THE VISIBLE IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE GOD

“Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through Him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see -- such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through Him and for Him. He existed before anything else, and He holds all creation together.”  (Colossians 1:15-17 NLT)

This is one of the strongest statements about the divine nature of Christ found anywhere in the Bible. Jesus is not only equal to God, He is God; as the visible image of the invisible God, He is the exact representation of God. He not only reflects God, but He reveals God to us; as supreme over all creation, He has all the priority and authority. He came from heaven, not from the dust of the earth, and He is Lord of all. He is completely holy, and He has authority to judge the world. Therefore, Christ is supreme over all creation, including the spirit (unseen) world.

We, like the Colossian believers, must believe in the deity of Jesus Christ (that He is God) or our Christian faith is hollow, misdirected, and meaningless. This is a central truth of Christianity. We must oppose [the idea] that Jesus was merely a prophet or a good teacher.  

-- From the “Life Application Study Bible”

#5691

NO GREATER LOVE

“So the Word became human and made His home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen His glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.” (John 1:14 NLT)  “For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 NLT)  “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13 NLT)

In the greatest showing of love imaginable, Christ came into human life, into the story that love had made, as Jesus of Nazareth. Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, left the place of Creation and power and became mortal, open to temptation, to weakness and fatigue, to sorrow and joy, and laughter and tears. Who was this Jesus? God? Mortal? Both? Yes, both! How could such a thing be?

It is impossible, but Jesus reiterated that although many things are impossible for us, nothing is impossible for God. (Matthew 19:26)…

I struggle to write about God and God’s love, knowing that I am totally inadequate, and yet feeling called to proclaim a love so marvelous that it can only be wondered at and rejoiced in with delight…

Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, is not limited by the mortal body of Jesus of Nazareth. Christ is the Word who shouted all things into being and who continually calls each one of us into fuller being, every day, every minute, right now. 

-- Madeline L’Engle

#5559

GOD IS AT WORK

In prayer we gain the confidence that, in the midst of all that is happening, God is at work bringing about a good that we can never anticipate (Romans 8:28).  If we feel God-forsaken (and there will be such times), prayer will drive away that despair.  In prayer we experience the indescribable assurance of the Holy Spirit that all will be well.  I love the verse that reads, “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God," (Romans 8:15-16 NRSV).  But the best news of all comes from the same eighth chapter of Romans -- the promise and confidence that all things will work together for an incomprehensible good.  It's a promise that we know will be realized, because the Holy Spirit -- that crucial third member of the Trinity -- prays to the heavenly Father on our behalf, thus overcoming our own limitations in prayer.

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.”  (Romans 8:26-28 NRSV) 

-- Tony Campolo in “Following Jesus Without Embarrassing God”

#5512

ENLARGING THE SOUL

[From the cross Jesus prayed,] “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You. For You granted Him authority over all people, so that He may give eternal life to all those You have given Him. Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only TRUE God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.”  (John 17:1b-3)

One who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the one who simply plods around this narrow globe… The most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and Him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity.  Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify one’s whole soul, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity. 

-- Adapted from Charles H. Spurgeon 

#5163

EXPERIENCING GOD

“Now this is eternal life: that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.”  (John 17:3 NIV)

When the spiritual dimension is strong in a church, members are able to experience God. They discover that God isn’t just “out there,” that God is “above all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:6) As members become more open spiritually, they become more open to an intimate relationship with each person of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They have an intimate encounter with the Trinity, even if they don’t necessarily describe this encounter in Trinitarian terms. They come to know God more than speculate about God. As a result, they also grow in their ability to encounter and experience God in Scripture, others, their own hearts, and the events of life. 

-- Adapted from N. Graham Standish in “Becoming a Blessed Church: Forming a Church of Spiritual Purpose, Presence, and Power”

#5096

A PERSONAL PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING

“Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! Give thanks to Him; bless His name! For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.”  (Psalm 100:4-5)

Dear God: Thank You for Your amazing power and work in my life; thank You for Your goodness and for Your blessings over me. Thank You that You are able to bring hope through even the toughest of times, strengthening me for Your purposes. Thank You for Your great love and care. Thank You for Your mercy and grace. Thank You that You are always with me and will never leave me. Thank You for Your incredible sacrifice on the cross that I might have freedom from sin and life beyond measure. Forgive me for when I don't thank You enough, for who You are -- Father, Son and Spirit; for all that You do; for all that You've given. Help me to set my eyes and my heart on You afresh. Renew my spirit, fill me with Your peace and joy. I love You and I need You, this day and every day. I give You praise and thanks, for You alone are worthy! Amen.

-- Adapted from "The Power of Gratitude: 21 Verses of Thanks to God" by Debbie McDaniel

#4759

THE TRINITY

“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, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."  (Matthew 18:19-20 NIV)

Our motivation for living the Christian life is the love of the Father. Our model in life is the example of the Son. The means by which we live this life is the power of the Holy Spirit.

-- The Alpha Course


#4612

GOD’S ABSOLUTELY AMAZING CREATION

“In the beginning God created…” (Genesis 1:1)

Why is there something rather than nothing? When you think about it, there's nothing that says that it has to be. If you start with that question, then I think the very next question becomes, Is this kind of world more likely to have happened by accident or by design?… It's amazing that we wouldn't for a minute look at objects of everyday life -- the television in our room or a vase on the table -- and say, how did that come about? We know it came about because of some kind of intelligence and some kind of design by a person or a committee of persons. But when it comes to this unbelievable universe, we can be talked into thinking that it could have happened by chance.

The creation of the universe is absolutely amazing, from my point of view, and that's a bias probably because I'm a physician. I find that the human body is even in some ways more amazing. And when you get down to the structure of DNA and the brain, in particular, it turns out to be the most amazing structure that we could ever possibly imagine.

To give you one little example -- the compacting ability of DNA. All the information needed to run each of us weighs less than a few trillionths of a gram. And here's another little factoid that just blows my mind. If we were to collect all of the information in DNA for all the organisms that have ever existed on this planet, it could fit into the size of a grain of salt.

-- Dr. Timothy Johnson, ABC News Medical Editor, in an interview in Christianity Today, May 24, 2004

#4289

FINDING THE GIFT THIS CHRISTMAS

“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is the Messiah, the LORD.”  (Luke 2:11 NIV)

In your searching may you find the gift of the warm embrace and acceptance of the Father. In that embrace and acceptance may you find the gift of the freedom and the path of the Son. In that freedom and path may you find the gift of the guidance and strength of the Holy Spirit. In the birth of the Babe in a manger may you find the gift of the Savior of the cross.

“And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.”  (1 John 4:14 NIV)

-- Rev. David T. Wilkinson


#4238

GOD WHO IS TRIUNE

The Trinity is what we have if Jesus Christ is indeed God with us, God as God really is.  The Trinity shows that God is in relationship, that God is constantly, relentlessly relational, outgoing, and incarnational.  We can have new church starts, growing churches, and an expansive Kingdom of God because we have a God who is Triune.  The Trinity designates God as communicative, loving, relational, and on the move.

-- U.M. Bishop Will Willimon from an online interview

#4116

AND GOD SANG

To Johann Sebastian Bach, the distinction between sacred and secular was a false dichotomy. All things were created by God and for God, no exceptions. Every note of music. Every color on the palette. Every flavor that tingles the taste buds.


Arnold Summerfield, the German physicist and pianist, observed that a single hydrogen atom, which emits one hundred frequencies, is more musical than a grand piano, which only emits eighty-eight frequencies.


Every single atom is a unique expression of God's creative genius. And that means every atom is a unique expression of worship.


According to composer Leonard Bernstein, the best translation of Genesis 1:3 and several other verses in Genesis 1 is not "and God said." He believed a better translation is "and God sang." The Almighty sang every atom into existence, and every atom echoes that original melody sung in three-part harmony by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.


-- Mark Batterson in All In




#3752

GOOD INFECTION - Part 1

And now, what does it all matter? It matters more than anything else in the world. The whole dance, or drama, or pattern of this three-Personal life is to be played out in each one of us: or (putting it the other way round) each one of us has got to enter that pattern, take his place in that dance. There is no other way to the happiness for which we were made. Good things as well as bad, you know, are caught by a kind of infection, if you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prize which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very centre of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you: if you are not, you will remain dry. Once a [person] is united to God, how could [one] not live forever? Once a [person] is separated from God, what can [one] do but wither and die?

-- C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity


#3506

HOLY TRINITY

"Holy, holy, holy!  Lord God Almighty!
All Thy works shall praise Thy name, in earth and sky and sea.
Holy, holy, holy!  Merciful and mighty,
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity."  (Reginald Heber)

God the Father is the giver of Holy Scripture; God the Son is the theme of Holy Scripture; and God the Spirit is the author, authenticator, and interpreter of Holy Scripture.

-- J. I. Packer


#3465

THE SECOND PERSON OF THE TRINITY

Years ago I heard theologian John Howard Yoder say that you can judge a theology by how often it talks about "God,"… and how seldom it mentions Jesus. The Second Person of the Trinity is the ethical stuff of our faith, the unmalleable, resistant fact that gives God a face, a name, an undeniable contour, an unavoidable claim upon us.

-- Will Willimon in Leadership Journal, Winter 2002


#2544

SALVATION AND THE TRINITY

The Christian's salvation is through the grace, mercy, and love of the Father; the sacrificial death of the Son; and the cleansing and empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

-- Wesley Study Bible


#2542