to try to write about Grace and what it means in practical terms. I’ll be making some statements that will shock some good God-fearing Christian people, and I hope the shock causes them to search the Scriptures to see if what I say is taught there or not. I’ll be making a lot of statements that will seem risky or scary too. Some will be deeply concerned that people will take advantage of what I write and use it as license to live in the flesh, to sin.

This will be challenging for many, refreshing for others, revelatory for those interested and willing to hear what the Word of God actually says.

Intrigued? Watch for the next installment entitled “The Message of Grace”

Seeking Faithfulness Blog has ceased to allow comments and shuttered its doors to discussions about child rearing, pastoring, etc. But Holly has turned her attention to a series of posts in which she talks candidly about her life and walk of faith. She is an excellent writer and knows the Lord well. Consequently, she expresses how He has been at work in the life of her family and has the freedom not to suger coat everything to make herself look good.

Jesus said, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8 KJV)

Holly is exemplifying this. I think maybe this is the most important thing we should really be doing as Christians. Too many times we talk about social issues, politics, doctrine, sin and punishment. Instead perhaps, we should exude that sweet smelling aroma of the wonderful Grace of Jesus. We should glorify Him by telling what He has done for us.

As for me; He has shown me that I often get off track and split hairs and discuss rules of men rather than being His witness. I just preached a message at our church entitled “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us“. At the end of the day, it all comes down to love. God is Love. The more deeply I understand that, the more encouraging I am to my siblings in Christ and the more the Love of Jesus oozes out of me to those who are without hope and without God in the world as I once was.

Go Holly, Go! And may the Peace that passes all understanding go with you.

Holly over at Seeking Faithfulness appears to have decided to cease blogging–at least for a while. One of the things she says factored into her decision is that no matter what she wrote, someone took offense. You can see the post here: Slow Death of a Blog

I want to state for the record here that though there are many who profess to follow Jesus Chirst, yet do not understand grace or the freedom we have in Christ, Holly is not one of them. She really gets it, and I am ashamed of the “Christians” who read her blog and then take offense at her comments.

People get offended for one reason–THEY CHOOSE TO BE OFFENDED. Honestly, we should all quit with this politically correct trash and remember not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, as Paul (inspired by the Holy Spirit Himself) told us in Romans 12:3 “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” (KJV)

Personally, I am inclined to agree with Brad Stine, a Christian comedian, who says on his latest DVD “Wussification” that he has decided to be offended by offended people.

Honestly people; get over it. Or as Mr. Stine would say, “PUT A HELMET ON!”

I’ve posted links to recordings of some of the teaching I’ve been doing of late. You can find a list on the Audio page. I plan to list the three most recent in bold text so that there is some sense of time in the listings.

Drop by and have a listen!

I get lots of great stuff from:

It helps me keep doing this if you get yours using my links too!

I know it’s been almost two months since you’ve heard from me here, but I am finally back–I hope .

The summer months have been consumed by family duties associated with some big changes, such as the relocation of our daughter and son-in-law and their two children to our home for a while.

Now that I am finding a bit more time, I’ll be posting links to the audio of some teachings I have done at our church over the last couple of months. Another thing that took some of my cycles this summer was setting up a Web site for our church at http://www.aBetterCovenant.org . If you surf over there you can actually find my teachings, intermingled with those of our pastor, now if you are interested.

I changed the theme of A Layman’s Thoughts today. Let me know what you think. I also made it possible to get here using http://www.aLaymansThoughts.com – I hope you like the changes.

All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

There are several versions of an old joke that begins with the question, “What’s black and white and red all over?”. In one version the answer is, “a newspaper.” This morning I want to show you two things: first, this question need not be a joke, and second, the answer is the plan of salvation.
It is clear to thinking people everywhere that we humans need salvation.
• Some religions teach that we perfect ourselves by living better through successive lives, being reincarnated over and over until we learn and practice all that is required.
• Other religions teach that we improve ourselves in our present lives by doing good things and being good people, thus warranting a place in heaven.
• Other religions teach that we must placate an angry god and hope that we can somehow escape the wrath of that god.
• Still others teach that it is all a matter of the mind; of seeing things as they really are and not as they appear.
• One currently popular line of religious thought is that there are many ways to God and that what’s right for you may not be right for me with regard to quote “touching the infinite.”
One way or the other, people in every time and in every place have felt that life is unlikely to end at physical death and that therefore it is important that we somehow ensure our place in heaven, nirvana, Valhalla, or paradise.
So integral is this belief to the lives of most people that we see it in unexpected places such as the despicable acts committed on September 11th, 2001. Educated men were willing to die for their belief that by their acts they would go to heaven. For them heaven was a place where they would be with many virgins forever—what happens to women in that heaven, I’m not certain.
Our Christian faith however, makes other claims. First we have the rather radical belief that there is only one way to God. We see this in Scriptures such as John 14:6 where we read: “I am the Way the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to the Father but by me.” Second we hold the view that salvation comes by no merit of our own nor by anything we can do—it can’t be earned. Scriptures like Ephesians 2:8-9 make this clear. There we read: 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9not by works, so that no one can boast.
It is all very clear. There is no ambiguity. It’s black-and-white.
There are those who would have us believe that this set of basic Christian beliefs is passé—valuable perhaps for our less sophisticated forefathers. They hold the position that the Judeo-Christian belief system has evolved over time and that only now, in our time, have we begun to see the truth. These people argue that the Bible is not the inspired Word of God. It is rather, they say, a collection of writings of significant value. They tell us that Jesus of Nazareth was a special man with a very special and exceptional relationship with God and that he was the greatest moral teacher of all time. While certainly the most remarkable and influential person in history, they hold, He was not God incarnate, but merely a man.
If these claims are true, the Church Catholic has been apostate, without hope and without God throughout history. If these claims are true, all who have ever died have died in their sins. If these claims are true all religious thought until today has been misguided, erroneous, and worthless.
The central question that must be faced is whether a man, even an exceptional man, is capable of providing what Jesus claimed that He provided—the Way to God; salvation.
In Genesis 3;9-13 and 21 we find:
9But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
21The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
The immediate remedy for the first sin was covering of the sinners by the skins of animals. Adam and Eve had sewed fig leaves together. God covered them at the expense of blood. Notice too that God provided the sacrifice and the covering.
In Genesis 4:2-7 we find: “Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. 4But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. 6Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?”
Abel’s offering to God was an animal sacrifice. This was acceptable to God, but Cain’s offering of fruit and vegetables was unacceptable to God. Blood was required.
Genesis 8:18-21 reads: “18So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on the earth—came out of the ark, one kind after another. 20Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.”
Noah’s blood sacrifice was a “pleasing aroma” to God. True for Abel, true for Noah, and as we see in Genesis 22:1 and 2, true for Abraham. Genesis 22 reads: 1Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. 2Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”
Isaac was to be Abraham’s legacy, fulfilling the promise of God a few chapters earlier that Abraham would be the father of many nations, yet to test Abraham God asked that he be sacrificed. The region of Moriah is the region of Golgotha. Again, God provides the sacrifice.
Let’s fast forward to Leviticus 1:1 where we find: “1The LORD called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting. He said, 2“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When any of you brings an offering to the LORD, bring as your offering an animal from either the herd or the flock.’”
The Old Testament is filled with examples of blood sacrifice. The Levitical and Deuteronomic law set up a system of priesthood. The priests were men selected by God from the line of Aaron and from the tribe of Levi. Their job was to act as intermediaries between God and the people. They cleansed themselves through prescribed rituals and then made the offerings of the people as a covering for their sins. These offerings had to be made often and they had to be perfect as we see in Numbers 28:3-4, “This is the offering made by fire that you are to present to the LORD: two lambs a year old without defect, as a regular burnt offering each day. 4Prepare one lamb in the morning and the other at twilight,…”
The priests were also required to make special offerings for the sins people committed in ignorance. Since God is perfect and completely Holy, the mere fact that people are imperfect required such acts because by comparison to perfection, “all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God.”
Moreover, once each year the high priest entered the Holy of Holies. This was a special place in the temple that contained the Ark of the Covenant, a representation of the presence of God. The Ark had an atonement cover, or “mercy seat”, which was the place where God promised to meet His people through their representative, or intermediary, the high priest.
Scriptures such as these set the stage for communication of a great Truth. They are the precursor to further instruction and a dim preview of a coming event. From them we learn that blood is the necessary element for the forgiveness of sin. We learn that meeting with the Holy God requires cleansing.
Now let’s fast-forward again; this time to the New Testament.
Ephesians 2:11-18 makes the work of Christ clear. There we read: “11Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (that done in the body by the hands of men)—12remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
14For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Hebrews 10 contains Paul’s mini-sermon to the Jews on the topic…
Hebrews 10
1The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, 4because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, O God.’ “
8First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them” (although the law required them to be made). 9Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. 13Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, 14because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
15The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
16 “This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”
17Then he adds:
“Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more.”
18And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.
19Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
If Jesus was only a man, however exceptional and good, He could not provide the kind of sacrifice required to atone for our sins. It is impossible for God to accept what is less than perfect. We cannot attain perfection on our own. Therefore God cannot accept us without our being made perfect by some other means. This creates a serious dilemma because God created mankind as the necessary expression of His perfect Love.
Scripture tells us not merely that God loves, but that He is love. If God loves and in fact is love, He necessarily loves perfectly—infinitely. Perfect love requires an object. To be said to have love, one must love someone or something. How could it be possible to love nothing?
Now imagine loving someone who does not love you in return. Can you imagine something greater? Certainly—and consequently this kind of love would be imperfect and therefore incompatible with God. The more perfect love you can imagine is loving someone who loves you in return. This is obviously better!
In this way we see that for God to be perfectly or infinitely loving, He would need to express that love, but not in the way that a child might love a Teddy Bear—with love that is not returned. Perfect love would need to be expressed to someone with the capacity to love in return. First John 4:12 points us in this direction, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”
Someone might argue that God could then simply have created beings who love Him by their nature; beings who love Him because they are created for that purpose; who must love Him. This line of thought would be flawed however, because again we can imagine something better, or more perfect, than loving someone who is forced to love us in return. Loving someone who loves us in return because they choose to love us of their own free will would be immeasurably better.
For this reason, God created us with freedom of will, as free moral agents. Within our temporal existence, we are free to love God, or not.
And so we see that God desires a relationship with us, but for that to be possible the impossible must happen; we must be made perfect; righteous. Only a perfect sacrifice can accomplish this impossible task.
We are left with one remaining problem. What happened to all the people who died before Christ came? If they are left out of this plan, our position is little better than the idea that our faith has evolved over time and that only now are we beginning to see the truth of the matter. One thing we have to remember is that God is eternal. This does not so much mean that He was before the world and will continue after it as it means that He is outside time altogether. This is a concept we cannot really grasp, but one mechanism some find helpful is to think that for God, every time is present simultaneously. Christ’s sacrifice was “once for all” as we see in several passages including our earlier reading in Hebrews 9:12b, “he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.”
These ideas and the many Scriptures that expand on them lead us inexorably to the knowledge that Jesus, while fully human, was also fully God. Only a perfect sacrifice could provide the required payment for our sins, and only a perfect Jesus could be such a sacrifice. Don’t let those who would deconstruct the Bible and treat it as a merely-historical document sidetrack you with their “fine-sounding arguments.” Put your faith in Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of your faith and hold fast to the truths you were taught.
The plan of salvation is black and white and red all over. Jesus is God. Don’t let anybody tell you different.

All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Romans 8:3b1-39
31b …If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

As children many of us learned the song “Jesus Loves Me.” The words of this song echo in our minds; “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong; they are weak, but He is strong. Yes Jesus loves me, yes Jesus loves me, yes Jesus loves me; the Bible tells me so. Another verse reminds us as adults, “Jesus loves me still today, walking with me on my way…”

It is a simple song, but like many simple things it communicates a profound Truth. Our God is not an angry deity in the sky seeking to punish us at every whim. He is a loving God; in fact He is Love!

Such a God could not, and does not, leave us without hope. He does not ignore our needs and desires. Scripture tells us to cast all our cares upon Him, for he cares for us (I Peter 5:7), and, delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4).

It is easy for us to grow confused about living the Christian life. We apply what Paul calls “the elementary principles of this world” to our relationship with God and we become unsettled. But as we read in Second Timothy 1:7, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound mind.” (KJV) Again in Luke 12:32 we read, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

However we live in a world of things we can see and things we can touch. If it doesn’t register with our senses, it is often difficult to believe in its existence. God however, does not exist merely in the realm of the temporal. He transcends time and space. Nothing is impossible with Him.

First John 3:1 puts it this way: “How great is the love the Father has lavished upon us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” Connecting that with verse 32 of our passage this morning, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”

Just think about what it is that God has done! God provided the covering and sacrifice for our sins. We can look at examples from Genesis where God gave Adam and Eve clothing made from the skins of animals and again where He supplied the substitutionary sacrifice allowing Abraham to set Isaac free. The most incredibly loving act of God is well expressed in a verse we all know. “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.” (John 3:16, KJV) In reciting this verse however, we sometimes miss what comes next. John 3:17 reads: “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.”

This does not mean that we can simply live a life of sin and rebellion against God. Paul makes that very clear in Romans 6:1-4 where we read, “1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

What it does mean is that though we were hopelessly lost and unable by virtue of our sinfulness to have a relationship with God; though we deserved only death; God provided a way of salvation! In His great love and tender mercy, God made a way for us to be reconciled to Himself, and not merely as what we might call “friends of God”, but as children! Romans 8:15-17 tells us, “15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory.”

One of the great truths preached by John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, comes from this passage. Scholars and theologians call it “assurance of salvation.” It is the idea that the Spirit of God confirms within us that we are the children of God. What a glorious thing it is to be certain of what the future holds for us!

Salvation is a great and wonderful thing, but it can sometimes be hard to relate it to our daily lives. We can easily see how God provides for our eternal needs, but what of the here-and-now? We struggle with troubles in our lives, with temptation that besets us and to which we often give in, with emotional uncertainty and guilt. Does God care about these things? The answer is a resounding “yes!” God says that we may cast all our cares on Him. He declares that He desires to give us the Kingdom. He stands ready to meet every need we have.

Such promises are gifts that must be accepted by faith, as we read in Ephesians 2:8 and 9. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” And what is faith? Hebrews 1:1 gives us the answer. “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

Faith does not mean blindly accepting whatever we hear. Faith means believing that God exists, and that, being perfect, He keeps His promises. What’s more, Hebrews 11:6a tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith allows us to live a life without fear; a life without neurotic self-doubt; a life of inner peace and incredible joy; a life where our needs are fully met!

Our passage this morning asks us;

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Is there any person or being who can do it?
Can trouble do it?
Can hardship?
How about persecution, or maybe famine or nakedness?
Can danger or sword do it?

And then it gives us the unequivocal answer:
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us!

Many times however, we do not feel like conquerors. Instead we feel beaten down and loaded with burdens. This happens because we fail to look in the right direction. In Colossians 3:1 and 2 Scripture tells us, “1Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” There is no cause for concern. When we look at our lives from the proper perspective and remember that we are citizens of the Kingdom of heaven we see that earthly things are inconsequential. What matter is it to us as children of God if calamity comes? Ecclesiastes 1:14 reveals the real truth; “I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” It’s not about the world; it’s about a relationship with God by which we cry abba, Father.

Wouldn’t you like to be free from care; free from worry; free from concern? Wouldn’t you like to be at peace about the things you hear on the news every day? Are you worried that terrorists might attack us yet again? Are you concerned that the tensions in the Middle East might grow into a much larger conflict, perhaps even world war? Are you burdened by cares about the stability of your income? Do thoughts of how you will live in retirement put a little tickle in your stomach? When you hear about school children killing teachers and other students, does it make you feel like things are only getting worse? Does it bother you that the world has the moral fortitude of your neighbor’s dog and that this is not merely accepted, but actually promoted and taught to your children?

I have had all these thoughts and concerns. There was a time when I, like the writer of Ecclesiastes, saw how meaningless life appeared. I had a deep sense of despair. I could see only worse things ahead. Now however, I can go to my Father in heaven with such things and find peace and rest. Don’t get me wrong; I still succumb to the temptation to look at things from an earthly perspective. The difference is that now I have a Rock, a Fortress, and a Deliverer. When by the grace of God I turn my attention back to Him and His Kingdom, I find tranquility and soundness of mind. He gives me clarity of mind and provides a firm foundation on which to rest. Life in vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ is carefree and joyous!

God has given us much, but we must take it! Only when we have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ can we live without worry, concern, fear, and guilt. When we turn to Him we find comfort. He clothes us in His own perfect righteousness, peace, and joy.

I have tried many ways to get this point across, but let me try just one more. If you win the lottery it is of no benefit to you unless you turn in your winning ticket and collect the prize. If you are bequeathed an inheritance, it makes no difference whatsoever unless you claim the money and put it into your bank account.

God says, “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19). He tells each of us what our choices are and then He even tells us which choice to make! It couldn’t be simpler or more elegant. You have been given the greatest inheritance possible. Collect it, deposit it in your heart, and enjoy the benefits. Only then will the profound truth be evident when you say, “Jesus loves me, this I know.”

Mary at Home-Steeped Hope has been active with Blogging games lately and asked folks to answer five questions she posed.

OK, here goes:
1. What book are you currently reading, or have just finished reading?
“The Living God – Systematic Theology Vol. I” by Dr. Thomas C. Oden. This is yet another re-reading of this wonderful work. I recommend this series.

2. If money were no object, where would you live and what would you be doing?
Well we have some roots where we are, but my wife and I just love San Diego. I’d Preach, Blog, make photographs, and do woodworking.

3. Some people crave chocolate or coffee (that’d be me), what do you keep stashed for when the urge strikes?
I don’t stash; I go get it… and my waistline shows it. A “black and white shake”, which is a chocolate milkshake made with vanilla ice cream.

4. What is your idea of how to spend the perfect day?
A leasurely morning with my wonderful wife discussing the Word over coffee.
Processing photos and making cards from them or matting and framing them for sale or as gifts.
A relaxing outdoor lunch at a place with great service with the love of my life.
Making nice end-grain cutting boards in the shop for a while.
Then posting or commenting on Blogs and discovering that my traffic is growing.
Steaks on the grill for dinner followed by some more great alone time with my sweet bride.

5. What spurred you into starting a blog way back when?
I work in the computer software industry and felt out of the loop on “Web 2.0″ so I decided to do something about it. I love to write, but am finding it a lot harder than I’d like.

If you want to play, leave a comment here and I’ll come to your Blog to see the answers.

Here are the five questions I have:

1. Where do you live? (Like in what city and state or province, etc.)
2. What’s something you would really like to have?
3. What would you say is one of your greatest strengths, gifts, or abilities?
4. What theological topic do you think is one of the most confusing or misunderstood?
5. If I were to agree to write about any topic you wanted, what would you have me write about?

OK, have fun!

8 RANDOM THINGS……

Mary over at Home-Steeped Hope tagged me for “8 Random Things” the other day.

This is my post in keeping with the rules, which are:

1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves
2. People who are tagged write a blog post about their own 8 random things and post these rules
3. At the end of your blog you need to tag eight people and post their names
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Here are eight random things about me:

1. I commute by Amtrak train three hours each way to work in Manhattan, NY every day.
2. As a young boy (until age six) I lived in a home with no indoor toilet. We had a two-seat outhouse, though I never recall both seats being occupied.
3. I have traveled to every continent on earth except for Antarctica.
4. The most outstanding thing I ever got to do while traveling was take a three-day sight-seeing safari in Africa.
5. I love woodworking and have a great shop in which I spend very little time.
6. I recently took up photography and it has become an excellent hobby. You can see some of my pictures in my online Gallery.
7. I know how to milk a cow by hand, and that has caused me to appreciate milking machines.
8. My last name is pronounced “ice”.

So now I have to tag 8 people. The problem is that I don’t think I know eight people in the blogosphere to tag! I tag: Mrs. Meg Logan. I can’t think of anyone else who hasn’t already been tagged.

I wrote this letter to thank my Dad for some of the ways in which he has blessed me over the years.  Opening it here has been a scarey thing because it is very personal.  I decided to do it because I hope that it will inspire you to do something similar.  In addition, it occurs to me that we might bless the Lord through such a statement to Him in prayer.

Dear Dad,
 

Thank you.  Thank you very very much.  Thank you, from the heart.
 

Too many times people leave important things unsaid while their loved-ones are living.  For some time now I have felt the strong desire to write and say a few of these things.  I have strong feelings for you, as I did for Mom.  I never told her, and I regret it still.  I want you to know how I feel before it is too late to tell you.
 

As early as I can remember, the life we lived felt just right to me.  As I age, I see how it suits me, right down to my toes.  The life we lived fits me like a kid glove and I want you to know how much I appreciate it.
 

I remember one little thing from the Deamers; playing with a metal toy car garage.  I drove cars up the ramp to be fixed, and there is a special place in my heart for those old toys as a result.  The bulk of my young childhood memories however, are from the house on the hill across from Harold Johnson’s.  While I know that you wanted something better for the family, (which you later provided in the home in which you now live) I have vivid and happy memories of the house on the hill—let me share a few.
 

I remember the butternut tree.  We used to wait for the butternuts to fall and pick them up and put them in the cellar for a year until the husks dried out.  Then we would crack them open and have one of the best treats I can remember.  I wish I had some butternuts now.  I can almost taste them, but not quite, and so I wish for them.  Thank you for teaching me about butternuts.
 

I remember the self-propelled reel mower (I think it belonged to the church) that you let me drive all by myself.  The moment is captured in a photograph, and it is one of the most cherished images of my youth.  Thank you for trusting me to run that big machine as a little boy; it made me feel like a man.
 

I remember the pear, apple, and cherry trees and all the berry bushes through which were cut paths like a maze.  Every year we would go out with ladders to pick fruit and with baskets or pails to pick berries.  After we had them all picked, Mom would begin the canning process.  I remember straining juices through cheesecloth and boiling and boiling, and using lots of Certo, and melting wax on the top.  I remember the Ball jars too.  The cellar was loaded with them each year (in fact I think you still have some in the “new” cellar—but you can probably throw them out by this time) and we would enjoy them all winter and into the next spring.  Thank you for raising me in the old style.  It’s something no one else of my age whom I have ever met was privileged to have experienced.
 

I remember the long rutted driveway.  In the winter and spring, the driveway was a special challenge.  I remember getting off the school bus and walking across the road to the open area of snow I thought was the driveway.  As it turned out, it was the ditch next to the driveway, and I fell in right up to my hubs.  What a laugh I had, and what a great story to share with the other kids at school who just walked down their neatly shoveled sidewalks!  I remember too, that often we could not get the cars up to the house in the winter, so we had to take groceries up by sled.  I remember dragging those sleds up the hill and carrying bags.  By the time we reached the top I thought my arms would fall off!  I also remember you masterfully navigating between ruts and high ground as you drove the cars up the hill in bad conditions.  You were my hero when you drove a car.  I’ll never forget the way your strong hand looked on the wheel.  I still compare my little businessman hands to yours today.  Thank you for teaching me how to deal with hardships and how to make do and how to drive like a pro.  Most people go through life without ever understanding any of these things, but I am far ahead of them all because I know them.
 

I remember the outhouse.  In the summer, I was always afraid that a bee was crawling on my bottom, or that one would fly down from the top, but none ever did.  In the winter, we would freeze when we went out, so we used pots in the house that had to be emptied the next morning—by Mom, I guess.  I remember shoveling out the excrement through a kind of trap door in the back and burying it.  Thank you so very much that we had an outhouse.  No one else I know who is anywhere near my age ever had one, so I have always been a little special in that regard.  I also appreciate it because it shows me that newer is not always better.  Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t trade the comfort of my bathroom for an outhouse, but the outhouse never got backed up and failed to flush like the new toilets do—I have occasional nightmares about that.  I am really very glad I got to use an outhouse for six years—and not just the one at Grandma’s house either!
 

I remember that we had a dug well and that we had to be careful not to use too much water so it wouldn’t run dry.  I also remember that when it did run dry, we would go to Whiskey Hollow and get water from there to hold us over.  Thank you for living in such a place and for teaching me that there is always some way to solve a problem.
 

There are a few other memories I have from the house on the hill.  I remember the brown Ford station wagon; scraping, sanding, painting, and (especially) varnishing the wooden boat; my sixth birthday party; the death of JFK and the events that followed; the “Round Oak Heater”; the linoleum on the floor; the rat traps in the cellar and behind the kitchen stove (not to mention that great old stove); the flour sifter in the cabinet; Mom’s old wringer washer; Mom rocking me on her lap in the living room; the curved staircase; the low ceilings upstairs; and the swing you put in the tree in the front yard.  All of these are a significant part of me.  Thank you for creating such great memories for me.
 

I remember moving to the new house when I was six.  At first we kids didn’t want to go, but once we saw the house we couldn’t wait!  I remember stuffing leaves in the holes in the floor that we later learned were not trash receptacles, but heating ducts.  I remember playing in the tall grass, when that was the more prominent feature of what is now a Pine forest.  I remember you showing me Katydids and Praying Mantises and walking sticks, and teaching me not to be afraid of them—although Praying Mantises still look pretty scary to me.  Thank you for moving us to the new place and for teaching me about all those exotic bugs.
 

I remember the “Blizzard of ’66” because that’s when I really learned how to shovel snow.  I remember you cutting blocks as big as the shovel could possibly make and tossing them onto a huge pile.  I remember what you went through to get us milk, walking through waist-deep snow and even going in deeper in the ditch.  You made the winter fun for me and helped me cope with my own winters as a dad with a family.  Thank you so much.
 

I remember vacationing every year at Boulton’s Beach on Lake Ontario where we would go out in that wooden boat we used to paint every year.  I remember the little cabin you would rent, and the huge stone in the water, about as far out as I could go at first.  I remember getting crayons so I could color if it rained.  I remember the barbeques they used to have down by the beach—man were they great!  Thank you for taking me on simple vacations like that and teaching me that great fun can be had without the need to travel to Europe or someplace.
 

I remember camping at various places and finally settling on Golden Beach on Raquette Lake.  I remember having our new fiberglass boat up there and that there were almost no fish at all.  I remember how far we could see down into the water, and that you had a friend from work across the lake who had a huge place and a really fast wooden cruiser that would go sixty miles-an-hour on the water!  I remember rock hopping and having the freedom to roam at will for the entire day.  I remember waking up and freezing to death and sitting by the fire you had made.  I remember setting up, living in, and tearing down the huge Army-style tent that never leaked.  That thing was great, and they just don’t make weatherproof tents like that any more.  I remember our walking or driving excursions around the Adirondacks, going to church in Inlet, and shopping over in Raquette Lake Village.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart for introducing me to camping,  Joan and I have found it one of the greatest pleasures of our lives and we enjoy it still—though we now want air mattresses or a trailer.
 

I remember King, our little horse, and raising chickens and cutting off their heads—what did we ever do with them?  I remember shooting woodchucks, and nearly being fumigated to death by coal gas.  That made for quite an amazing story at school, and it solidified our familial friendship with Mrs. Gridley, my third-grade teacher.  I remember that you built a great little sulky for King, and that we drove him to town sometimes.  I remember you teaching me about the electric fence and how I learned that peeing on it was a bad idea!  I remember cleaning out King’s stall, and miraculously finding living baby rabbits in his pasture.  I remember the path we (mostly you) wore into the yard from the house to the barn by our daily feeding trips.  I remember what to do to water chickens, and that I have to be sure their water doesn’t freeze.  I remember crushing eggshells really small so they would eat them for calcium, but so they would not recognize them as eggshells and begin to eat their own eggs.  I remember selling baby chicks on the bus for a dollar—I wonder what happened to them too.  Thank you for giving me experience with animals.  It has stood me in good stead all these years, even though I have had no farm animals.  It made me a real part of the farming community.
 

I remember haying it up on Judy Cook’s Dad’s place one summer.  I learned an incredible amount that year.  Thank you for letting me go.  That was a big summer for me in many ways, but one of the most continuously vivid was the fact that it was then when I first disobeyed one of your big commands.  You told me not to go in water over my head, but Eugene talked me into swimming after a day loading hay, and I was more than eager to cool off.  The problem was that the pond was over my head.  I told him that I couldn’t do that, but he talked me into it by telling me that he would be right there with me and would save me if anything bad happened.  This is the first time I have ever confessed that to you!  I hope you will forego the spanking.
 

I remember buying new school clothes each year and that paying more than seven dollars for shoes was unacceptable.  I remember that ten cents a pound was the maximum price for bananas.  I remember shopping at the Thrift Shop and getting treasures off the dump.  Thank you for teaching me the value of money, and creating ways to conserve it.  Thank you even more for managing the little you had in such a way that I never knew money was an issue.  I wish I had learned the lessons better.
 

I remember your support for my forays into radio broadcasting and Ham radio.  I remember your support for my bicycle trip to Rochester, and a trip I took with church kids to Illinois.  Thank you for always being proud of my every accomplishment.  It helped me like myself.
 

I remember too laying around on the couch watching westerns on TV, I remember you reading all the time too.  I remember you reading to us; Bold Sir Mose, Mrs. Smart Learns to Skate, Hans und Yacob, and most importantly, the Bible.  You read with expression.  Almost no one does that you know!  You read all the time, and it has been the single most important thing you did in my view.  Thank you so much for teaching me to love reading.  It has made possible my success.  Thank you even more for putting the Bible into my mind and heart by osmosis.  I have always had a store of verses that sprang to mind when the Lord wanted to convict me or help me.  To this day, I find our family Bible reading the most prominently important thing we did growing up.  You were right to do it.  Thank you again.
 

Let me skip ahead.
 

I can’t believe to this day that I was so dependent that I called you to drive the hour-and-a-half from Baldwinsville to Oneida to simply turn the key in my car.  It was flooded, but I had become frustrated and thought it was something serious.  You did not treat me the way I deserved, you just started the car and said something like “they do that some times.”  Thanks, Dad.
 

Jumping further, your insights on tractor maintenance and many other topics have been of great value to me.  There are many things I could not easily have done around my various homes without your encyclopedic knowledge of pretty much everything under the sun.
 

Finally, I want to thank you for your spiritual constancy.  You have always appeared to me to be a paragon of virtue; a tower of spiritual strength; an unmovable rock of faith.  I can see now that you had your weaknesses and struggles spiritually, but they were never apparent to me in my formative years—which is pretty much everything prior to forty by the way.  Particularly I think of how you showed me (and show me still) by your attitude that the things of the world are unimportant.  Nothing really seemed to faze you.  Although I know that you experienced deep pain in the loss of Donnie and Mom, I also knew beyond all doubt that you believed what you taught us all those years about heaven and hell.  When I heard the stories about things people said when the garage caught on fire, and saw the way God blessed both you and others through it, I was profoundly blessed.  When I see your attitude toward your own eventual death, I am comforted greatly.  I know that your passing will bring deep sorrow and pain for me, but I also know that I will celebrate.  You taught me (and continue to teach me) how.
 

There are so incredibly many other things for which I want to thank you, but I simply remember them at other times, and so I will close this letter.  Thank you Dad, for everything.  I love you from the bottom of my heart.  I know that our Lord has a great mansion for you to enjoy in His presence.
 

See you there,
Your son (and brother in Christ),
Larry

All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

I was recently asked whether the Trinity was eternal.  Let me begin this dissertation with two foundational Scriptures that point us in the proper direction.

 John 1:1-3 and 14

 “¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning.   ³Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”

^“14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only*, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

* or the Only Begotten

Genesis 1: 1-2 and 26

^“1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ²Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”

^“26Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.””

In the passage from John we see that the Word was in the beginning, was with God, and was God.  Following this we are told that the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.

In Genesis we read of God creating the heavens and the earth, of the Spirit of God hovering over the waters.  Then in verse 26 a surprising thing happens.  The account switches to the plural!  “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.”

So we see that the Word is the God-man Jesus who came to earth and that through Him was created everything that was made.  In the creation account we find God about the business of making.  The Spirit of God is present in the account, and when humankind is to be created, God refers to His image as “our image” and “our likeness.”

The Nicene Creed follows this logic.

“I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.

Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the living and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life; who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spake by the prophets.

And I believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.” 

It is important to remember also that there is one God, yet three persons.  Scripture tells us that God does not change (Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8).  Therefore, if the Trinity exists today, it has always existed.  In John 17, verse 5 we see Jesus praying to God the Father, “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”

 While there are other passages in Scripture that point to the eternal nature of the Trinity, this short discussion speaks clearly and is sufficient to show that the Trinity—God—is indeed eternal.

All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Galatians 5:1, 13-25¹It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
¹³You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.
¹⁴The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
¹⁵If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
¹⁶So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
¹⁷For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.
¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
¹⁹The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;
²⁰idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions
²¹and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
²³gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
²⁴Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.
²⁵Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 

Mary from Home-Steeped Hope made a recent comment here that reminded me of this topic.  Mary talked about how her Dad discusses the nine elements listed here as aspects of the single fruit of Love.  I agree.  Here is another thought on this passage:Most of us don’t want to be thought of as fruity, but I think we should.  In fact, I not only think we should be thought of as fruity; I think we should actually be fruity!As a boy, my parents taught me to put other people first.  Such values were once stressed more generally than they are today.  In recent years I have found myself asking how we got to where we are today.  Why is there such a lack of respect for authority?  Why is it necessary to pass laws about “road rage?”  Why are kids shooting people in school?   At one time I became rather depressed thinking about such things.  It seemed that the world was becoming worse and worse, and I looked toward the future with fear and worry. I have come to see that the reason for these things is that such degeneration is the way of the world.  It is its “natural” state.  What I mean is that left alone, things generally deteriorate over time.  If you have a car that never gets started, it becomes unusable after a while.  Things rust.  Food rots.  Muscles atrophy.  They even tell me that the rotation of the globe is slowing and that the sun will someday burn out. All of this points to something very important.  Without some form of sustenance, the world cannot improve or even continue.  What is this sustenance?  The omnipotent hand of God. Although we know that the world will be truly restored only by His return, Scripture shows us that God’s people are His chosen instruments in the world.  We who are Christ followers are what God uses to accomplish His will and to make the world better.  In Matthew chapter 13, Jesus tells us ¹³â€œYou are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.  In John 15:5 He says, ⁵“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. I have been thinking about why God has used these metaphors to describe His people.  Salt flavors and preserves.  It can do this because of certain properties it has.  If it loses those properties, it is of no value.  This is why Jesus says, “…if the salt loses its saltiness… it is of no value except to be trampled.”  We have the same effect on the world.  We flavor and preserve it.  Branches do not produce fruit; they bear fruit.  The production of the fruit comes from the root… the Vine.  In the same way that salt has natural properties, Christians—those who live by the Spirit—have certain natural properties too. 

This passage in Galatians lists nine of them.  (I think you could find eleven if you searched a bit.)  Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. The real question we must ask is, how do we manifest these properties?  Verse 17 says, “…the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.”  This is a struggle we all face.  We want to do what is right and good… but that guy in the checkout line went back three times for things he forgot and then took 5 minutes to write a check! Although I’m sure this will be shocking for all of you to learn, it will come as no surprise whatsoever to my wife and our children… I am not perfect!  I find myself struggling with this conflict on a daily basis.  I want to be popular and accepted, so I find it a challenge not to join in when others are talking about the latest ridiculous decision by their boss.  I love my family dearly, but there are many times when I fail to demonstrate patience, kindness, and gentleness toward them.  I’ve lost a lot of my saltiness.  I don’t do a very good job of bearing fruit. As it turns out, I am in good company. In another of his epistles (Romans 7:18b-25), Paul, the writer of Galatians, tells us, ^18b “…I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 

…and we call him Saint Paul!  He continues… ^{20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.  21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.  22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;  23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.  24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?  25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! Thus we struggle, yet our passage in Galatians tells us “…live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” And “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.”  These statements have confused me a great deal.  It seems that the harder I try to do what is right and have the fruit of the Spirit, the worse job I do.   What we are to learn from this is that we truly only bear fruit.  It is the Spirit within us who produces the fruit.  It is our job simply to be servants of the Most High.  It is God who changes us.  Philippians 2:13b says “…it is God who works in [us] to will and to act according to His good purpose.” This is a big relief!  Our job is to be listening, paying attention, and obeying what is revealed to us.} Colossians 2:6-8 talks about this.  We read: ⁶So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him,  ⁷rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.  ⁸See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. Here we see the concept clearly.  It is not by the principles of the world that we are to become people of good character.  We are simply to live in Christ.  To be rooted in Him.  To be fruity, we need to build our relationship with God by talking to Him.  We need to listen to Him by reading His Word.  We need to pay attention, so that we can obey as much as has been revealed to us.  If we are filling our minds with the things of God, we learn to know Him better.  As we do that, our desire is for Him and our life becomes an exercise in pleasing Him.  Our faith is what pleases Him, and as our faith grows, the fruit will come… and people will probably think we’re fruity. When I was young there were people we called “Jesus Freaks.”  I think today, we should each be called “Jesus Fruits!”  If we as Christians bear the fruit of the Spirit, there is a direct effect on the world.  We temper the devolving tendency of society.  We flavor the world.  We show an example, a little peek for the unenlightened, into the Kingdom of Heaven.