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He knew us before we were born.

Psalm 139:13-16

13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

This is the Word of the Lord.

O Lord, which way?

Have you come to the Lord seeking direction when you really already knew what you wanted to do? It may have been more a case of seeking blessing on the decision you had already made.

It is a dangerous path. In Jeremiah 42 Johanan and the remnant of Judah were fleeing in fear of the Babylonians. They sought out Jeremiah so that he could inquire of God about what they should do. Their intent was to flee to Egypt where they thought they would be safe.

Jeremiah agrees to their request and petitions God. Johanan and the remnant with him agree that they will abide by what God says. God says that the people are to stay and that he will protect and prosper them but if they go to Egypt they will be overcome by sword, famine and plague.

Well this is not what they wanted to hear and in their fear of the Babylonians they fled to Egypt anyway.

Let us be sure we are ready to obey if we ask the Lord for a direction.

Spiritual Growth

Peter writes in 2 Peter 1:5-8

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Upon reading this I thought "see how the qualities build upon one another. And if it is building, then it is really amazing that brotherly kindness and love are last on the list."

It is my experience that we are told in church and society that we should be loving and kind to each other. The other qualities are not mentioned so much. But when I think about it and reflect on this passage, the ability to really love and show true kindness needs a foundation. It is not easy to be loving when times and people are difficult. Therefore, we must have faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, and godliness to back it up, to keep us focused on why we are doing what we are doing. Focused on what we should be doing.

Now these qualities are not actually steps to be taken one after the other but are to be cultivated together. Peter says: "For if these qualities are yours and are increasing..." meaning they reinforce and increase together. This is the process of spiritual growth.

As an exercise think about these the other way around, probably like we normally would. Increasing love leads to brotherly kindness which leads to godliness, to perseverance, to self-control, to knowledge, to goodness, to faith. Or we could mix and match to yield more insights.

How shall we grow? Find particular qualities to work on, that may need strengthening. As you do, check on the qualities that come from what you are working on.

Where is the Trinity in the Bible?

There is a lot of discussion about the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, but where is the Trinity, or where does it say that Jesus is God and not just the Son of God?

I basically got that question on a phone call from out of the blue. The caller was not just asking for information, though that is how he started. He had a point of view that he wanted to defend and it did not support the Trinity.

Well, I got into a couple of verses off the top of my head, like John 1:1-3, but he had ready arguments that would take some research to address. Eventually it was clear that he was not seeking an answer but rather to push his point of view so I had to end the call.

Still, I was left wanting more specific references. I still like the John passage but here are some others:

1 Corinthians 8:6

yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for
whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things
came and through whom we live.

This is a very compelling verse which talks about the Father and Jesus Christ as aspects of the Trinity and how we interact with those aspects of the Trinity. It is so deep that I can image whole volumes could be written on this verse alone.

Colossians 2:9

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,

It does not get much more specific than that.

Romans 9:5

Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ,
who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

Unless this verse above is considered more specific.

The beginning of John that I mentioned earlier concludes the opening section in verse 18 with this clear reference to Jesus' divinity:

one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only,who is at the Father's
side, has made him known.

Another verse that I find interesting is this:

Matthew 28:19

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

Maybe I am making too much out of this but the interesting part is that it says "in the name" and not "in the names." Probably some Hebrew scholar or English teacher can set me straight on this.

I find these verses to contain compelling evidence of the Trinity and I would hope that they would be on the "top of my head" next time a "discussion" comes up.

Blessings,

Steve

The benefits of Unity

Psalm 133
A song of ascents. Of David.

1 How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!
2 It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down upon the collar of his robes.
3 It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.

In my prior blog post the relative importance of unity verses faithfulness (avoiding heresy) were discussed. It was not to say that unity was not important nor is unity without benefits and blessings.

In the passage above we see "how good and pleasant" unity is. It is something to seek and strive for even though it should not become an end in itself above God.

So let us seek unity and enjoy its benefits whenever we can. Avoid the things that create disunity when possible, for God is good and wants to bless us.

Preachers - preach the Word of God

Jeremiah 23:11-12 (New International Version)

11 "Both prophet and priest are godless;even in my temple I find their wickedness," declares the LORD.
12 "Therefore their path will become slippery; they will be banished to darkness and there they will fall. I will bring disaster on them in the year they are punished," declares the LORD.

This is a stark warning to the prophets and priest of a apostate Israel but the echos of the warning resound through our western churches today. The warning is to only preach what God has ordained and not the ear tickling and agenda driven messages that we sometimes hear.

When I read the verses above I was reminded of a gathering I attended of churches in our denomination about a year ago. The sermon preached at that meeting had as a major theme: unity is more important than heresy. To say it another way, the preacher proposed that it was more important for the church(es) to stick together than for God's Word to be acurately adhered to.

What was he thinking? What is our purpose? Are we to keep the "club" together or to spread the truth of God at all costs? If we are not true to God's word what is the point?

God has an opinion about these questions. In Israel's case, they were judged and dispersed. Even those with a "unity" agenda can not defy a holy God.

May we all be careful in what we say, especially on behalf of God and the church.