While Jesus is fully God, he lives in relationship with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit as a member of the Trinitarian Godhead. Paul consistently presents Jesus as fully God, but he also presents Jesus as the Son of God. This doesn’t make Jesus any less of God, because Paul clearly articulates Jesus’ deity. But Paul distinguishes Jesus’ role and relationship within the Trinitarian Godhead. According to Bruce Ware,

The Son, then, is fully God. He is not one-third God, but fully God. Yet, it is not the Son alone who is fully God, but he eternally exists along with the Father and the Spirit, each of whom also possesses fully the identically same divine nature. Because of this, what distinguishes the Son from the Father and the Spirit is not the divine nature of the Son. This–the one and undivided divine nature–is also possessed equally and fully by the Father and the Spirit. Therefore, what distinguishes the Son is his particular role as Son in relation to the Father and to the Spirit and the relationships that he has with each of them.[1]

Throughout the epistle to the Colossians, Paul shows the relationship between Jesus and God the Father. Paul’s first reference between Jesus and God the Father is in Col. 1:3 when Paul gives thanks to “God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul establishes that there is God the Father and God the Son. Continuing in Colossians, God the Father delivers “us to the kingdom of his beloved Son^” (Col. 1:13). Paul declares that it is “the Father’s good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in [Jesus]” (Col. 1:19, NASB).

Paul also makes known that the Son’s role is in submission to the Father’s authority. Jesus was used by the Father “to reconcile to himself all things” (Col. 1:20, ESV). “God [the Father] made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses” (Col. 2:13). Jesus’ role as the Son is to be used as the Father’s agent of salvation. Jesus is the Father’s agent of creation as “all things were created through him” (Col. 1:16). The Father also “disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in [Jesus]” (Col. 2:15).  Lastly, Jesus is our mediator to the Father. Paul says that the Colossians are to give “thanks to God the Father through [Jesus]” (Col. 3:17). Through Jesus, the Colossians had a relationship with the Father.

While Paul makes several references to God the Father, there is only one reference to the Holy Spirit in the epistle to the Colossians. In Col. 1:7, Paul speaks about Epaphras being a “faithful minister of Christ” to the Colossians. In the same sentence, Paul says that Epaphras has “made known to us your love in the Spirit” (Col. 1:8). While this doesn’t give us much of an understanding of the role and relationship between Jesus and the Holy Spirit, it does let us know that the Colossians would have known there is a third person of the Godhead. The Colossians would have to rely on other epistles from Paul that would eventually circulate to them, the gospels, and the teachings of Epaphras to get a better understanding of the rich interaction between Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

[SIDE NOTE: To have a better understanding of the Trinity, go buy Bruce Ware's book "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, and Relevance" right now and read it immediately.  It is the best book I've read on the Trinity to date (not like I've read a lot...but it's really good).  Don't wait...go do it.]

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[1] Bruce A. Ware, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, and Relevance (Crossway Books, 2005), 69.

Martin Luther began his 95 Theses with the primary thought of, “the whole life of believers should be repentance.”[i] Repentance of our sins doesn’t end when we become a Christian.  It continues until we are received into heaven.

Unfortunately most Christians slowly begin to forget that it is Jesus’ righteousness that puts us in relationship with God.  Over time they begin to trust in their own righteousness.  This leads to either despair or pride, neither of which Jesus wanted for his disciples.

Therefore, it is a necessity to continuously seek God to expose our sins to us through the power of the Holy Spirit, repent of those sins, and confess them to loving brothers and sisters in Christ.  Through repentance and confession we are able to experience true community and love.  We are able to see each other as we truly are and love each other despite our sins because of the blood of Jesus.  Here are some simple tips and steps for developing a habit of repentance and confession.

Tip #1 – Keep a short list of sins.  One of the worst things you can do is to hide your sin.  Sin holds you captive and steals the joy that is yours in Christ.  It separates you from those around you.  Don’t build up a list of sins before you confess and repent.  The instant that God reveals a sin in your life to you, immediately confess and repent of your sin.

Tip #2 – Find a righteous person.  When James says that “the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working,”[ii] he isn’t saying that there are people who are actually righteous on their own merit.  He is talking about those who trust in the righteousness of Jesus.  This is the type of person that you need to find to confess your sins to.  You need to find a person that will help you see your sin in light of Jesus.  Many times when ours sins are made real to us, we tend to focus on ourselves.  A righteous person helps you see that there is forgiveness found in Jesus.

Tip #3 – Keep a journal.  As Jesus reveals the sins in your life to you, keep track of them in your journal.  Make note of your sin, how it made you feel, the consequences of it, and the work of Jesus in your life to remove it.  Later you can look back on your journal to see how God has been working in your life.

Tip #4 – Don’t get discouraged.  You might think that as you grow as a Christian, you will begin to feel like less of a sinner.  The reality is quite the opposite.   When you look at the writings of Paul the Apostle, you see a progression in his understanding of his sinfulness.  Early in his writings, Paul simply called himself a sinner.  Then he called himself a chief sinner.  Towards the end of his life here on earth, he called himself the greatest of all sinners.  This isn’t because he began to sin more.  Instead, it is because as you walk with Jesus, your understanding of the glory of Jesus deepens.  As your understanding of his glory deepens, your understanding of your sinfulness grows in light of his glory.

The beauty is that you are a work in progress.  The Holy Spirit is continuously working on conforming you into the image of Jesus.  This is a project that won’t finish in your lifetime.  Therefore, trust in Jesus and his work in your life.

Tip #5 – Focus on Jesus.  The ultimate purpose of repentance and confession isn’t to focus on your sin but to focus on Jesus.  True repentance and confession turns you back to finding your identity in Jesus.  It’s only when we find our identity in Jesus that we have truly repented of our sins.  Anything less is simply pointing out your flaws with no ultimate power to have change in your life.

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[i] Martin Luther, Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, 2008, http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/274.

[ii] James 5:16 (ESV)

As it’s already been stated, Bible reading and prayer are the two most basic spiritual disciplines of Christian faith.  Prayer in the simplest way is talking to God.  It is sharing with your loving Father your heart, thoughts, emotions, requests, needs, cares, anxieties, worries, praises, thanksgivings, hopes, and desires.  The list could go on for days.  God speaks to you through His Word and you speak to Him through prayer.  Here are some simple tips and steps for developing a discipline of prayer.

Tip #1: Set up “triggers” in your life. We talked about triggers last week.  Take things that you do everyday and make them triggers for you to pray.  Here are some ideas to help you get started: taking a shower, using the bathroom, getting in your car, making coffee, getting in bed, getting ready to read your Bible, finishing reading your Bible, driving to work, driving home, finishing lunch, eating eggs, sailing on a boat, scratching your nose, and buying a tambourine. You get the idea. Take things that you do everyday and use them as a trigger to pray.

Tip #2: Have a plan. If you don’t have a plan, you can easily become a random prayer. Whatever comes to your head at the time is what you will pray for. You will constantly be praying for the same things over and over. This isn’t necessarily bad, but there are a lot more things/people in your life that could be praying for.  So have a standard place where you keep track of all the things that you want to pray about. Then review this list at least once a day. This way nothing gets left behind.

Tip #3: Talk to God. 
This might sound dumb to some, but for others this will be an epiphany. I don’t know if you noticed this or not, but some people like to use what could be called “prayer talk.”  This is where a person suddenly embodies the spirit of a TV evangelist and sees how many times they can say the words God, Father God, Lord, or Jesus (whichever is the persons favorite) in a prayer.  It comes as a surprise to most that you can actually just talk to God. You don’t have to use His name as the punctuation to every sentence. You don’t have to speak in old English. You can just talk to Him. Just like you talk to your friends about your troubles and your successes, you can talk to Him. You can tell Him your struggles and failures. You can tell Him jokes. You can even be angry and cry out to Him (read a few Psalms and you’ll get the idea). Prayer is you simply talking to God. No flair. No technicalities. No special formulas. Just talking.

Tip #4: Write it down.   When you develop a habit of constantly praying, it becomes easy to forget what you’ve prayed about.  Therefore, you can lose track of whether or not God has answered your prayers. This is so you can look back and see how God has answered your prayers over time.  Keep it simple though.  Don’t set a limit. That means no minimum or maximum. It puts an unnecessary burden on you. Some days you will write pages worth of prayer to God. Other days it will be the simple phrase, “God help me.” The idea is to simply write it out.

Tip #5: Keep it simple. During the time of Jesus, Jews would have standard prayers for everything that they would do. You would have a standard prayer for plowing a field, eating a meal, drinking wine…even going to the bathroom.[i] The key was that most of these prayers were only a sentence long. The reality is that our prayers don’t have to be five minutes long for God to hear us. Sometimes the simplest prayers are the best prayers. If you can only think of a few things to say to God, then say them. God isn’t keeping a tally of how much you pray. He just wants to hear from you.

Tip #6: Keep it sweet. 
Remember whom you are talking to. While God is the King of the Universe, He is also the Lover of your soul. One of the reasons that David was a man after God’s own heart was because he was passionate and honest with God. He was open and honest as you can only be with a closest friend. The worst prayer isn’t a long prayer or a prayer said in Old English but a prayer that has no heart. If you aren’t praying out of a love for God, then are you really praying?  The reality is that this is the core of all prayer…to seek the face of God….to seek after His heart. Prayer is one of the most intimate times we have with God. Treat it that way.

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[i] Marvin R. Wilson, Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989).

The two most basic disciplines of the Christian faith are scripture reading and prayer.  In fact, it is hard to separate the two.  God communicates to His people through His Word, and we communicate with Him through prayer.  This week we are going to focus on reading our Bibles and journaling, and next week we’ll look at prayer.

Reading our Bibles and journaling our thoughts are helpful tools to cultivate our relationship with Jesus.  Through scripture we are able to learn more about Jesus, have Him speak to our hearts, and be prepared to do His work.  Here are some simple tips and steps for developing a habit of spending time in God’s Word.

Tip #1: Have “triggers.” Probably one of the hardest things to do is to get in the habit of opening your Bible.  Leo Babauta of WritetoDone.com talks about putting triggers in your life to help you develop habits.

What’s a trigger? It’s the event that sets off your habit. For example, when I used to smoke, I had a number of triggers: I would smoke upon waking, when stressed, after a meeting, etc. When I wanted to change that habit, I had to change each trigger so that I had a new habit to replace smoking. Upon waking, for example, I would exercise instead. To create a new habit, you need to strongly associate your habit with a trigger. For example, let’s say you want to write in the morning — you might awake, use the bathroom, make your coffee, and then start writing. So making coffee is the trigger for writing, and using the bathroom is the trigger for making coffee, and waking is the trigger for using the bathroom. And as you wake every day, you have no problem. Choose a trigger that you know you’ll do every day, and then do your writing right after it, without exception.[i]

Triggers can be a very powerful tool for any spiritual discipline that you are trying to start.

Tip #2: Have all the right resources. It is suggested that when you sit down to spend time in the Bible, you should have the following items:

A Bible – Make sure it is a version that you can understand (different versions of the Bible are written at different reading levels). This guide uses the English Standard Version, but you might find another version easier to understand. Just go to your local bookstore and test a few out. See how easy they are to read and if you can understand the words that are being used.

A Journal – This is where you are going to write down your thoughts.  You can find several different styles at your bookstore.  Don’t be afraid to switch journals if one isn’t working for you.   Use the first few pages to keep an index of what you are learning each day. This way you can look back and see what you have been learning.

A Reading Plan – This guide provides you with passages to read every day while you’re going through the lessons.  When you’re done going through this guide, read whatever you want. Just have a plan. There are several different Bible reading plans online that will take you through the Bible in a year, or you could make it as simple as reading two chapters a day. Whatever you do, use a plan, or you’ll spend half your time trying to figure out what to read.

A Planner - It’s going to happen. You are going to be in the middle of having a wonderful time with God. Journaling your heart out…and you are going to remember that you’re out of milk. This is where your planner comes in handy. You can write down, “get milk” and go right back to your journaling. If you don’t have a planner, just use a scratch piece of paper.  Otherwise, your time with God will be hijacked by random thoughts of things you need to do for the day.

Tip #3: 
Use S.O.A.P.  This is an acronym for a Bible reading and journaling structure from Wayne Cordeiro.[ii] It stands for the following:

Scripture: Start off with the Bible. Read the verses that are on your plan for the day.
Observation: As you read, write down any observations that you have from the text. Use the questions, “Who is God?,” and “How do I enjoy Him?,” to focus your observations even better.
Application: Based on what you have read…what should you do? Try to make this practical and realistic. Set a goal for the day based upon your reading. Write it down and hold yourself accountable to it.
Prayer: Last but not least, spend some time in prayer to God. Confess and repent of any sins that were brought to light while you were reading. Spend time thanking God. Also spend some time in silence listening to God.  Make note of these in your journal.

Tip #4: Keep it simple. The goal of your time with God is to try to grow closer to Him. It’s not to check off your list. Don’t add extra burdens to this focus, such as: “I have to make at least 15 observations.” “I have to write at least 5 pages in my journal.” “I have to pray for at least 45 minutes.” The goal is to spend time with God and to grow closer to Him. Do what it takes to do just that…the rest is just distractions, burdens, and religion.

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[i] Leo Babauta, “10 Steps to Create the Habit of Writing,” www.writetodone.com, January 9, 2008, http://writetodone.com/2008/01/09/10-steps-to-create-the-habit-of-writing/.

[ii] Wayne Cordeiro, “Plenary Session 1” (presented at the Exponential Conference (National New Church Conference), Orlando, Florida, April 25, 2007).

As you go through your day today….don’t forget.
While you run your errands,
While you sit at your desk,
While you check your email,
While you play with your kids,
While you eat your lunch,
While you drink your Starbucks,
Don’t forget.

While you are going through your day, Jesus was beaten beyond recognition, hung on a cross, and died for your sins.

Don’t forget.

This is just a short rant I had to get out of my system.  I don’t know if this happens to you, but it seems to happen pretty frequently to me.  The people change, but the conversation seems to stay about the same.

Them: Hey can I talk to you.

Me: Sure.

Them: God has really been convicting me lately of _________ sin in my life.

Me: Ok.

Them:  I’m telling you this because I’ve seen you do the same thing to me.

Me: um…..

I’m just a little confused, when did the fact that God is convicting you of your deep sinful character flaw, give you the right to nit pick my flaws.  I kind of remember Jesus talking about taking the log out of your own eye….not leave the log in your eye, pick up a sniper rifle, and start shooting everyone with specks in their eyes.   It just doesn’t make sense.

So here’s my recomendation.  The next time God convicts you of something, stop! Don’t start looking around to see if anyone else has the same sin. Don’t start thinking about how you’ve been hurt by others in the same way.  Don’t start calling every Tom, Dick and Sally.  Instead, put the gun down and go to Jesus.  Let him take the log out of your eye and give it some time to heal (logs in your eyes tend to cause a lot of damage). Otherwise you might end up shooting some close friends….

Every now and then I have to go on business trips for UPS.  I really don’t like going.  Generally their pointless, but mostly it’s because I have to be away from Shannon (and now Asa).  I have to eat alone, watch TV alone, and sleep alone.  It’s really depressing.

But this week Shannon and Asa went with Shannon’s mom to Denver to see some family.  I have determined that I don’t like going on business trips…but I hate having my wife and kid leave me at home alone.  Like a business trip, I have to eat alone (and now I have to make it too), watch TV alone, and sleep alone, but I have to do this at home where everything reminds me of them.

I’ve been cleaning the house today so Shannon can come home and relax, and everything reminds me of the two of them (hince the reason I’m blogging to take my mind off of it…but I’m blogging about them so it’s not working).  Making the bed, folding the laundry, cleaning the kitchen, picking up the house, all reminds me of the two of them.  So I’ve determined that I’m never letting them leave me home alone again…..yeah that’s about it.

So men…if you’re at home with your wives and kids…realize your blessing and tell your wife how much you love her and spend some time playing with your kids.  Sometimes you don’t realize how pitiful you are until you’re all alone again.

P.S. Don’t worry about me…Shannon and Asa come home tomorrow.

photo by: laffy4k

So I realized today that I haven’t given a baby update in awhile.  So here is your update.  We are currently four weeks from our due date of June 1st.  I have to say that there are elivated levels of excitement and fear.

It’s kind of crazy to think that we are about to be parents.  In no time at all, I’m going to be losing sleep and changing diapers.  But I’m also going to get to use all the cool stuff that we’ve gotten for the kid.

We have the nursery pretty much ready to go (we still have to get a few minor items) thanks to two baby showers that were thrown for us.  I’ve been having fun the last few weeks/days setting things up.  I even have the car seat base already in the car. I know…I’m a nerd.

It’s also been fun getting to feel Asa move.  He is already in posistion (head down) and has been really active.  It’s crazy to watch Shannon’s stomach rise and fall.  And from what we’ve noticed of his activity, we are going to have a night baby (he takes after his daddy).  So, it looks like I’ve got a lot of late nights in the near future.

Speaking of the near future.  Don’t forget to put in your guess for when our bundle of joy is going to enter this world.

Well that is pretty much it in baby world.  We’re just getting ready here on the home front.  Preparing the nursery and taking birthing classes.

Here is one question for all the parents out there.  What was one thing that you think every new parent should have that they don’t typically get beforehand?

Today Shannon and I went to the doctor to have Shannon’s check up for the month of January. Before I tell you about the appointment, I must say that I love our Nurses Midwife. She has this quirky Doogie Howser feel about her. You can also tell that she really loves what she does. I just love people who are passionate about what they do (she seems as excited about finding out the baby’s gender as we are). She is also so nice about listening to all of Shannon’s and my questions and answering them. She’s just top notch.Now back to the baby. Shannon is currently in her 19th week. The baby is doing fine and growing at a normal rate. We got to hear his or her heart beat and it’s beating strong. We have an appointment to get an ultrasound on the 25th (we’re trying to get it scheduled earlier). We should be able to find out the baby’s gender at this time.Don’t give me the whole “Don’t you want to be surprised?!” bit. Here’s the deal. We don’t know what the baby is right now. So at any point that we find out the gender of the baby next week or in June, it will then be a surprise.Incase you are wondering, Shannon really thinks that it is a girl. We’ve kinda got our hearts set on it being a girl now because of that. But if we have a boy, I think we’ll be just as happy. As long as it’s not a donkey, I’m ok.