Trinitarian Statement

God
There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal
Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in
holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect
knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions
of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The
eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct
personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.

A. God the Father
God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow
of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful,
all knowing, all loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children
of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.

Genesis 1:1; 2:7; Exodus 3:14; 6:2-3; 15:11ff.; 20:1ff.; Leviticus 22:2; Deuteronomy
6:4; 32:6; 1 Chronicles 29:10; Psalm 19:1-3; Isaiah 43:3,15; 64:8; Jeremiah 10:10;
17:13; Matthew 6:9ff.; 7:11; 23:9; 28:19; Mark 1:9-11; John 4:24; 5:26; 14:6-13; 17:1-
8; Acts 1:7; Romans 8:14-15; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 4:6;
Colossians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:17; Hebrews 11:6; 12:9; 1 Peter 1:17; 1 John 5:7.

B. God the Son
Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of
the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of
God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying
Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His
personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for
the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and
appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He
ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One
Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between
God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate
His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present
Lord.

Genesis 18:1ff.; Psalms 2:7ff.; 110:1ff.; Isaiah 7:14; 53; Matthew 1:18-23; 3:17; 8:29;
11:27; 14:33; 16:16,27; 17:5; 27; 28:1-6,19; Mark 1:1; 3:11; Luke 1:35; 4:41; 22:70;
24:46; John 1:1-18,29; 10:30,38; 11:25-27; 12:44-50; 14:7-11; 16:15-16,28; 17:1-5,
21-22; 20:1-20,28; Acts 1:9; 2:22-24; 7:55-56; 9:4-5,20; Romans 1:3-4; 3:23-26; 5:6-
21; 8:1-3,34; 10:4; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2:2; 8:6; 15:1-8,24-28; 2 Corinthians 5:19-21;
8:9; Galatians 4:4-5; Ephesians 1:20; 3:11; 4:7-10; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians
1:13-22; 2:9; 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18; 1 Timothy 2:5-6; 3:16; Titus 2:13-14; Hebrews
1:1-3; 4:14-15; 7:14-28; 9:12-15,24-28; 12:2; 13:8; 1 Peter 2:21-25; 3:22; 1 John 1:7-
9; 3:2; 4:14-15; 5:9; 2 John 7-9; Revelation 1:13-16; 5:9-14; 12:10-11; 13:8; 19:16.

C. God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the
Scriptures. Through illumination He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ.
He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Saviour,
and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration He baptizes every believer into
the Body of Christ. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the
spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. He seals the believer unto the
day of final redemption. His presence in the Christian is the guarantee that God will bring
the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the
believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.

Genesis 1:2; Judges 14:6; Job 26:13; Psalms 51:11; 139:7ff.; Isaiah 61:1-3; Joel 2:28-
32; Matthew 1:18; 3:16; 4:1; 12:28-32; 28:19; Mark 1:10,12; Luke 1:35; 4:1,18-19;
11:13; 12:12; 24:49; John 4:24; 14:16-17,26; 15:26; 16:7-14; Acts 1:8; 2:1-4,38; 4:31;
5:3; 6:3; 7:55; 8:17,39; 10:44; 13:2; 15:28; 16:6; 19:1-6; Romans 8:9-11,14-16,26-27;
1 Corinthians 2:10-14; 3:16; 12:3-11,13; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 1:13-14; 4:30; 5:18;
1 Thessalonians 5:19; 1 Timothy 3:16; 4:1; 2 Timothy 1:14; 3:16; Hebrews 9:8,14; 2
Peter 1:21; 1 John 4:13; 5:6-7; Revelation 1:10; 22:17.

True Fathers stay close

Ps. 31:11-12
"I am the utter contempt of my neighbors; I am a dread to my friends - those who see me on the street flee from me. I am forgotten by them as though I were dead; I have become like broken pottery."

We all do things that put us in crazy situations. Feeling isolated from friends, family, neighbors, is pretty normal at times. Gossip abounds, and it gets to the point where we feel isolated, alone, abandoned. That's not a new feeling. David penned these words over a millenium ago - he says he's like broken pottery: sharp trash that only causes hurt as it is throne out. Ouch.

But the Father is faithful. He stays close. David goes on to say "But I trust in you, O Lord; I say "You are my God." My times are in your hands; deliver me from my enemies and those who pursue me. Let your face shine on your servant, save me in your unfailing love."

We are never too far from God to call to Him. When everything is crumbled and against us - we can still call to Him. Whether I've made the situation, or life made it happen, God listens. Staying close to God reveals the father. Jesus revealed the father, and did what he saw the Father doing. Ps. 31:19: "How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you."

God is my refuge. God stands with me even when I'm alone. That doesn't mean that he always advocates what we do - but He always loves us. Good fathers stay close. If my son disobeys, I discipline him because I love him. I stay close to him. God does the same. He sent his Son to save us, to bring us to Him. And gives His spirit to draw us to Him consciously and actively. That is love, the love of a Father.

God is my Father

When I think about God, it's easy to be thinking things like: powerful, awesome, mighty. It's a little harder to think things like: personal, near, gentle. But God is both. Actually, He's three: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Grasping this reality is a challenge, but I like living in reality so I'm going for it. Here's how Wayne Grudem, a Christian theologian, defines the Trinity: God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is one God. Say what? 3=1. Yes, 3=1. There are three persons, one God

God is my Father. Jesus taught to pray this way; He started the famous prayer with Our Father who is in heaven. As a child, Jesus was on a trip with his parents, and when they left he stayed back hanging out and teaching in the temple. His parents noticed he was missing [that can really happen to parents in crowds, especially if they have several kids. I don't have several kids so it hasn't happened, yet]. They turned to go back and found him in the temple. Jesus' reply "Did you not know that I had to be in My Father's house?" Literally, house means affairs - so it would be something like in the things of My Father. Jesus was about doing His Father's will.

Psalms 68:4-6 makes an interesting statement regarding God the Father. I'll quote it in entirety.
Sing to God, sing praises to his name; Lift up a song for Him who rides through the deserts, Whose name is the Lord and exult before Him. A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows, Is God in His holy habitation. God makes a home for the lonely; He leads out the prisoners into prosperity, Only the rebellious dwell in a parched land.

God is worthy of praise and great and can do things we can't. Sorry, I can't ride through the desert. But I can worship, and who is the Father I worship? The One who is just, a father for the orphan and advocate for the widow. He's that way in His home. Not just for show, but in His holy habitation. The Father cares for His people. Just as Jesus is the Good Shepherd, so the Father is good for His people. In Psalm 68:35 we see that "The God of Israel Himself gives strength and power to the people." Any good father empowers His children. A good father also instructs and disciplines His children in love. God does all of this. Those who rebel face discipline, not as a sign of hatred, but of enmity. The rebellious choose to go against their father, and face the consequences. God loves such that the lonely are befriended. God loves such that He gives strength and power to His people. This power comes through the Holy Spirit, but we'll get to Him later. [while we're at it, Psalm 68:19 completes the trinity with "Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, the God who is our salvation." - Jesus is our salvation].

The Father does not abandon His children, He is sovereign over everything, and Jesus prayed to Him. But He is not remote; God is love and personal: making homes for the lonely and caring for the orphan and providing for the widow. God loves. "See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God." [I John 3:1-2a]. All children have a father, and God that father has made Himself known. For those who rebel or reject, there is only a parched land. Sin is leaving the water fountain and drinking dirt when you're thirsty. The Father turns on the fountain for His children. Those who reject decide they like dirt. "Only the rebellious dwell in a parched land." Ps. 68:6. "But as man as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name." John 1:12.