Reflections........

REFLECTION:

A thought, idea, or opinion formed or a remark made
as a result of meditation;

 an effect produced by an influence

Earlier tonight I was reflecting on some of the people in my life who have been so precious to me.  I have had an amazing life and have been blessed with so many inspirational people along the way.  Some were misguided in their beliefs and teachings about Christianity, but they are still precious to me because I believe with my whole heart they did the best they knew to do at the time.

Before he settled in for the evening, Daddy and I listened to the Gaither Gospel Hour production of a Tribute to Billy Graham.  What an amazing man and an amazing life lived for the Lord!  As they sang those old songs, I couldn't help but be transported back to my childhood and those Sunday mornings in our little country church.  So many precious men and women whom I never told how much they, and the life they lived for Jesus, meant to me.  I know I will get the chance to tell them in heaven!

Ray Boltz performed Thank You and I sat with tears running down my face as I remembered my sister, Debra, and my nephew, Adam, singing that song so many times at church during his childhood.  In my heart and in my head, I could still hear them and see the look of pure joy as my baby sister stood beside her only child and sang to the Lord. 

I watched as tears streamed down his Daddy's face as he watched his wife and his son and listened as they sang.  Everyone in our small church knew the struggles their little family had faced since the day of Adam's birth and what God had brought them through.  When Debra and Adam sang together, there wasn't a dry eye in the house...we all knew what a precious gift it was.

Between 1989 and 1991, I worked as a social worker and social activities director for a local nursing home.  I love elderly people.  I love to sit and talk with them, to hear their stories of trials and triumphs.  I love to hear them speak of their praises to the God who saved them and who has brought them along these many years of life and who has sustained them in the waning years of their life.  It was a perfect job for me. 

We gathered in the Day Room each morning for exercise.  Then, I would play the piano as they sang the old hymns.  Oh my, heaven's glory filled that little room each morning as their aged and wrinkled faces shone once more with the love of their Saviour and the praises for all He had brought them through!

Mr. Cartwright was a man of his late 80's whose wife was also a resident.  They had been together for more years than I had lived.  They had no children, but had been totally devoted to each other for so many years.  She had began to suffer from Alzheimer's and he could no longer care for her, so he moved them both into the nursing home.  She no longer knew him or anyone else, not even her own name or whether she was dressed or naked. 

They had separate rooms but he would roll himself around to her room every afternoon and sit by her bedside talking with her and reading the Scriptures to her.  She paid him no mind, but it didn't stop his afternoon visits.  Tears rolled down his face as he continued to be faithful to her and their love.  I learned so much about the commitment of loving a spouse from that gentle man and his precious wife.

Mr. Roland was also a man of his late 80's.  His wife had gone home to be with Jesus and his children could no longer care for him at home, so he also came to live with us at the nursing home.  He, as Mr. Cartwright, was restricted to a wheelchair.  He came each morning to exercise and then sing.  He had a deep base voice that continued to be clear and deep, even at is advanced age.  He always wore a smile and always spoke words of encouragement and gratitude for a long life of bountiful blessings from his Lord.

Mr. Cartwright and Mr. Roland tolerated the exercise so they could do what they really loved to do best...sing.  Mr. Cartwright, with his beautiful baritone, and Mr. Roland, with his deep base, would sit side by side and lead the group as I played the piano.  How Great Thou Art and In The Garden were Mr. Cartwright's favorites; Leaning On The Everlasting Arms was Mr. Roland's favorite. 

As I allow the years to roll back and my mind's eye to look once again on that room full of precious elderly men and women, I hear the voices of these faithful men of God and I am overcome with gratitude for what they meant, and mean, to me.  I can hear their voices booming as they allowed their love for their Lord to fill every note!

The King Is Coming....praise God, He's coming for me!!!!  Momma used to sing that song with a voice so clear and melodious.  I can see her now standing before the kitchen sink, washing dishes or preparing a meal, and I can hear her singing in that harmonious alto voice that is still so familiar to me!  What wonderful, precious memories God has given me!

Lord Send Me.....that was Daddy's favorite during  my teens and the years of my early marriage.  Our little church had a small congregation and we couldn't afford a music director, so we had members who served as song leaders.   Daddy filled that position for several years.  It became almost a joke that we would sing Lord Send Me at almost every service! 

"There is much to do, there's work on ev'ry hand; hark the cry for help comes ringin through the land.  Jesus calls for reapers, I must active be; what will thou oh Master?  Here am I, send me!"  I hear Daddy's voice so clear and see his body so able when I think of those lyrics!

Just A Little Talk With Jesus....a dear deacon from our church had one of those bass voices that was as smooth as butter and as deep as a river!  Bro. Stewart was a huge man and so devoted to his Lord!  Nothing gave him greater joy than bellowing out a song for his Lord!  Even after he was aged and living in the nursing home, he would come to visit us at church on occasion and was always so eager to get up and sing with a group of the younger men. 

A couple of his grandsons, one of my uncles and my husband would join him and sing until Bro. Stewart was so winded he required help to make it back to his seat.  But, he loved every minute of it and we did too!  Just A Little Talk With Jesus was one I remember the most.  His favorite was There Is A Fountain....."there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains..." precious, precious memories.

Oh precious Lord, thank you for the people you have placed in my life.  What a joy to have known each one and to have been the recipient of so much love and encouragement as I have grown in my relationship with You.  Your love is amazing!

 ² We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. ³ We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

                                                                                     I Thessalonians 1: 2-3   (NIV)

The Impostor

Much of my life has been spent living behind a facade ( a false, superficial, or artificial appearance or effect; an IMPOSTOR), a religious facade that made me feel GUILTY, even after I accepted Jesus Christ into my heart.

As surely as these turkeys are attempting to be impostors, I have lived that life.

Have you ever said to yourself  "Self, I am sick to my teeth of you!"?  (Or, as my little great-niece says "I'm sick through my teeth"!)   I have had that distinct experience over the last several hours.

I spent the wee hours of Friday morning re-reading many, if not most, of my old posts while listening to old 70's music over the XM station on TV.  It is the music of my youth, the beginning of a lifelong love shared with the man of my dreams.  We spent hours listening to that music.  It was entwined in every facet of our existence during those years.  It now comforts me to hear it again and to remember those years.

Terry never lost his appreciation for that music and continued to listen to it often over the years.  I became too holy (more appropriately, too holier than thou) to listen to it.  I was so judgemental of him for continuing to enjoy it.  My nephew said to me recently that he had such vivid memories of evenings spent at our house while sitting with Uncle Terry and listening to that old music as I condemned Terry from my place at the computer in our spare bedroom, constantly yelling at them to turn it down!

Why in the world did I allow myself to become such a religious zealot that I could no longer see the beauty of that music?  How could I have not seen that God has a hand in all things and allows many experiences to become the building blocks of who we are and who we become?  It is true that some of the music of that era was not a very healthy spiritual influence, but it was more the people involved in the music and the choices they made rather than the music itself that was the problem.

When Jim Croce sang "Like the pine trees lining the winding road; I've got a name, I've got a name. Like the singin bird and the croakin toad, I've got a name, I've got a name. And I carry it with like my Daddy did; but I'm livin the dream that he kept hid, movin me down the highway, rollin me down the highway, movin ahead so life won't pass me by....", what was wrong with that?  I identified with that because I respected and loved my parents so dearly, but my dreams were not their dreams. 

Or, when the Eagles sang "Well, I'm runnin down the road tryin to loosen my load, I've got seven women on my mind, four that wanna own me, two that wanna stone me, one says she's a friend of mine....", weren't they sayin what basically every young man was thinkin?

When Chicago sang Saturday In The Park, who could help but sing along?  Or what about Don McLean's American Pie and the story of Buddy Holly and the loss of American innocence on "The Day The Music Died"?  The Eagle's epic Hotel California, REO's Dream Weaver, Roberta Flack's The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (one of my personal favorites!) or how about Rod Stewart singing Hot Legs (girls tell me you didn't strut across the parking lot at least once feeling very proud of yourself while that one played!)....I can still hear the chords in my head as the music began and you felt the thrill of knowing what was coming next. 

I recently heard Joyce Meyer say that she could sit in her garage all day, but she would no more be a car at the end of the day than at the beginning.  We can wear our 'religious' facade every where we go, we can sit on the church pew until the wood conforms to the shape of our posterior, we can be baptised (as one old preacher once said) until the fish know us by name, but none of those things make us a Christian.  When will we learn that Christianity is about a RELATIONSHIP, not a RELIGION? 

I was raised in a very legalistic environment with regard to spiritual matters.  Christianity was more about what we couldn't, shouldn't or wouldn't do than what we could, should or would do.  Somewhere in their understanding of Scriptures, many of those in my childhood had somehow missed the point that the Law was given to show us how short we fall of being what God created us to be and how the only solution to the rift between God and man created in the Garden by Adam and Eve was the perfect blood sacrifice of His Sinless Son, Jesus Christ.

It has taken me my entire life to learn the difference between GUILT and CONVICTION.  When I mess up, the Holy Spirit speaks to my heart through CONVICTION...

: the act of convincing a person of error or of compelling the admission of a truth; the state of being convinced of error or compelled to admit the truth

: a strong persuasion or belief; the state of being convinced.

The SYNONYMS of conviction are assurance, assuredness, certainty, certitude, confidence, doubtlessness, positiveness, satisfaction, sureness, or surety.  It's ANTONYMS are doubt, incertitude, nonconfidence, and uncertainty.

CONVICTION is a positive experience because it is my Creator's attempt to help me see my wrong doing and restore my relationship with Him.  GUILT is a feeling of self reproach that causes shame.  SHAME is associated with humiliation, disgrace and/or disrepute.  God does not deal with us in that manner.  He deals with us out of a heart of love and a desire for our best interest. 

Should we be ashamed when we separate ourselves from God through sin?  Yes.  Should we feel humiliated when we bring disgrace on our God because of our actions?  Yes.  Are our reputations often harmed when we walk wilfully into sin?  Yes.  However, the God who created us reaches out to us with love and forgiveness when we sin. 

When the religious leaders brought the woman caught in the act of adultery to Jesus, He promptly instructed the man without sin to cast the first stone.  Having sin in their own hearts, each man knew he could not and walked away.  Jesus then reached out to the woman, asking her to point out her accusers.  Looking around, she saw none and said Lord, I have none.  Jesus answered "Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more".

The Sinless Son of the Living God did not speak to her with condemnation, judgement, accusations, dismay or harshness.  He lifted her to her feet and sent her on her way with love and forgiveness.  I love it when he does that! 

"Forgiven"

"Neither do I condemn you".....when you enjoy listening to the music that brought joy to your youth, when you get a bit envious of someones talent in church, when you wear a pair of jeans to church, when you skip your Bible reading for a day or so, when you have that fleeting thought of anger against that idiot who cut you off in traffic, when you mutter that slang word under your breath....the list is endless and so is His love and forgiveness if only we turn to Him in repentance!

So, I've been sick of myself and I'm quite sure the Lord has been sick of me at times as well.  However, He didn't turn his back on me; He just kept loving me.  "Neither do I condemn you"...........I love it when He does that!

When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours?  Has no one condemned you?”

She said, “No one, Lord.”

And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

                                                                                                  St. John 8: 10-11  (KJV)





Wow! Must Have Surely Been From God!

This link shows how 'time appropriate' God is!  It seems our President has now instructed the Attorney General no longer to use the resources of the Justice Dept. to defend the Marriage Defense Act.  God help us.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gay_marriage_analysis

Context

I have been thinking a lot lately about how society seems to have seized upon the idea that whatever we decide is 'normal' is indeed normal and a suitable and acceptable lifestyle.  Biblical marriage is, and has been for many years, under constant attack from the Deceiver and his minions. 

The decade of the sixties introduced 'free love' to our vocabulary, as though love had been bought with a price prior to that.  Suddenly, it was free and there for the taking.  Just where do you suppose that idea originated?

As a matter of fact, the idea that our bodies are purchased with a price is Scriptural in origin.  The last nine verses of the sixth chapter of  1 Corinthians deals with this very subject. 

12 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.
13 Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.
14 Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power.
15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be!
16 Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, "THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH."
17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
18 Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

How about that?  It turns out that we are indeed purchased with a price.  The Amplified Bible expresses verses 19 and 20 thusly: 

19 Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You are not your own,
20 You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for, made His own]. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body.

I like this translation because it makes it so crystal clear that not even the most educated liberal can misunderstand the meaning!  Paul clearly states to the Corinthian church in verse 19 that the body is the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who lives within.  The Mirriam-Webster online dictionary defines a sanctuary as a consecrated place, a place of refuge or protection.  So, when we become a Christian, our physical body becomes the consecrated residence of the Holy Spirit and is to be His refuge and protected place of abode here on earth.

Verse 20 continues to say that same body was "bought with a price" or purchased with a preciousness and paid for.  Wow!  Purchased with a preciousness and paid for.  The transaction was completed.  A precious price was paid for the Christian body, the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit of God. 

St. John 19: 30 says

 ³⁰ Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

The transaction was completed and Jesus Christ, the King of Glory, gave up His spirit; that same Spirit He had told the Disciples about that would become our Comforter in St. John 16: 7. 

Those who would have us believe we can pervert the God-ordained use of our body and do as we please without repercussions is lying and too many are buying into the lie and paying a heafty price for their deception.  We have been told marriage is outdated, we can just co-habitate and enjoy the benefits without the commitment.  We're so shallow and eager to satisfy our flesh that we swallow any lie the Deceiver feeds us.

The pretty girl in the office or the nice looking man who works in the corner office are fair game if they show interest.  And, if they don't show interest, well then perhaps we should just encourage them a bit.  We pay no heed to the fact that he's married and has children or that she is single and completely unavailable outside the boundaries of marriage.  We have become so perverted in our desires to satisfy our flesh that we have even decided individuals of the same sex are appropriate partners for our 'enjoyment'.

That, however, is not what God has to say about this subject.  Romans 1: 18-32 expresses it thusly in the New American Standard translation:

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural,
27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,
29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips,
30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;
32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

Do not these verses describe society today?  God revealed to Paul, and to other Biblical writers, exactly what would happen when man willfully walked away from His ways and perverted His ordained purpose for His creation.  Yet, in the midst of so much perversion and sinfulness, there remains a remedy.  In Isiah 1:17-19, God reaches out to sinful man and offers that remedy.

17 Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Reprove the ruthless,
Defend the orphan,
Plead for the widow.
18 "Come now, and let us reason together,"
Says the LORD,
"Though your sins are as scarlet,
They will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They will be like wool.
19 "If you consent and obey,
You will eat the best of the land;

Jesus Christ completed the transaction on the Cross of Calvary.  Nothing more needs to be done other than for the individual to accept the sacrifice, ask for forgiveness and turn from his sin to the sinless Saviour.  Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.  However, note the qualifying closing verse....IF you consent and obey, you will eat the best of the land.  IF.....perhaps the biggest little word ever written, spoken or translated.  Man must meet God's requirements in order to experience His peace and presence.

We often ask "What in the world is happening to our world today" or "What in the world is going on".  The answer is simple, man has forsaken the God of the universe to go whoring after fleshly pleasures.  We have perverted the use of the body and have defiled the God-designed sanctuary of His Holy Spirit.  Things will not get better until we confess our sin and turn back to His way.

I John 1: 8-10 gives us instruction:

8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

May God help us to turn from our wickedness and return to our Creator.

I Digress..........



"The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests hearts."

Proverbs 17:3 (NASB)

I am supposed to be writing about the characteristics of God right now.  However, it's just not what is in my heart this morning and if I have learned anything over these years of walking with Jesus, it is that I must follow what the Lord places on my heart.  There is always a reason he put it there and always a reason for me to share it.  Therefore, I digress.........

I took a drive into the local small town late yesterday afternoon.  The weather here has been so nice of late.  It has folks out into their yards and preparing for spring.  Many were raking leaves and/or burning leaves.  I have always hated this time of year.  I don't like fire, haven't since I was a young person and arrived at my Maw McDonald's house on the school bus to find the rear of her house on fire.  It was a tramatic event as those left on the bus piled off to try to fight the fire.

We lived in a very rural area and there was no fire department for many miles.  Her only hope was that the kids on the bus could fight the fire and get it out.  She didn't have an outdoor hydrant so the only way to get water to the fire was to hold a garden hose up to the kitchen sink faucet and run it out and around the house to the fire.  The smoke was thick in the kitchen, but someone had to stay there to hold the hose.  I was the someone appointed to do that job.

As others grabbed furniture and began emptying the house of Maw's possesions or helped fight the fire, I stood there holding the hose, coughing and becoming more and more light headed as the smoke thickened and breathing became more and more difficult.  Finally, the fire was extinguished and the smoke began to clear.  I was hot and soaked with my own sweat and the spewing water from the faucet.  I was short of breath and black with the smoke residue.

Since that day, I have hated fire.  Terry always wanted to rake and burn the leaves and burn off other areas around the yard every year about this time.  I simply would not participate and wouldn't even be home when he did it.  He finally gave up the practice completely because it caused me such angst.

As I drove yesterday, I remembered how I felt while standing in Maw's kitchen holding that hose and breathing all that smoke and feeling the heat of the flames only several feet from me.  I was so uncomfortable, afraid and frantic.  That's how I often feel when God is applying the refining fires of trials and testing to my life.  How many times have I walked on through the flames of the refining fire with those emotions running wild within me?  Too many to remember at one sitting.

Frantic for the trial to pass, afraid of what the outcome will be, feeling pressed to get on with it, as though the heat of some spiritual flame is licking at my mind.  At times, almost in a panic with fear for how I should proceed or simply paralyzed by that same fear into just standing still and refusing to make a decision to move in any direction.  Hearing the din of noise around me as people go on with the activities of their own lives while I feel as though my life is in limbo.  Wondering when, or if, I will ever feel safe again.

Yes, those feelings are all too familiar to me.  I'll bet you've experienced them as well, huh?  Isn't it strange how we can profess such love and devotion for God while our little life is running so smoothly, yet at the first sign of a bump in our road, we panic and start to think of desertion?  That's what I was thinking back in my Maw's kitchen.  I was there and standing my ground, but every thought in my mind was directed at how I could escape my perdicament.  My body was present, but my heart and mind surely were not.

Too many times in my walk with Jesus I have been in the same place spiritually.  My body was there, but my heart and my mind surely were not.  With every breath, I was contemplating how I might escape my perdicament.  The harder I struggled against my confinement, the longer the struggle continued. 

I argue with God....but God, this is NOT how it's supposed to be!  I bargain with God....but God, I'll do this, this and this if you'll just do this!  I beg God...but God, please; I've done my best to live right, to do right, to think right; please, please, please can't you just do this one thing for me?!  When all else fails, I give God orders....ok God, I've just had enough of this now; I KNOW your word, you say this, this and this and I've done that, that, and that and NOW you're going to do this for me!

How arrogant can one become?!  To think I have the right to pass out orders to the God of the Universe; to tell the God who created me what I am going to have and what He is going to do for me!  My goodness, I'm surprised sometimes that God hasn't just struck me with a lightning bolt and ended my little tantrums!  What a disrespectful and assuming child I am!

We are often told that we see God with relation to how we see our earthly father.  Well, I can tell you one thing for sure, if I had acted with my earthly father the way I sometimes act with God, as Momma used to say, my pants wouldn't hold corn shucks!  Daddy would have worn both me and my britches out!  Yet, here is my Heavenly Father who looks down on me and knows me for who I am becoming, not who I am.  He loves me for my childish efforts to love him and honors my effort.

So, he allows me my tantrums, lets me 'get it off my chest'; then, he fills my unthankful, unholy heart with so much love and forgiveness that I am consumed with sorrow for the way I have reacted.  I am remorseful for my response to his effort to reach out to me with an opportunity to grow in his love and practice grace.  Then, I understand that his refining fire is not a source of something to be feared, but the source of his outstretched arms of love to grow to be more like my Father.  To slough off the debris of legalism, judgemental attitudes, envy, jealousy, anger, disdain, haughtiness, unfaithfulness...all the things which I allow to seep into my heart and become an obstruction to the flow of his love through me to those around me. 

                  

Then, he allows me to repent.  What a love my Father has for me!  No recriminations, no shaking his finger in my face, no yelling or accusing, just open arms that reach out to me with love and forgiveness.  Arms eager to enfold me and draw me to himself, to encourage me and remind to walk away from myself and further into him. 

There, in the safety of his arms, I know I have grown and he is pleased with me.  He whispers his love to my heart, his spirit gently carresses my spirit and I know the next test will come.  I also know I will struggle.  But more than anything else, I know he will love through it and, at the end, he will once again wrap his arms around me and I will have grown more into him.

"Therefore my beloved brethren....be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; .....but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ...."

2 Peter 3: 14, 15, 18 (NASB)

A Trinity of One

For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor;

no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.

Psalm 84:11

In my previous post, I invited you to come along with me as I introduce you to Jesus Christ, the sinless Savior.  In order to properly understand who Jesus is, you must understand who God is.  You may have heard God referred to as "the triune God" or "the God-head".  You may have also heard the term 'trinity' in reference to God.  Although the term trinity is not found in the Bible, the concept is clear in Scripture.  There are three separate and distinct persons of God.  They operate individually and each has an individual purpose in eternity.  However, each is uniquely and divinely God.

In Genesis 1:26 we find the following: "Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness..." So, humans were created by God as a triune individual...mind, body and spirit. We are one person with three parts; each part is necessary in order for us to function in the capacity for which we were created.  The Gospel of Matthew names the persons of the triune Godhead: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:” (Matthew 28:19). In these Scripture references, we see God the Father (the mind of God), Jesus Christ as God the Son (the embodiment of God) and the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost as God the Holy Spirit (the spirit of God), to whom Jesus referred as the Comforter.

So, just who is God the Father?  Genesis 1:1 introduces us to Elohim, a reference to God's power and might.  He was there before creation and will remain after all things temporal are past, from everlasting to everlasting.  (Psalms 90:2)  In Revelation 1:8, He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending, the One who was, who is and and who is to come, or the Almighty (Gen. 17:1). 

Other names of God include eternal God and dwelling place (Deut. 33:27); a God who sees (Gen. 16:13); our guide (Ps. 48:14); the Redeemer of Israel or the Holy One of Israel (Is. 49:7), I AM (Ex. 3:14); a jealous God (Ex. 34:14); our judge, lawgiver, king and savior (Is. 33:22).  For a more indepth look at the many names of God, please visit this link:  http://www.smilegodlovesyou.org/names.html .

If we accept God the Father as the God head and we understand his numerous names, then we are compelled to learn more about his character if we are to trust him. I will go into the characteristics of God in my next post.  I urge you to take your own Bible and run the Scripture references. 

If you have questions or comments, please feel free to leave them in the "Comments" section.  If you feel you can and want to add anything to what I am saying, please leave those comments as well.  Should I choose to use your suggestions, you will be given credit in the post for which they are used.  I look forward to our next 'meeting' and sharing and learning more about our awesome God!