THREE IN ONE

Many times the Bible uses language that refers to God as three distinct or separate persons. We know this as the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We know there is only one God. God is one (“Hear, oh Israel, the lord your god is one . . .”) yet he can present to us three persons. I show six places in the New Testament that present the Trinity:

Mat_28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,"
- - Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit to the disciples as he charges them to go out. He also uses the phrase “. . . in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"

Luk_3:22 ". . . and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’"
- - Jesus receives the Holy Spirit at the time of his baptism by John the Baptist. Jesus is present, the Holy Spirit descends, and the Father speaks.

Luk_10:21 "In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will."
- - Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit while speaking to the Father.

Joh_14:26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you."
- - Jesus reveals that the Father will send the Holy Spirit to the disciples.

Act_2:33 "Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing."
- - Peter speaking of the event of Pentecost where the disciples received the Holy Spirit.

Act_7:55 "But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God" .
- - Under the influence of the Holy Spirit Stephan is emboldened to speak at the time of his stoning.

NO ONE KNOWS MY NAME

As a Christian it is easy to slip into the dark shadowland of “No one knows my name, and no one cares.” Years ago, as I attended a large church I wrote: “I have come to a determination today that the pastor is remote. In a sense I really have no pastor. There is no one that both knows my name and knows what is going on in my life.” We can easily come to such conclusions if we don’t take the time or effort to closely examine our situation. Ask yourself, “Did anyone force me to come here and stay here?” “Did I come here hoping prominent people world appreciate me?” “Do I really need a show or entertainment?” “If I just sit and watch, what more can I expect?” “Do I ever try to get to know any of the other parishioners, do I attend small group sessions, am I active in any other church activities that are available? “Do I ever consider that Jesus knows my name and wants me to get to know him?”

TALES AND LINIAGE

1 Tim 1 talks about “fables” and “endless genealogies”.

God has given the truth to men like [the apostle] Paul so that we can know what the truth is. God gives us truth today through the Bible. However, men for their own purposes corrupt what God has written to us. They are supposed to teach "no other doctrine". Sometimes they seem to stray away from the intent of what the Bible says. But we should always be wary of the sources of our learning. We should know, respect, be confident in, those who are teaching us. We certainly should not carelessly believe everything we hear; neither from Facebook nor from or other social media.

What does this mean for us, the ones who read or hear what they say, when they are slightly off the road, or even in another county? We should be familiar enough with what the Bible says to be aware when a teaching is slightly awry. This means if you cannot clearly get a teaching out of scripture, you should not put your full trust in that teaching.

First Timothy one says that some people were into fables and endless genealogies. A fable is a story made up to illustrate a teaching, like Aesop’s fable of the tortoise and the hare. That particular fable carries good instruction: “slow and steady wins the race”. However, we should be very careful of illustrations that men use in connection with the Bible that they teach what the Bible actually teaches.

The Bible uses genealogy to tie Jesus’ linage back to King David and to Adam. When a man uses “Endless genealogies” it may be an attempt to place oneself in some higher status among men. Other than family curiosity, there is no reason to mark any genealogy outside of scripture as important. These attempts can result in questions, confusion, and rivalry rather than enlightenment about God's ways.

What are you listening to? Is it a fable, an endless genealogy, or does it purely describe what the Bible says?

PRETTY PREACHERS

We have all met, or have seen, or are instructed by, Pastors that can lead the sheep away. Typically, they will promote emotion. Emotion is not bad, but for these pastors emotion is a requirement. We all experience emotion because we are emotional creatures, but we exhibit the emotion that a circumstance elicits at the time. We do not (indeed, we cannot) turn on emotion as required by another person, even if the person’s title is “Pastor”. (If we do, it’s called “acting”.)These preachers would insist if you were not excited you are not a Christian, real Christians are excited (… emotional, joyful, tearful, etc.) You must show some sort of emotion to be genuine.

These preachers almost always promote giving of money. They say you show your love of the lord by donating money. If you are not giving you are not a Christian. Their kind of giving is to give “above and beyond”. “Above and beyond” what? Above and beyond what is safe for your finances, even if you don’t have money. You should give “sacrificially” if it is not sacrificial it is not really showing your love or trust of God.

They profess that they “know God”, perhaps they know Him better than you. But ask yourself: do they teach from the Bible or their own experience? Do they ever show they are intimately familiar with the contents of the Bible? Could they honestly say they know from personal experience what your life is like? And ask yourself: How does their lifestyle resemble that of Jesus? Would they divert any of their income, or of their church’s income, for the benefit of the poor?

By seeing them on a Sunday, or on a TV program we cannot see the way they live, and we could not live the way they do. Most of us could not dress in their expensive clothes. We do not live in a big house. We do not own luxurious cars, boats, or vacation properties. We do not go on expensive foreign trips for “evangelism” nor stay in expensive hotels.

We should make the effort to be aware of this type of preacher. We should avoid them. We should caution others to avoid them. It is not safe to be apart from God’s own flock of sheep under some devious, self-serving shepherd. We are the kind of sheep that can (and should) discern the quality of shepherd we follow.

TURNING AWAY

Christianity can be challenging work, at times without a lot of reward. This is because many people will not accept good doctrine - - they would rather follow their own yearning without respect to guidance. For example, the Bible says a Christian man should be a “husband of one wife”. This does not allow for a “wife and a girlfriend, or girlfriends” since the Bible also says, “you shall not commit adultery”. For some men, and for some situations, it can be a challenge to remain faithful.

But some will turn their ears away from the truth and toward fables. People will want to hear any other thing than the word of God.

There may be two kinds that turn away:
--Those that never were taught what God has to say, that grew up under parents or conditions that were apart from God.

--Those that have heard and know what the word of God says but choose to walk another way. Perhaps because God's word prohibits something or does not provide for immediate gratification.

When tempted it is good to read scriptures like the ones below to see that this is expected and that the good Christian must continue the right way anyway.

- - Eph-5:28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

- - Eph-5:31 "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."

- - Eph-5:33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

- - 1Ti-3:2 Therefore an overseer [any boss, position of leadership] must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,

- - 1Ti-3:12 Let deacons [supervisors] each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well.

- - Tit-1:6 [A man should be respected] if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.

QUESTIONS ABOUT SERMONS

Is faith a matter of the mind only, or is there feeling mixed in with it? The charismatics look for the feeling - - the experience of the sermon. The Baptists look for the teaching - - the content of the sermon. When the Bible says we walk by faith not by sight does that mean we set aside the feeling and recall from our minds what God said and walk that way? What feeling could there possibly be that would supply reason or justification enough to go against God's word?

If sermons can be rated in dollar value, say from $0.10 to $3.00, what if a preacher preached a $2.00 sermon, is it not good enough? What does it mean when he preaches $1.80 sermon, and we have to add to it $0.20 from our own store so that it may be a somewhat balanced sermon? What if it is almost all emotion and no content? What if it is dry content with no sense of feeling? What about when this happens Sunday after Sunday? What about congregants who don't have anything to add to the sermon – either no feeling or no content? What do they do?

LIVING HUMBLY

Titus 3:1, 2 - "Remind them [[that is: US]] to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people."

Men are not to be hateful and hurting one another but are to be gentle, showing meekness, that is, to respond humbly and quietly. This should be our response to authority such as the “principalities” over our geographical area or an organizational structure of the immediate government. "Powers" are the people or organizations that have the agency to act, levy taxes, levy fines or make judgments, "Magistrates" are the people warranted by principalities or powers to carry out their wishes. They are doing their job. Remember, in this country these are the ones we elected, or are put in place by the ones we elected.

Meekness is often misunderstood to mean “weakness”. Meekness has to do with not seeking to place yourself above another, it has to do with being cooperative and not being arrogant. We should not fight against the authority but be gentle, be subject, recognize the ability and validity of the authority and be loyal to the authority and obey it.

Let us remember that Jesus, despite our hurtful, hateful, and disobedient actions, came to us in love to save us. It was not by our good works that we were saved. Let us also consider that Jesus has total power over us, and it is rightfully due him. Because the magnanimity of God in saving us, we should endeavor to do good works.

WHAT DO YOUR GRAND PARENTS KNOW?

I think it would be worth it to ask the oldest relative you know, “did your Grand Father or Grand Mother tell you of any of their early childhood experiences?” I told my children about how my Grand Father told me about the masts of the ocean-going sailing ships in Boston Harbor and how they looked like a forest of trees. If they tell their children this (or if I tell my grandchildren this) those children - - having eyes that see today, in 2022 - - will have seen, touched and talked to someone (me) who has known, seen and touched someone (my grandfather) who has seen with their own eyes sights that took place in the late 1800’s That is 150 years of eyes on this world.

We could ask people we meet with for lunch or dinner or in the church lobby the same question. What interesting answers we would receive. Did their grandparents experience time of great political change? Scientific change? Wartime change? For example, I could tell my Grandchildren about the Civil Rights march I participated in at Boston, Massachusetts with Martin Luther King. I could tell them I have seen the beginning of space exploration and I saw the Challenger explode in the sky as I was walking to lunch. I could tell them I lived at the tail end of World War II and during the Korean war. I could tell them that I participated in the Vietnam War while in the Navy. I could tell them that when I was a teenager a computer took up a series of rooms and only governments and large companies could own them. They had what were called “vacuum tubes” and required, needed, air conditioning. When I was a child the railroads ran with steam engines, not diesel-electrics. Their Great Grandfather (my Father) shoveled coal in them.


I was fortunate my Grandfather told me of the tall, square masted ships that looked like a forest of trees in Boston Harbor.

WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE

When we read a Scripture, It is useful to ask these questions: What does the scripture tell us to do? What does the Scripture tell us to think? How does the Scripture tell us to act? Then we should ask ourselves: What is it we WANT to do, think, act? After that, it would be helpful to think: How are these two positions different from each other?

Is there an obvious way to resolve the differences? If there is no obvious resolution, are we going to attempt a change? Which are we going to change: our ways, or the meaning of scripture?

Although sometimes difficult we can always change our ways. Almost never can we change the plain, evident, obvious meaning of the Bible.

LAZY UNDERSTANDING

Sadly we can turn away from the effort of acquiring and maintaining the knowledge of truth. It is easier to let another tell us what truth is, like TV news or Facebook or the idle chatter of our acquaintances. We spend little time considering whether the source, whether TV news, our pastor, our friend or associate, is reliable. The result is blindness as is said in the following Bible quote:

(Isaiah 29:10-14:) - "For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned. Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and : their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid."

When we don't read God's word -- when we don't regard it as important enough to spend some time with it -- God could make us dull as he has done in these Isaiah verses. When we rely too much on what men teach (v. 13 "their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men") we stupefy ourselves to what God has written to us. What man has said becomes all we know. We find it easy to say, "we can't understand the Bible, it is a 'book that is sealed” Therefore we will not put in the effort".

True, some a few passages are difficult. Some we understand only after years or reading and thinking about them. Some are never more than partially understood. Some we never understand.

However, the actual number of verses in the Bible that one cannot understand is exceedingly small. Almost all of them we can understand. Most all of them we can understand in English; we don't need to know Hebrew and Greek. We can understand them in Old English or New English or Slang English -- it's just not that hard.

There is one guarantee: if we don't read, we will not understand. If we let someone else tell us what it means we only know that that person understands. It may be correct, or just useful, or it may be plain wrong. To know what the Bible says we must READ the bible.

When men go long enough not making the effort to read the Bible the wisdom and knowledge dissipates or vanishes. The very "wise" ones they depend on to tell them what God says -- or even to tell them what is "right" -- lose their wisdom.

There is one fix, one bit of insurance: read the Bible. It’s not hard.

KEEPING OUR TEACHING STRAIGHT

1 Tim 1
For their own purposes some men corrupt what God has taught. But God gave the truth so that we can know what the truth is. Men are supposed to "teach no other doctrine". This means if you cannot clearly get a teaching out of scripture, you should be cautious about putting your trust in that teaching. Some men’s teaching can result in questions and doubt rather than enlightening God's ways.

Among other categories, these teachings can fall into fables and endless genealogies.

Fables are stories made up to illustrate a teaching. We should be very careful of illustrations. They should only teach what the Bible teaches and should not veer away, as if in a detour or side street.

Think of a genealogy being connected to a specific culture. Endless genealogies are an attempt to place yourself in some higher status among men. It is not that we should ignore the cultural setting in which God sets forth as principals. If God has set forth a principle in one people or culture, and the principle was true then (since it is God’s principle), it is always true. It will be true in any other culture, at any other time. The principle may take different forms between cultures. Whereas shame facedness may mean a veil in Iran, shame facedness means something else in the USA. But it still means shamefacedness, modesty, restraint. We in the USA think veils are extreme; nevertheless, a godly person should still exhibit modesty and restraint.

People who chafe at some of the restrictions named in God’s word are saying God wrote an irrelevant book. They think sections of it have gone out of date and have lost their meaning. They say we can determine our own way to act. If we can cancel or throw out this part of God's word, what other parts can we throw out? Which of God's principles can be selectively disregarded? Can we disregard the ban of adultery if we are married? Can we disregard the ban against murder if the person is yet unborn?

We can, and we do. But what about the part of God’s word that speaks of a final judgment for such things as adultery and murder? Do we dare cancel or throw that out too?

PORCH LESSON

On the stage right side of the porch, from the spare group of lilies, is a very tall single Lilly blossom. There will perhaps come out one or two more in the next couple of days. The stage left side, the thicker side, produces many more blossoms. Each side has its own personality.

Plants have only soil, water, air, sun and temperature that determine their health and fate. We have all those things plus human interaction, mobility, speech, guidance, and a personality unique to each of us. After some early training we can direct our own paths through life. We have a large measure of control of how we react to the circumstances of life: whether war or peace, whether solitude or crowds, whether orderliness or riot, whether laughter or weeping, whether satisfaction or depression.

We can know love and obey God, or we can hate and ignore him. We have choices in all these things.

CHOOSING OUR LOYALTIES

Titus 2:4, 5
(4) . . . so that [the older women] may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, (5) to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.

The Bible uses a woman as an example to illustrate loyalty. She is to keep her loyalty in one place, to the people God defines as important to her. This loyalty takes the first precedence over other places which might side-line or even oppose her family and children.

We can only be truly loyal to one place, not several. When there are different simultaneous requirements to several loyalties, we must choose one and let the others fall aside. What are other loyalties? They can include work outside or inside the home, her birth family like her mother father brothers sisters etc. They might be her friends, her ardent beliefs such as politics or perhaps a different church.

There are no exceptions. As the Bible says, if a husband is to "love his wife as himself" he also must have the same kind of loyalty, or better, toward his wife and family.

PEOPLE TURN AWAY

It seems that Christianity will be a challenging work, at times without a lot of reward. Some people will turn away.  This will be because some people will not accept good doctrine, they would rather follow their own lust. At such a time it is good to read 2 Timothy 3 and 4 to see that this is expected and understand that the good Christian must continue as God instructs.

Those others will turn away their ears from the truth to fables. People will want to hear any other thing than the Word of God.  Their ears will "itch" for such things.  Among those may be two kinds that turn away: those that never were taught what God has to say, that grew up with parents or conditions that were away from God; and those that have heard and know what the Word of God says but choose to walk another way.

Why is this so? Perhaps it is because God's way does not always guarantee immediate gratification of certain things. Some things take work and persistence.

But does anything worthwhile come without effort?

RECENT PAINTINGS

These are the latest pictures I painted and gave to my boys:

 

 

PUSHED OUT

We see from Exodus 1 that Pharaoh wants to subdue the Hebrews, but he does not consider expelling them. Verse 10 says: “Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, otherwise they will multiply, and in the event of war, they will also join those who hate us, and fight against us and DEPART FROM THE LAND.” [emphasis added] Why did he not want them to “depart from the land? I speculate they brought value to Egypt that the Egyptians either did not have or did not care to develop.

The initial Hebrew, Joseph, had come to Egypt because his own brothers hated him and would have killed him or sold him into slavery. However, because of his character and work ethic he rose in Egypt to position and importance wherever he was; either as a servant or as a prisoner or as second in command to Pharaoh. He always did the best he could for whoever "owned" him. The “owners” prospered because of Joseph’s service; they liked what Joseph did for them. Because of Joseph in Pharaoh’s service Egypt not only was saved from famine but also prospered. Pharaoh brought Joseph’s family to Egypt and gave them land. All were content.

Apparently for a long time the Hebrews were no threat or irritation to the Egyptians because they not only stayed in the land but multiplied. The Egyptians were agreeable to this because the Hebrews were content to stay in the land. There was nothing reported in the Bible about any Hebrew discontent or rebellion. I would guess the Egyptians enjoyed the food stuffs, crafts, and skills the Hebrews brought with them.

Eventually a Pharaoh that “did not know Joseph” (see verse 8) becomes worried about the Hebrews because of their sheer numbers. Ignoring that the Hebrews had been among them for a great while he worries they will side with an enemy in the event of a war. He ignores that they had apparently never showed any signs of discontent or rebellion. He decides to put them under hard tasking; in other words, they became slaves. Even though the Hebrews are oppressed they still do not rebel or leave. I am curious why the Pharoah did not think this drastic change in Egyptian attitude would not make the Hebrews favorable to leaving

And that, under Moses and through God’s help, is just what they did.

MYSTERIOUS WORDS

I finished one of C. S. Lewis’ books last light: THE FOUR LOVES. I did not understand a lot of it. It looks as if he just writes out what he is thinking in his mind. The sentences tend to be long having many commas and parenthetic phrases. Some of the sentence phrases contradict other phrases within the same sentence. For example: “While I say this, and I am not saying that, we must realize the other thing is happening.”

Part of my problem is I sometimes skip over an important word. It may be a small word like “not” which reverses the meaning of the sentence.

I found I had to read slow, moving my lips, and saying “period” when I came to one. Even then I would not understand what I just had read.

The back cover of the book said Lewis was a brilliant, important man. It must have been intended only for other brilliant, important men.

POSITIONING BY TRADITION

2 Timothy 1
God has a plan for us, a calling, according to his own purpose. God has had a plan for us which in was in place before we ever started to plan our own lives. It was in place "before the world began". Paul was called to be a preacher, apostle, and teacher of the gentiles. Paul served God "from his forefathers". The tradition of serving God came to him from his family. His father served God, his grandfathers served God, his nation served God. Paul grew up in a family that served God. Timothy also had a line of faith starting with his grandmother Lois. The tradition of serving God makes it easier for us to serve Him.

Some of where we are in life will be because of God's positioning. The more we have been sensitive toward God, the more likely we have not disturbed the positioning God has made for us. The more self-centered and worldly we have been, the more likely we have made the position less effective.

How can we know what God’s positioning is for us? We can know by:

-- the word of God
-- prayer
-- opportunities
-- observation
-- words and examples from other people

As Paul said, Timothy had "that good thing" - - whatever that was. Maybe God is not specific about what Timothy's gift was so that the book of second Timothy can be applied to all believers. In other words, this is not just a personal note from Paul to Timothy, this is a note to all of us. Let us all daily consider our positions. Even if we do not come from a tradition like Paul or Timothy we still have a position. Are we doing a good job? Where could we do better?

SERVING STICKS

God (Jesus) washed the disciples' feet and said, "as you have seen me do, so should you do to one another ". But this is not actually true, has not God always been the master and not the servant? Was it not his creation to use and protect as he pleased? Yet he gave it to his created beings to use. He provided for them. He overlooked many insulting and grievous transgressions against him.

What do we do? Like Him we create; we take sticks of wood and construct a house. Then we become concerned over the house. The house becomes our protection, it is our peace giver, it is our thing of beauty, it is our future, it is our life giver. We forget the source of us and all that we use. We forget who made the trees, the metal ores, the materials for concrete, paint and glue. We forget our creator.

We do not realize the house is not serving us, we are serving the house. We have come to worship the house. God serves us and provides for us, but he remains God. We are never, were never, and will never be God. How can we forget God and serve a pile of sticks. Can we not remember: "as you have seen me do, so should you do to one another."