Trinity

The Trinity is considered to be the most complex doctrine in our faith by most theologians. So to unpack it in a short communication is probably not a good idea. So we’re going to make some quick observations from the text and then draw out some principles to lay a foundation.
Looking at the passage in John,

13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

We notice that Jesus identifies three distinct persons in the Godhead; the Father, himself and the Spirit. Within this Godhead, it is clear that each person plays a distinct role, each person freely gives and receives from the other and there is no hierarchy. One might say that since the Spirit doesn’t speak on his own authority, that he’s under the authority of the Father thus creating order. However the Bible also says that we can’t know the Father without the Spirit moving in our hearts. So if the Spirit is under the Father’s authority, then why would the Father need the Spirit to work in our hearts to get to know the Father? I believe the way to understand it is that each person needs to plays their role for the community of the Godhead to function effectively.

Paul further explains how these characteristics should manifest in the community. In Romans 12:3-8, Paul uses the analogy of the body has many parts but each part serves a particular function for the body to be optimally operational. No one part is more important that the other. In 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, Paul addresses the use of spiritual gifts to serve the church. He also says that we’re “given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (7). This means that our God-given gifts and abilities were given to serve the church. What this implies that each Christ-following individual has a responsibility to use the way God formed us (Psalm 139:13-16) for the community. We know that when the community is functional then we will be “praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47).

To make a comprehensive list of application would take pages. In order to make it simple and easy to apply here are a couple questions to ask yourself:
-What are my gifts and abilities? How can I use that to serve the community?
-Do I feel that I deserved to be served? Do I consider myself better than others?
-Am I being a faithful steward with my possessions, time, and energy?

Next, Pastor Yun will be addressing the role of the Church as an institution.

Dual-nature

And God said “Let there be light,” and there was light (Genesis 1:3). Scientist and engineers spend a lot of time and money studying light and ways to manipulate it for our benefit. Today we discovered ways to transmit/receive light (LED, lasers) which we have used in a number of useful applications (optical data transmission, solar energy). We also know that light is the fastest speed we can measure, often referencing the speed of light or light-years (the distance light travels in one year). Some of the earliest study of light was to investigate how light diffracts (bends) around objects. One experiment (1803) is when passing light through two narrow slits there are intense beams and dark regions to show that light as an energy source acts like a wave.


Figure 1. Shooting a laser two narrow slits

Over a century later, physicists discovered that light also had discrete units of energy that could be measured through several different experiments. Even the early discoveries of light behaving as discrete units of energy did not get readily accepted due to the inability of ‘wave theory’ to explain it. Einstein finally, through calculation, was able to prove that light also behave as particles, often referred as photons.


Figure 2. Schematic on dual nature of light

Even though physicist cannot explain why light has this dual-nature (Re: uncertainty principle), there’s no denying the benefits we have received from it.

When looking at the Church, it’s a bit similar. There’s the dual-nature of the Church: as an institution and as gospel community. When most people think of church, we often refer to either a building or a group of believers which is the community centered on the gospel of Jesus. The Church as an institution is affirmed not only by the apostles whom are writing letters of instruction to the churches but also by Jesus himself as revealed in Revelation (1:12-13,16,20) when Jesus is holding the seven stars and referring to the churches as lampstands. What is the purpose of the church? What do we see in the Bible regarding on how our church is to function if it’s going to be a thriving community?

The most commonly reference section of the Bible regarding church model is Acts 2, particularly in the end:
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

One question to ask is: if we model our church to the early church described in Acts 2, then what did the early church have to model itself after? To answer that question we need to look in the earlier part of Acts 2:4 “And they were filled with the Holy Spirit”. We read in John 16:13-15 Jesus says, “when the Spirit of Truth will comes, he (Holy Spirit) will [not only] guide you into all truth… He (Holy Spirit) will glorify me (Jesus) for he (Holy Spirit) will take what is mine (Jesus) and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine (Jesus), therefore I said that he (Holy Spirit) will take what is mine (Jesus) and declare it to you.” So we can infer from scripture that the early church was inspired by the Holy Spirit to reflect the triune nature of God. So we should get our model of community by reflecting how God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit commune with each other as reflected by the early church.

Since this introduction was a bit long, we’re going to investigate how the Trinity functions and how those qualities should be manifested in our gospel community in the next blog and then look to the role of Church as an institution.

Hmm...I wonder what other people are reading??

If there was a popularity contest for passages, where would they rank? Is your favorite passage in the "popular crowd?" Well...Biblegateway.com compiled the numbers and came up with a list of the most viewed passages on their site in 2009. Take a look:

1. 1 Corinthians 13
2. Psalm 23
3. Genesis 1
4. John 3:16
5. Romans 8
6. Psalm 91
7. Matthew 5
8. John 1
9. Matthew 6
10. James 1
11. John 14
12. Romans 12
13. Jeremiah 29:11
14. Philippians 4
15. Psalm 1
16. Psalm 139
17. Ephesians 4
18. 1 Corinthians 1:31
19. Romans 1
20. John 3
21. Ephesians 1
22. Ephesians 5
23. Luke 1
24. Matthew 1
25. 1 Peter 1

WHY these? That's the first question that came to mind. Is it a reflection of our culture? Curiosity? Are these the passages that most pastors choose to preach on? Your guess is as good as mine. But if you're stuck in your personal reading of the Word, why not tackle one of these passages (*Linked*)?

Humor Corner

So this guy Joseph is real down on his luck, and he goes to church to pray for help. "God, please help me, I'm having trouble making ends meet and I think I'm going to lose my job soon. Please just let me win the lottery this week." A week goes by, he doesn't win the lottery, and he gets laid off. Discouraged, he goes back to church to pray again for help. "God, please, I've lost my job, I have a family and kids to feed, my car is going to get repossessed soon, I don't know what to do, please just let me win the lottery." A week goes by, he doesn't win the lottery, and his car gets repossessed. Discouraged, he goes back to church to pray again for help. "God, please, I've lost my car and my job, the bank is going to take my house soon, I have no money, and I have a family and kids to feed. Please just let me win the lottery." A week goes by, he doesn't win the lottery, and his house gets repossessed. He goes back to church to pray one more time for help. "Please God, I've been praying for help and no help has come. I've lost my job, my car, and now my house. My kids are going to starve. I don't know what to do. I keep asking for help and things just keep getting worse. Please, God, just let me win the lottery."

Finally God takes pity upon Joseph and answers him. "Joseph," he says, "just buy a darn ticket already!"

Some of us just need to buy that ticket! Buying that ticket means taking action to allow God to work in our lives today. Baby steps...=)

“We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction.” -Bill Gates

Where is YOUR mind these days?!?

Emerson says "A man is what he thinks about all day long." Really?? Well, if that's the case, I'm not very much these days. The last thing I want to do after a hard days work is THINK, but I'm trying to be more intentional with my thought life. It's so much easier to be mindless isn't it? With this in mind, I thought it would be fun to poll the meet market core to gauge what was on peoples' minds these days and here are the responses I got (check for yourself as well!):





1. These days, when I exercise/go running, I think about...


"...how much exercising sucks."



"...nothing at all, really. I'm usually watching TV while I run (slowly) on the treadmill and I'm usually watching the food network, the travel channel or the history channel. It's my escape from all the things that burden me and it's the only time where I really get to watch TV. Our lives can seem so minute and redundant that sometimes we forget that there is a whole other world out there full of new experiences."



"...upcoming trips and events. I imagine how fun it'll be, who will be there, and what we'll do."




"...getting myself motivated to beat my body up and get as much as I can out of this session."



"...how much more I need to run before I can stop."





"...the show the Biggest Loser. I think about the strained faces of the contestants and how hard they push themselves to lose that extra pound. I picture their drenched shirts and their sweat drippin faces."



"...taking one more step/rep"



"...usually when I run, I'm trying not to think about how much I want to stop, so I'm usually watching tv to take my mind off the torture."




2. These days, while I'm praying, my mind wanders off to...



"...think about people God has brought in my life."



"...either all the things that I still have to do, or things I've been reading/experiencing/watching/learning and seeing if there are any illustrations I can draw from it."



"...school work. I go over my list of to-do's and what I need to study next."



"...what I'm going to do next."



"...it varies day to day, but usually on outside distractions"



"...what I have to do in the morning (or the next morning) at work. I pray most when I first wakeup in the morning, right before my shower. I find that my mind has a hard time just being still before the Lord since I'm always wondering how my day is going to shape up - what meetings need to be had, who needs to get yelled at, who's going to yell at me, and what other non-work related things I need to take care of. Sometimes, it's a real struggle to be still before the Lord, but like everything else in Christian life, we must struggle through it."



"...the past and the future. A little bit of both the good and the bad. Certain memories that have shaped who I've become. I trace how far I've come since my younger years as a Christian, but then I look foward to see how much more there is to struggle/fight/grow in the years to come."

"...nothing. I fall asleep."

3. These days, before I fall asleep, I think about...



"...what I'm going to wear the next day."



"...the work God has yet to do."



"...things I need to get done the next day."



"...the mistakes I've made from the current day and the people that I've hurt in the past."



"...what I just watched on tv (usually Sportscenter), or the ppl that are in need of care/oversight."

"...calling in sick to work the next day cause I'm tired."

"...nothing and everything."

"...what I will wear to work the next morning."

Let's be honest. Our minds are all over the place! And I think to a certain degree that's perfectly normal. But in the midst of these thoughts, will we choose to make room for God?

Reminder: "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things." Phil. 4:8

"death is only ONE heartbeat away from life..."

i went to a wake for a former coworker the other day. it was pretty surreal. i hadn't talked to him in a few months, and hadn't seen him in a year or so. T was 6'8" and weighed about 450lbs. He passed after a normal doctor visit due to a blood clot in the brain. it's crazy to think that someone who i saw almost every day for two years straight, talked and joked with about anything and everything was simply gone. no warning, no goodbyes. i guess i'm at that age where my attendance for friends' functions aren't limited to just their birthdays anymore...but includes weddings, childbirths, and funerals.

the wake was extremely different from any i'd been to before. it was at a church on the south side off 71st and MLK, and was predominately african-american...actually all african-american except for me. i'll just say this about african-americans...they do church a lot different than how my church does church. it was almost like one of those stereotypical scenes you might see in a movie, with the congregation shouting back their amens and hallelujahs to the singers or preacher, and loud mmmmhmmm'ing with everything they agreed with. don't get me wrong, in no way am i poking fun...in fact i was totally humbled by it.. i hadn't really seen this since i went to compton a few years back. there's no self-consciousness when doing all this. it's just part of who they are, and how they worship and respond to the Word. sometimes i wish koreans were like that...no reservations when it comes to Him. the whole service seemed like a celebration of life instead a mourning of death. sure there were tears, but there was plenty of reminiscing and laughter. the reverend even had an altar call towards the end of the service. i thought this was kind of crazy and i still don't know if i'm comfortable with it...but if big t's death could bring a few people to Jesus, what better way to celebrate and honor his life?

the reverend started his message off with the quote, "death is only one heartbeat away from life." his main point was something we've all heard a million times...cherish your life and what you have and the fact that you're still here. He spoke of picking cotton on his grandfather's farm, and his great-grandfather being a slave. He spoke of ladies clutching their purses close to their bodies as they walked by him...even though he had his pastoral robes on. drugs don't put themselves into people's bodies. guns don't shoot people without someone pulling the trigger. babies don't magically pop out of the air. it's not our circumstances that make us who we are...but we are who we are by surviving through those circumstances, and truly learning and moving on from our struggles. do i personally know much about any of the examples the reverend was talking about? not really...but that doesn't mean i haven't felt the same type of insecurities and feelings the reverend was speaking about...

when it comes down to it...we're not christian babies anymore. most of us have grown up in the church. the knowledge is there, but it's a matter of taking action. knowing and doing are not the same thing. in James it says, "faith without works is dead." we come to church thinking it's a mcdonalds. we go to God and place an order. we ask Him for things to give us, to make things happen for us. we expect pastors or small group leaders to wow us with sermons or bible studies. we have all these high expectations for church and for God, but we fail to have higher expectations for ourselves. it's time to grow up. we should be able to make it to church on time. we should be able to serve in some capacity at church. we should be able to contribute to small group and listen to find truth or an application in a sermon. instead we're too busy looking outward instead of looking inward. that's why empower 2010 is a good focus. take ownership of your own church. take ownership of your own life. don't put off serving God, or living your life because you have no idea when that last heartbeat between life and death is going to come. truth.
r.i.p big t.

A 'rhema' moment

I attended a GRIP retreat over the weekend and before we had our devotional, a staff member shared a brief message. He told us about a ‘rhema’ moment he had not too long ago. Rhema is one of two greek words (logos being the other) that’s translated into ‘scripture’ or ‘word’. However, the connotation with rhema is that it is spoken word; words that engage us . Along with having a rhema moment, he urged us to find a verse for the year. My quest for rhema was to begin in Psalm 119, (surely I’d be able to find one verse in that chapter). However, I did not make it that far. I glimpsed at Psalm 118 and had my rhema moment. “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His love endures forever” (emphasis mine). Why does that phrase stand out to engage me with God?

With two viewings of Avatar and reading a recent Op-Ed (in the previous post), the ideology of ‘Eywa’ is pretty fresh in my mind. We learn in the movie that Eywa is the deity of the Na’Vi (a tribe of indigenous people); analogous to ‘Mother Earth’ and that the Na’Vi people engage in activities resembling worship of Eywa. As Johnsully (the human playing the Avatar) prays to Eywa before a defining moment in the movie we learn that this deity ‘does not choose sides but rather balances life’. Without revealing too much of the movie, our emotions are moved when we see that Eywa responds to the prayer and intervenes on behalf of the indigenous people.

Revisiting Psalm 118:1, we learn that the God of the universe is good. I don’t believe the writer intends to say that God is a ‘good boy’ but rather God and His glory is the definition of good, a stark contrast of Eywa. (A side note, in Genesis 1 we see where God imparts His glory as being good). Eywa is a deity that does not engage with it’s created but rather manages energy, houses the voices of generations past and is willing to intervene in the interest of self-preservation. However, God is love (1 John 4:8) and seeks to reconcile all created things to Him (Colossians 1:20). So when the writer says in Psalm 118:1 to give thanks, it’s really the only response we can express when we experience the grace of God.

On a personal note, I’ve been told by multiple people that they feel that 2010 is going to be a ‘good year for me’. I’ve had several discussions with folks on what that statement means and how that might be characterized or measured. Reading the rest of Psalm 118, most people would probably agree that those experiences wouldn’t characterize a good year (especially verse 18). (Around the time I arrive to this verse during my devotional, I hear the praise team rehearsing “Forever”, I digress…). Whatever may happen this year, I know that God will brings situations and experiences where He will receive the glory and I’m eagerly anticipating them.