For some, the doctrine of the trinitarian nature of God is a complex headscratcher that is a deterrent to faith. For me, this doctrine is a glorious mystery that invites me to believe in and love God even more.

The doctrine of the Trinity states that there is one and only one God. But this one God exists in three separate and distinct persons - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. They are not each an occasional manifestation of the one God, but rather each of three has forever existed in perfect and harmonious equality as one. All are holy, gracious, true, and loving. And all work together to accomplish the singular mission of God.

It is my belief that the doctrine of the Trinity is the single most important doctrinal tenet of Christian faith. Without it, everything else falls down. Let me give you some examples:

The Bible - We believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. It is the word of the Father, breathed by the Spirit, testifying to the Son, Jesus.

Creation - We believe that God created all things. It was the Father who did this by the Word (the Son, Jesus Christ) through the animated power of the Spirit.

Salvation - We believe that God saves us by his grace. It is the Father who has elected us to salvation. The Son died on the cross for us. And the Spirit brings us to life through regeneration.

Sanctification - We believe that God makes us the people he wants us to be by his grace. The Father calls us to holiness. The Son, Jesus, gives us the pattern of a holy lifestyle to follow. The Spirit is within us, enabling us to live that life.

Church - We believe that believers in Jesus are unified together as a body. It is the Father who calls us out as a separate people. It is the Son who unites us and whose body we compose. It is the Spirit who dwells within us, enabling us to serve God.

I could go on, but the divine community of the Trinity makes the human community of fellowship possible. It is the fact that perfect, holy, and loving relationships within the Godhead exist that makes the dream of fellowship so appealing. It is what we were created for.

What do you think?

The topic of the day is Fellowship.  It is one of the five purposes of the church.  So, join us for a get together for adults at Kevin & Mary Fitzpatrick’s at 6 p.m.  We’ll enjoy true fellowship, and you are invited.

When I read Rick’s statement this morning that every Christian will experience the dark night of the soul at least once in their lifetime, I laughed. It was the “at least” part that made me laugh. We spend about a third of our lives sleeping at night. And I think I have spent “at least” a third of my spiritual life in the dark night of the soul.

And I always find Jesus most comforting during those times. The cross teaches me that God suffers too. The words of Jesus remind me that being honest with God about how I feel is always the best way to connect with him. The reaction of his friends helps me to remember that the people who love me most will try to understand but might not be able to. And Jesus’ reaction to his friends gives me an example of grace. Ultimately, the resurrection gives me a reason to hope.

Let’s talk about the dark night of the soul.

Today’s chapter in PDL is so full of practical advice that I really want a lot of it rattling around in my head tomorrow when we gather for worship.

But, in my opinion, the very best part of this chapter is Rick’s recommendation of Gary Thomas’ book Sacred Pathways. I read it a few years ago after reading this chapter in PDL, and it helped to revolutionize worship for me.

First, there is the basic concept - We all have different, God-given personalities. Therefore, it would only make sense that we glorified God best in different ways. Imagine how glorified God would be if this concept took hold of the church. Imagine the “worship wars” that would cease. Imagine the gracious spirit that would prevail. Imagine all the guilt that would be lifted. Imagine all the people living life in peace …. never mind.

Second, there is the joy and excitement in discovering how you best worship God. My parents tell the story of my sister getting glasses when she was in first grade. It was only then that she realized that trees didn’t just have green blobs on top of them but were covered with individual leaves. She saw the world in a whole new way. My hunch is that there are a ton of people out there who would love to connect deeply with God, but haven’t had the chance yet because they haven’t been given a new way to look at worship.

Third, there is the appreciation of others. Not everyone has to be like me. Not everyone has to do it the way I do it. And rather than viewing people who are different than me with disdain, I can come to appreciate and learn from their personalities and preferences. None of us has the corner on God, and we all have a lot to learn from each other.

Want to teach me something? Join the conversation.

Some people think that the true essence of faith is knowledge. They think that if you know certain facts or can argue certain apologetic points or can rehearse certain doctrines, you have faith. But knowledge is not the true essence of faith.

Some people think that the true essence of faith is emotion. They think that if you have had certain experiences or that if you feel certain things deeply, you have faith. But emotion is not the true essence of faith.

Some people think that the true essence of faith is behavior. They think that if you abstain from certain activities or if you commit yourself to certain habits, you have faith. But behavior is not the true essence of faith.

People can know and feel and behave without true faith. Knowledge can reinforce and strengthen faith. Emotion can warm and embolden faith. Behavior can be the fruit of faith. But none of them are the true essence of faith and, therefore, aren’t the path to friendship with God.

The true essence of faith is honesty and humility. Faith begins when I come to the end of myself. Faith starts when I can admit with honesty and humility that I don’t have all the answers, that my feelings are finicky, and that my actions are frequently inappropriate. Honesty and humility diminishes me, making room for the love and grace and holiness of God to invade my life. Honesty and humility make room for God in my life. They are what faith in and friendship with God is all about.

What do you think about faith and friendship?

I told you on Sunday that I am not a very good pray-er. It’s kind of funny because I love to pray. I love to bear my soul with God and connect with him. I love to take a walk, smoke a cigar, and simply be with God. But I don’t think I am very good at it.

Maybe that’s because I grew up listening to sermon illustrations about great pray-ers. They were the men and women who would get up at 4 o’clock in the morning to spend hours with God before they did anything else. I distinctly remember sermon illustrations about the prayerful stylings of George Mueller, Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon, and Abraham Lincoln. I can remember thinking to myself, “That’s great, but I could never do that.”

And then I began to learn about the things Rick Warren talked about in today’s chapter of The Purpose-Driven Life. Prayer can be an ongoing conversation between me and God. It can flow naturally along the contours of my day. How liberating that is!

Breath prayers can be like mental screen savers for us. When nothing else is on your mind, you can slip into thinking about and repeating a significant statement to or about God. I would encourage you to give the discipline of breath prayers a try during these 40 days of purpose. If you don’t know what to pray, try repeating a phrase from our Colossians 1.9-14 passage - “joyfully giving thanks to the Father,” “live a life worthy of the Lord,” “bearing fruit in the every good work,” “qualified to share.”

Give it a try, and share some of your prayer experiences.

The Chicago Cubs.
Homer Simpson.
Dilbert.

How much do we respect lovable losers? Not very much. They get some sympathy, a chuckle and a nod of the head. But not much respect. We respect winners.

But what if losing the path to winning? Victory through defeat. True success through surrender. Losing your life so that you can save it.

How much do we respect these lovable losers:

Mahatma Gandhi.
Mother Teresa.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Jesus Christ.

Maybe I need to worry less about how to win, how to succeed, how to be more comfortable. And think more about how to surrender myself, to give up, to become a lovable loser.

How about you?

It has been a theme we have hinted at during Life Together a couple of times already, but it is worth mentioning again - It may be impossible to please some people, but it is possible to please God.

Some of us have people in our lives that simply will not be pleased with anything we do. When I was a youth and outreach pastor in Boston, I had the unique opportunity to help several young men begin their life journeys with Jesus. I would take them out to lunch, one at a time, to have a heart to heart conversation about them and God. At the end of our conversation, one of these guys told me that he wanted to pray and ask Jesus to forgive his sins and come into his life. I said to him, “You go to church, have Christian parents, go to a Christian school - why haven’t you ever done this before?” He answered, “No one has ever asked me to before.” It was quite a moment. We left the restaurant and sat in my car where he prayed and asked Jesus to change his life. So many young people did what he did that summer that we began calling the front passenger seat of our Jetta the “throne of grace” or the “mercy seat.” I took him home and urged him to talk to his mom and dad about what had just happened. Later that afternoon, I sent an email to our youth ministry leadership team telling them what had happened. Well, his mom was furious with me. To this day, I am baffled by why. I had been burdened for her son, initiated an important conversation with him, and had had a front row seat to see God’s grace in his life. But that wasn’t good enough for her. She was impossible to please.

I am so glad that God is not like that. It is not only possible for us to please God, I think that God is rooting for us to please him. He is longing for it. He wants to be pleased by us, to take delight in us.

And because of that, it is not difficult to do - we can simply love him and trust him and obey him and live the life he has designed for us. And in that, being ourselves for his glory, we please God.

Let’s talk more about it.

Here is an article suggesting 10 ways to worship without music.

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As you’ll discover as you read through Rick Warren’s, The Purpose Driven Life, worship through music is only a small portion of what true, biblical worship is all about.

Worship is the process of surrendering your entire life into God’s hands. Everything you do can – and should — be an act of worship.

God designed us to worship Him with our whole lives, and there are actually spiritual habits that we can build into our lives that help us worship God more deeply?

Here are ten habits than will build worship into your life on a daily basis.

1. Worship through prayer. We often miss this important component of our prayer life. Think about the issues you usually pray about. How much of your prayer life is about you and how much of it is about God? Without a doubt God wants us to be able to share everything that is going on in our life. But he also wants us to get to know Him better. When we affirm who God is through our prayers, we put our prayer life in proper perspective. That’s exactly how Jesus taught us to pray. Look at the Lord’s Prayer in the Gospel of Mathew (6: 9-13); Jesus starts the prayer off by saying “Our Father who is in Heaven, May Your name be honored.” (NLT) Jesus teaches us an important lesson with this prayer. Prayer starts with God. Consider including in your prayers a time of focused attention on who God is.

2. Get in a regular habit of reading the Bible. The Bible says that we worship God in “spirit and in truth.” How can we ever worship God without a clear understanding of who He is? The truth about God is essential to worship. Pay special attention to the book of Psalms. No book in the Bible spends as much time carefully describing who God is.

3. Obey God. Rick Warren mentions in The Purpose Driven Life that we worship God when we obey Him. We all need to build the habit of obedience into our lives. Take practical steps to see that this is a part of your life. Whenever you sense God is speaking to you, make it a regular practice to respond immediately. Don’t let procrastination weigh you down. If you can’t do it immediately, write down whatever God has been putting on your heart, so that you can do it SOON!

4. Tithe. If you want to know what in your life you worship, look at your checkbook register. The Bible teaches us this important lesson: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Mathew 6:21 NIV) God wants us to surrender our entire being to Him. One way to show that is by making Him Lord of our pocketbook. If you are already a committed tither, consider raising the percentage you are willing to give.

5. Build deep relationships with other Christians. The Bible teaches that God designed us to live in community with other Christians. We bring God pleasure by getting to know others and being known by them. At Saddleback, the primary way we do this is through small groups.

6. Share your faith. John Piper made many of us re-look at why we share our faith when he wrote a few years ago: “Missions exists because worship doesn’t.” God wants every person on the planet to worship him, not because He is an egomaniac who needs our praise, but because worship is how we are designed by God. He wants the best for us.

Take time this week to share your spiritual journey with someone else. Tell them how you came to faith in Christ. Don’t worry about their response. Relax in the knowledge that you are playing a part in expanding God’s world-wide worship.

7. Serve others. Jesus tells us that “when you did it to the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did to me!” (Matt. 25:40 NLT) When we serve one another, Jesus tells us we are really serving Him. If you don’t think you have any gifts that are useful to serve, you are wrong. God made you with talents and gifts that He specifically gave you to serve others.

8. Build into your life the attitude of thankfulness. This requires looking at the world through a different set of eyes. When we look through the lens of thankfulness, we see our lives – and everything in it – as all gifts from God. Develop your own spiritual exercise each morning that demonstrates that you are putting on your lens of thankfulness. Then begin to thank God for all of the good things in your life.

9. Begin turning over to God areas of your life that you have never committed to Him. This is the heart of worship – surrender. God won’t settle for 90 percent of your life; He wants all of it. You might have been a follower of Jesus for years, but you still have areas of your life that you are holding back from Him. What are those areas? Only you know that. Two good places to look are your checkbook and your planner. Look at the areas of your life where you spend the most money and the most time. Do they honor God?

If you are human, you have sin in your life that you need to surrender. Think back over the past month and write down all of the times you remember disobeying clear teaching from God. Then look for patterns. If you find patterns of sin in your life, these are areas of your life you need to surrender to God. Right at the moment, start praying for God to help you overcome that sin. Ask your small group to pray for you.

10. Live a life of purpose. God has a reason for your existence. In fact, He has five: fellowship, discipleship, ministry, evangelism and worship. You please God when you live in step with His purposes. God doesn’t want you to waste your life.

You were designed for God’s pleasure. The purpose of worship is the foundation of the other four purposes. Fellowship without the spirit of worship is just “hanging out.” Discipleship without worship is nothing but a fruitless mental exercise. Ministry without worship is called “spinning your wheels.” Evangelism without worship is a misplaced sales pitch.

Worship isn’t simply one area of your life; it is your life. Start right this moment by surrendering your life to God. Then spend the rest of your life learning to worship Him more fully.
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Got any other ideas? Let’s hear them!