Knowing the Trinity

Christ Our Savior

   In order to offer others the chance at infinite bliss in the arms of a kind compassionate Lord and Savior, perhaps we should know personally who we are sending them to first. Our relationship with Christ and the entire trinity is crucial in our evangelism and discipleship. When we speak of Christ's love, it should be clear in our own lives by the way we live, speak, and act, that we KNOW our savior. If we truly know Christ, then we can honestly, and emotionally express to others what He is like. When Jesus says "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." (Matt 11:29)We cannot learn how to truly be like someone "learn from someone" without understanding who they are, how they act, and how they believe. This makes it imperative for us to be able to genuinely understand Christ, and be filled with the overflowing abundance that he pours into us that others can't help but see his work in our lives. We can see that Christ is ever compassionate, and loving by our examination of him in the New Testament. Let us go back to the old testament and see how God has set up the entire essence of scripture leading up to the breakthrough that is the arrival of Christ. The completion of the law, the renewal of life, and because of him a redefining of death

Parallels   

 Looking at the old testament we can see the character of God, there is a verse that says that when you know the son you also know the father. Well it turns out to be just as true the other way around, there is no contradiction or friction between the father and the son's perfect character, old testament and new testament the same. Here we can see some of the comparisons easily seen in the way the father took care of His children even giving us insight as to the dominion of his son in later days.


Jehovah-Jireh

 Genesis 22:5 shows how God is Jehovah-Jireh, our provider. When God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son as an offering, there was a  Christ-like obedience there by his son, but even though his son was the very best, a promise kept to Abraham, he still wasn't good enough. He was setting up how we can see the love of God providing salvation and providing a way around man having to sacrifice, God sent an angel to stop the sacrifice, and then needed to provide the sacrificial lamb. This can bring revelation in showing him as our provider. This is a shadow of Christ, giving us example of the blemishless lamb God provided because we really couldn't cut it with our best. God had to come down and die for us.

 Jehovah-Rafa

Jehovah-Rafa is the name that shows how God is our healer. "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose, because those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters." (Romans 8:28-29) In the bitter sweet times of life such as in Job 2 God makes all things work toward good. We can also relate this to the coming of Christ who turns all the burdens and pains of this world into what develops perseverance, and how Christ was given the commands and fulfills them with joy obeying the father's command to heal and bring the good news to the people "Then Jesus explained: "My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work." (John 4:34). 

  

Jehovah-Nisi 

     We see God as Jehovah-Nisi in Exodus 17. This is the famous battle between the Isrealites and the Amalekites, where Moses had to hold up his hand in order to win the battle between the two nations. When Moses' arms were raised the Isrealites would be winning. As long as we are holding God above all else and keep our trust in Him we will win the war. For us in the common day and age where actual battles and wars don't really seem to exist on an every day level, we can take to heart that this is relevant to the war that rages in us everyday between the flesh and the spirit. "So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:21). Christ Came into this world as our banner, regardless of what we go through and deal with and regardless of how our flesh rages against our spirit, Christ has made it to where we can only lose battles, because through him the war is already won. We can choose to raise up our banner and now have the authority to fight against the flesh in Christ our Lord.

Holy Spirit

     The Holy spirit could only come to dwell within us by Christ's sacrifice which gave atonement for man according to John 16:7.This next verse gives testament as to the entity of the spirit as not some ghost but a being just like the rest of the trinity.  "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, he shall testify of me:" (John 15:26) The Holy spirit comes and gives us the power which we see many of the apostles and disciples around Christ use to speak in tongues, heal, and even bring people back from the dead. "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us…"(Ephesians 3:20)
We tend to forget that the spirit being the great comforter is with us at all times as Christians. He who teaches, and helps us remember all we learn in Christ (John 14:26). Oddly enough, it is that through the spirit, I believe, that we develop character we see in Christ  "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith," (Galatians 5:22).We should not take any part of the trinity lightly, for it is when we accept salvation that we may be empowered and have understanding of God's things. That we may encourage those who do not have Christ helping them understand that the ultimate comforter is what waits for them on the other side of salvation. The spirit is something we should make sure we are always aware of in our own walks.

Religion Vs. Church

     Society has put great emphasis on how religion is no good and church is "religious" therefore it is no good. Peter says that Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.^[b] For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.  (1st Peter 1:22-23). We have been born again and should be loving one another deeply, how can we love each other deeply if we are not allowing ourselves to commune in the body of Christ. Peter was righting to the Jews who had converted, this doesn't seem to be significant except for that they already have the law and a basis of religion with the Judaio-God, so they don't need to be taught fundamentals. Instead Peter is trying to help them understand the trials the church will face, and how to grow as individuals. 

     The prime difference between church and religion is that in Christ, we are the living stones, the blocks that of which the church is built out of. In religion, man is seen as being part of some legalistic group which must systematically follow laws and is not concerned with anyone except for himself and his own salvation. It's so interesting to me that in the book of James it actually defines how God sees religion. Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. (James 1:27) For us, this is one of the most significant verses in the Bible. It means that every single command about loving each other, is not part of our religion. We are part of the entity that is the body of Christ. As a matter of fact we are the living entity that composes the body of Christ. 

     When the temple of Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D. it marked the finishing of the covenant that Christ had sealed with his sacrifice. Religion had been done away with and the church had began. As it says "Do you see all these things?" he asked. "I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down." (Matthew 24:2) The religious institution was brought down. This doesn't mean that we should tear down religion, once again as I showed above it has it's place for organized humanitarian necessary efforts even in the body of Christ. Christ laid down the framework for us to rebuild God's temple in such a way that is pleasing and glorifying to him, and that is through us as individuals being that temple collectively. Notice how as Christ prophesied the temple being brought down, Peter gives us the inspired word that we shall be God's kingdom rebuilt. As you come to him, the living Stone —rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house^[a] to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” (1st Peter 2:4-6). 
     The plan of God is being fulfilled by the church. We weren't a back-up plan, but the end result. The old ways of religion have been done away with, we do need community and congregation in order to be most effective and to become the building which is, God's Holy temple. We have been sanctified that we may be holy and do God's work. Let us not throw off and resist being a community. Praise God that we can be part of something greater. I'll end with this, that you may remember who we are, and what God has made us through Christ. 
      But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God;once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1st Peter 2:9-10)