Tag Archives: answer

No division

 

I was reading up on some Shakespeare pieces as there was pointed out to me that he was not free to put God in any of them but alluded to things about God in them. In particular, I wanted to read The Phoenix and the Turtle as there was a stanza there about the Trinity.

So they lov’d, as love in twain 
Had the essence but in one; 
Two distincts, division none: 
Number there in love was slain. – Shakespeare, The Phoenix and the Turtle 
I see the math dynamics for sure and if I were to read some of the Trinity pieces in the same era as Shakespeare I believe I would understand the counterparts even better.  I do understand John much better and I think this explains just how united and close the Trinity operate together in community.
I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. – John 17:20-24  ESV
Could it be that Jesus selection of disciples were so radically different in temperament, personality and political philosophy – so that because of their glaring differences, their unity was so evident.
Jesus desires unity, closeness and a love with His disciples and that love reflects the very same love in the Trinity.
Notice how different this prayer was from the one in which He taught the disciples to pray.
“The request of our Lord thus given in John’s seventeenth chapter is clearly no prayer of an inferior to a superior: constantly there is seen in it the co-equality of the Speaker with The Father. The Two have but one mind… Where the Son speaks He is not seeking to bend The Father to Him: rather is He voicing the purpose of the Godhead.” – Trench
The message to me as a disciple is this – without love and without unity I do not deserve credibility.
Unity does not mean uniformity, but rather to remain in love, in spite of tensions and conflicts. The unity in love revealed in the Trinity is the model for communities – no division.

The advantage of believing in the Trinity is not that we get an “A” from God for knowing the right answer. The advantage of believing in the Trinity is that we then live as if the Trinity is real, as if the cosmos around us is actually beyond all else a community of unspeakable magnificent personal beings of boundless love, knowledge and power. – Dalles Willard

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Gracious protector

 

Protector of my Soul – Maranatha Singers

 

Even when I call on the name of the Lord and I do not have an answer, I am not worried because I have the assurance that God is ever gracious. In the end, I know that He has the best intentions for me, He is my protector and He is merciful.

Then I called on the name of the Lord:
    “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”

 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
    our God is merciful. – Psalm 116:4-5  ESV

At times, His helps comes when I humble myself. It is like when I am low, He helps, and when I am cast down, He lifts up. Even when it comes to salvation. Did it not start with conviction? Am I not beside myself when my soul reveals just how evil I am and how living my own life is simply hopelessness. Just then, at that moment, the Holy Spirit arrives and lifts me up. I am not too sure why God’s help is neither welcomed nor appreciated until the soul is taught its need. Is He not my gracious protector?

The Lord preserves the simple;
    when I was brought low, he saved me. – Psalm 116:6  ESV

So do I join the resolution of the Psalmist? One of his resolutions was to devote himself to the worship of God and to do so publicly.   I have learned that good resolutions are not carried out quickly. Resolutions can become debts and debts should be paid and there should be witnesses to said debts being paid.

I will pay my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people. – Psalm 116:14  ESV

I am not too sure what this means to those who confess to be secret disciples. I am being encouraged to come into the light and own my Redeemer. I pray that I can do this sometime, every day, as God has appointed my way.

 

 

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