Hope

I haven't written a poem/prose (not to be confused with a song) in a long long time. Mainly for spiritual reasons, but I wanted to wait until I felt that it would be glorifying God and not myself. So, this is the first poem/prose I've written in a long time, its honest, it doesn't rhyme (sorry folks), and I pray that God is glorified and sin is recognized. I love all of you. God bless.

-Hannah

Today, I'm going to be as transparent as possible.... today, this week, this month, has been one of spiritual struggle as I see the way I used to be contend with who I am today in Christ... More often than not, I have lost the battle against my "old man" and I have no one to blame but myself. 

Today, I'm going to be as transparent as possible.... I believe in a risen Savior who commands me to be transformed by the renewing of my mind. If He has commanded me to change, then it is He who has already given me the strength and the will to do so. I have but to surrender that will, that control which I so desperately think I have.

Today, I'm going to be as transparent as possible.... there's a part of me that doesn't want to let go of the world, and its the part of me that leads to behaving shamefully, thinking horribly, and desiring aggressively. To use other words would not show the true face of what lies in store  for us when we do as we wilt.

Today, I'm going to be as transparent as possible.... I hate where my old life would lead me, as desperate as apart of me craves to go back, I hate knowing that that's not me. It is some manifestation of media, influence, confusion, and temptation mixed in one deceitfully beautiful package. Try as I might to lie to myself, I know that I would never be satisfied by that life, if you would call it that.

Today, I'm going to be as transparent as possible.... Honestly, all I want is to be gone from this sinful world, full of lies, full of selfishness and cruelty, and have my Redeemer come in the clouds to take me home. I desire nothing else than to see the face of my Heavenly Father and hold on in tight embrace to my Savior Jesus Christ. I long for Heaven, I long to be with my Lord. I long to love them more than I love anything else, and it still would not be what they deserve.

Today, I'm going to be as transparent as possible.... I no longer want to battle. I want to surrender. By God's grace, by God's strength, by God's love alone will I do so. Because though I long for Heaven, like Enoch, the Lord can put a love in my heart for solely Him now, and keep Heaven on my mind today and everyday.

Praise God, for He is giver and completer of Hope. So, to be transparent, I have nothing to fear as I surrender it all to Him. 

A Bible Study on the Godhead

I do believe that the Trinity is one of the most complicated Bible Study subjects to do because we can never fully know about the Godhead. But I've heard a couple of good sermons, and have done Bible studies with myself and others and would like to present my findings with everyone.  =) One of the sermons I listened to was by Peter Gregory and can be found here and it was a blessing to my understanding. This Bible study has been heavily influenced by the verses presented in that sermon. May God bless you, please pray before reading, and Enjoy.

The Godhead

• Some believe that there is one God playing multiple roles
• Metamorphing God/shapeshifter – sounds Pagan
• Some believe that there are three, but God the Father is supreme
• Say that the Holy Spirit is a product of the Father and Son, which isn’t Biblical
• Matthew 28:19  The great commission, Father, Son, Holy Ghost, so if the mission was to show others these three beings, we better get to know them personally right?
• To explain the Trinity perfectly would take around three hours, if that can be done at all, so bear with me

Three Ways to Explain Trinity – Character, Job, Unity

• Genesis 1:26, “us” and “our” Since before our beginning, we see this multiplicity
• Godhead – is referred to in the Bible 3 times, and means Divine Being/ True Deity
• Acts 17:29 ( Romans 1:20, Col 2:9 look at later)
• So there is a body of Gods here right? So is God one, or many? Many
• we see many, so then we must understand them seperately. let's see if the Bible actually does that for us

Character

• Exodus 6:3 -  Almighty /Self Existing
• No beginning or end, isn’t sustained by means related to us
• Isaiah 40:28 Creator
• Note the way that He describes Himself as “everlasting God, creator”
• So He cannot be created because He is the creator, goes with self existing.
• 1 John 4:8        God is love
• Everlasting, all powerful, self-sustaining, creator and is love. This is essential, you either have love or hate, 50/50 is not ok, and be sustaining and creating. Hate destroys, love creates and so HAS to be in order to self exist and create
• If I hated my best friend – I would cut things off with her. End of relationship. 00Take a marriage, when you’re in love you want to get married – creation. God calls himself a creator, by default, He is a God of love, by default, a creator. See the ring. But can love be fulfilled with just one?
• No. Ecc. 4:9,11-12  two is better than one, three is better than two
• So if He was by Himself could He fulfill love? No, because love always gives. And if there was no one to love but self, and you cancel yourself out. And then stop existing. So in order for Him to love, then there has to be another present in order to love.
• Need more than one in order to love
• Daniel 9:14       God is righteous (self existing, almighty, love)
• God is not a sinful person as we are. That would be like serving a human king who has flaws, makes poor judgments (no offense to David and Solomon), but they are not perfect, so God is righteous.
• In order for God to be righteous, there has to be at least three
• Proverbs 12:17 – so what is related to righteousness? Truth
• Jesus says I am the way the truth and the life
• All three can say that about themselves, they all say that they are truth, and so they are all righteous
• So how can someone, by Himself, testify himself to be the truth and to say that whatever they say is truth – you cannot prove yourself, however, God can because He is not only God, but because everything is justified in that He has witnesses. A witness can be one or two, but according to the Bible, one witness is not enough
• Isaiah 43:9  in order to say something is truth, you need witnesses, lets find out how many you need tho
• Deu 17:6  so one witnesses is not enough, you need at least two
• Matthew 18:16 in order to establish truth, righteousness, a word, need at least two/three witnesses
• So you have one, then two witnesses to back you up
• So God can’t go ahead and say, I am the God who wants the best for you, and us believe Him unless He has proof or witnesses of that. Henceforth, the two other members of the Godhead serve as a witness for that .
• So does the Bible say that they work as witnesses for each other?
• 1 John 5:7, Matthew 3:16 (at Jesus’ baptism, all there for baptism)
• So thru the character of God, do you see the importance of the Three – love, witness

WORK Seperately

• They are the same in being and character, consider that they all have slightly different roles…. God the Father is the giver, God the Son the gift, God the Holy Spirit helps you to experience the gift
• God the Father - Giver

§         Ephesians 4:6 – God the Father is above all

§         1 Chronicles 29:12 – God the Father has all power.

• Matthew 7:11, James 1:17, 0now are there any characters in the Bible that represent God? Abraham (Father of every nation) in Hebrews 11:17. John 3:16
• Jesus – the Gift
• John 1:14, 17:5 Is our Creator, OT  Isaiah 48:12-13, Job 38:4-7, Isaiah 48:16
• He is and has been our mediator since the fall/ Reveal to us the character of God
• Colossians 1:12-14, 17
• John 4:10 (he refers to himself as the gift), Rom 5:17, 6:23

§         Luke 24:38-39

• The Holy Spirit – Experience. Giver/ Understand Helper

·         Such an active body of the Godhead – Gen 1 He is moving

·        John 16:13 – Holy Spirit speaks, and hears / Luke 12:12 – Holy Spirit teaches.

·        Acts 8:26, 29 – Spirit speaks. Distinctly speaks.

·        John 14:25  The gift of the Holy Spirit is also a gift, but it is the gift to understand the gift

·        Ephesians 5:18 – a language that you need to experience it by being filed with it, in other words, what is being filled in us? Rom 5:5  So he helps us to be filled with the love of God, and when we’re connected with that then amazing things happen

·        Mark 13:11  His role is to also enable us to speak – Acts 2

·        Rom 8:1 enables us to walk in God’s spirit, not after our own flesh

·        Gal 5:25 helps us to bear fruit

o       He convicts hearts. He intercedes Romans 8- In summary. The Holy Spirit gives us communication with God.

HOW THEY WORK TOGETHER

·        What about One God one Glory?  God is usually referring to “Lord”, so when we obey God, we are not saying one God being, it means we only need to obey one voice because they are in perfect unison – they do not contradict one another – not chaotic

o       Deuteronomy 6:4  they are one in obedience

·        Godhead worked together for our salvation.

o       Jesus, son of God Redeemer, born of the Spirit, Sent by the Father.

·        2 Corinthians 13:13-14

o       Role of Each

·        Philippians 2:1-2

o       God is our example of unity.

Can we choose today to accept that the Trinity is Father Son and Holy Ghost, all of whom love us, want to save us, and have a relationship with us?