How to Walk with God Daily

Walking with God daily sounds good, but if we were honest, it’s not easy to do.  In fact, it sounds “korny” and impractical, but it can be done in a realistic, mature, practical, and effective manner.

 

Trinity Living was organized to help people acknowledge God in a Simple and Practical way daily, called Trinity Living Lifestyle.  God needs to be Important to us and He wants to be part of our life every day because He loves us and cares for us.  God created us with the intention of Him being Abba Father and we His children.  He wants family!

 

God does not need us; He wants us and that is what makes our relationship with Him unique and special.  He wants us to be His family!

 

If we were honest, most of us would admit we are busy and forget about God and His presence.  It’s not that we don’t want Him to be a part of our lives, it’s we’re busy.  This is most often the case until tragedy strikes and there is no where else to go for help because doom, gloom, or death is quickly approaching.

 

Most of us would feel used and angry if people, especially family treated us this way.  The truth is, God does feel hurt and sad BUT He is Patient, Kind, Gracious, Forgiving, and Merciful… thankfully.  He is more these characteristics than anyone we will ever know.

 

To help people who want to make God a part of their everyday life, we suggest taking baby-steps and growing in habit as they progress.  This will help to Make God Important Again.  All of God’s creation has the same propensity to let concerns of daily life be the object of our attention instead of God.  Life’s concerns and demands have caused us all to lose focus of God making Him less important than life’s chores and demands.

 

Most don’t know where to begin, so let us offer a suggestion.  Begin each day with the “Lord’s Prayer”.  Why do we say the Lord’s Prayer is a good place to start?  The Lord’s Prayer as taught by Jesus encompasses everything God expects from us in a relationship with Him.  First, it acknowledges who God is and His authority, Second, it is a prayer that is always answered by Him, Thirdly, it acknowledges our daily dependance on Him, Fourthly, it acknowledges our sinful nature and need for His forgiveness, Fifthly, it acknowledges our need to get along with fellow humans, Sixth, it acknowledges our need for God’s protecting us from being affected by the one who wants to destroy us, Satan, and finally, it again acknowledges who God is and it offers thanks to Him for all He does.

False Religions, What Makes Them False?

Most every religious denomination declares they understand God and what his expectations are.  They encourage attendance and membership in their respective denominations.  They go on further to interpret God’s Word explaining to their members they intend to rightly divide the Word of “Truth” (Timothy 2:15), But who is right?  Who is interpreting God’s Word accurately?

 

My official answer is, most are telling the truth until they get into detail.  Detail is what defines and divides, this is why Trinity Living chooses to focus on the basics of Simple Faith.

 

What are the basics?  1) One Sovereign, Almighty, Most High God who is Creator, Sustainer, and Provider of all that exists, 2) God created mankind in His image, 3) Mankind sinned and fell by turning from God to trust self, 4) Death, a blood sacrifice, was the penalty for the sin of leaving God, 5) God provided a remedy to restore the relationship through the death of Jesus, God’s Sacrificial Lamb, 6) God manifested His Almighty Power by raising Jesus back to life, and 7) Repenting of our sin, turning to God, and calling upon God to Save is how  God’s Sacrifice is applied to His promise of Eternal Life.

 

Anything beyond the above seven basics is detail as determined by each denomination.  We choose the basics as foundational truth and call it SIMPLE FAITH.

 

What makes a false religion false?  Anything that takes God, His Sovereign Deity, and His Provision of Salvation, Jesus, out of the equation.  Anything beyond these basics are incidentals.  The incidentals may be biblically sound, but they are not required by God for His love, mercy, or grace.

 

God owns everything (Psalm 24:1).  Evil, is when God is removed from the equation of anything.  Evil is when God is not considered, and evil is when anyone takes the truth of God and hijacks it for self and/or self-glory.  Evil is taking credit from God and giving credit to a want-to-be God like Lucifer.

 

Everything is God’s including light energy, sound energy, vibrations, fragrance healing.  Everything belongs to the Almighty Most High God.  Do not be deceived into thinking any power is from itself or another source.  Not True.  New Age is not new, it is as old as God.  God owns Everything.

When Salt Loses its Salty Flavor

When a food is said to taste salty, everyone knows what that means; It has a distinct taste with a tingle.  It certainly adds flavor.

 

What gives salt its flavor?  A chemist would tell you that its unique flavor is due to it being an electrolyte but what is an electrolyte?  From a chemist’s point of view for a substance to be classified as salt it must have two charged chemicals, one having a positive charge and the other having a negative charge.  In chemistry opposite charges attract one another just like a magnet.  If you take two magnets and try to get them to come together, they will only attach when the positive side of the one magnet is positioned with the negative side of the other magnet.  If you attempt to join a positive charge magnet of one magnet with the positive side of another magnet you feel the repulsion.  They seem to not want to connect.

 

Table salt is sodium chloride.  The sodium has a positive charge while the chloride has a negative charge and when they attract and attach to each other they become the white crystals we sprinkle on our food to give the food flavor.

 

The salt we sprinkle on our food does not give its unique flavor as the crystal; It must be broken and separated.  The sodium must separate from the chloride causing an “electrical” charge, a positive charge from the sodium and a negative charge from the chloride.  This is what gives salt its flavor.  The take-home message is the salt must be “broken” to be effective.  When it is broken, the electrical charges can be felt.  Not only are the charges felt and cause flavor, but the charges also protect and make salt become a preservative.

 

Brokenness is the key, broken can mean broken from pride and self.  When we are broken, we are open to God and his strength and power.  When we are broken, we become dependent on God.

 

Another analogy of salt is Lot’s wife who turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back to Sodom.  She looked to her past.  She looked back and the looking back caused her to turn into a pillar of salt.  The pillar of salt was the crystal which is not effective.  Salt as a crystal cannot perform its magic and power.  It must be broken into individually charged particles.

 

Looking back to our past failures can cause us to become paralyzed or to turn into a pillar of salt.  Brokenness is coming to an end of self and becoming dependent on God.

 

God is a God of forgiveness and wants us to look and move forward, not stop and look back as Lot’s wife did.  We have all failed and looking back at past behavior and past failure can prevent us from moving forward.  We can easily become a pillar of salt and lose our flavor.  Let’s try to look and move forward.

Religious or Religion, that is the Question

What is “religious”?  Religious is a lifestyle; however, it can be practiced in one of two ways, either from-the-heart or ritualistic.  The difference is from-the-heart is based on attitude whereas ritualistic is rote mechanics going through the motions.  With from-the-heart there is desire to do or give whereas with ritualistic, there is expectation to receive.  One is giving, the other is receiving.

 

Trinity Living is a religious lifestyle based on the premise God is the center of our life; In other words, He is the heartbeat of our being.

 

Religion is a set of manmade rules based on man’s interpretation of God and God’s Word.  Religions are recognized by denomination based on their individual interpretations.

 

Jesus’ lifestyle was religious.  He lived his life with purpose and meaning.  This is obvious because he was despised by the Pharisees, the leaders of religion.  Jesus is the best example for being religious.  He best exemplifies a lifestyle where God, his father, was the central focus of his life.

 

Jesus’ life was based on his relationship with God his father.  From the relationship with his father, he was able to have a perfect relationship with fellow man.  Don’t be confused into thinking all relationships Jesus had was perfect, they were not.  Relationships are two-way.  Jesus’ attitude and behavior was always perfect but the other party’s attitude and behavior may not have been perfect or desirable.  Jesus always knew how to deal with even the most difficult people.  Jesus is and was God in the flesh, perfect man.  He conducted himself in a perfect manner with ALL his relationships.  He should be our example.

 

Trinity Living is a religious lifestyle with God being the central focus.  With God being the central focus, our emotions, thoughts, and care for our body, a temple, is based on His purpose and plan for our life.  His purpose is for us to rule the earth under His authority and enjoy fellowshipping with us.

 

The natural outcome for such a relationship will automatically improve our relationship with fellow humans.  A Trinity Living lifestyle is a lifestyle based on an attitude that is developed from our thoughts and feelings as they relate to God.  Attitude determines behavior which together defines one’s character.

Humanism vs. Christianity

Contemporary Christians rebuke “humanism” as being evil and a tool of Satan; they are right BUT they are also wrong.  Let me explain.

 

Humanism is the belief that humans are divine and have the power within themselves to overcome any obstacle and prevail.  New Age and eastern religions advocate “self-awareness”, “enlightenment”, and a higher level of “consciousness”.  New Age religion’s goal is to achieve the Highest Level of Consciousness and to teach others how to achieve the highest level of Consciousness.

 

To understand what I am about to say, one needs to understand the root meaning of the word “consciousness”.  Let’s break it down.  The root “con” in consciousness means “with”, the root meaning of “sci” is “to know or have knowledge”.  Does this sound familiar?  How does this relate to Adam and Eve sinning by partaking of the fruit of the tree of “Knowledge” of good and evil?

 

Keep in mind that Satan is the Great Deceiver, the Father of Lies.  Knowledge is not bad, or evil BUT, Almighty God wanted to reveal “Knowledge” of the mysteries of creation in His time.  God rebuked Lucifer and the fallen angels because they revealed God’s Mysteries without His authorizing them to do so.  Remember, Lucifer and the fallen angels were cast out of heaven because they were planning and attempting to overthrow God’s sovereignty, deity, and authority.  Following their being cast out of heaven, they embarked on a mission to corrupt God’s creation and human flesh.  They continue with that mission today.

 

The sin of mankind was to accept learning and gaining knowledge from Lucifer and the fallen angels to live a “humanistic” life where humans could be their own “god”.  Simply put, mankind “Turned Away” from God so they could be their own god.  The opposite of this is to “Turn To” God acknowledging Him as Most High God.  This is salvation, it is repentance, the act of “Turning Back To” God.

 

Now, back to humanism.  God intended for humans to be gods on earth but under His authority.  When God created the earth and humans, He clearly stated “Let us make mankind in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26) so humans can “reign” over the earth.  God intended for us to be little “g” gods under His authority the big “G” God.  This is the same relationship Almighty God has in the Spiritual Heaven, His Kingdom, with little “g” gods (Elohim).  The Hebrew term for the “Most High” God is Yahweh who is Almighty and Sovereign over-and-above the heavenly host of Elohim gods.  Elohim are citizens of the spiritual heaven where they are little “g” gods with authority granted them by the big “G” God, Yahweh.

 

We don’t fully know all the inhabits or citizens in the spiritual heaven or what roles they have, but the bible does make mention of them; they include Elohim, Seraphim, and Cherubim.  Elohim are little “g” gods having some type of leadership role within the government of the spiritual heaven.  Both Seraphim and Cherubim are angels having different duties, responsibilities, and authority in the spiritual heaven.  The angels are servants of God, and messengers of God.  Angels are also protectors of humans.

 

Little “g” gods are simply overseers, both in heaven and on earth under the authority of the big “G” God, Yahweh.  Overseers are part of God’s government as ordained by Him, the Most High God.

 

Humanism, as we know it, views humans as supreme in and of themselves.  This viewpoint is sinful.  It elevates humans to the level of big “G” God.  This is the same sin of Lucifer and the fallen angels.  They were little “g” gods in heaven who desired to elevate themselves to become big “G” Gods.

 

To be blunt, this isn’t going to happen, and it didn’t happen; The big “G” God cast them out of heaven.  So, who is the most powerful, almighty, Most High God?  Yahweh!  How do we know Yahweh is the Most High?  Because the angels and demons both declare Him as the Most High (Luke 1:32, Psalm 82).

 

God, from creation, planned for humans to be little “g” gods to rule the earth, but under His, the big “G” God’s authority.  This means, yes, humans have the power and ability of gods but not the same power and authority of the big “G” God.  Humans are the image of God and yes have the power within themselves to accomplish many feats and power to overcome obstacles, but only under the big “G” God’s authority.

 

Again, we can see how manipulative, conniving, and deceitful Satan is in his attempt to destroy humankind and all that belongs to the Almighty Most High God.

God’s Love, Pass It On

Most every religion advocate loving others and sharing that love.  Those who believe and worship the Most High God certainly advocate sharing God’s love with others.  Jesus, while on earth told us to love others as yourself (Mark 12:31) as he characterized this as the second greatest commandment.

 

I believe Jesus, when summarizing the Ten Commandments into two commandments, making them simple to understand and practical identified this as the second greatest commandment for a reason.  The reason for identifying this as the second greatest commandment, Jesus understood and knew if the first commandment was followed, the second commandment would flow naturally.

 

To look at Jesus’ explanation of the Ten Commandments, He outlined them into two categories: the first being our relationship with God and the second being our relationship with other people.

 

I believe this is important because a loving relationship with our Heavenly Father fills our emotional cup.  When we emotionally feel full of love, we can pass that love on to someone else.  This explains why some people cannot or do not pass on love to others.  Notice I said cannot or do not as this too is important.  One cannot pass on something they do not have.  There are those who have a full cup (they are blessed of God) but choose NOT to pass on God’s blessing; they would rather keep it for themselves.

 

The cup is also important as it represents a vessel for holding the love.  Some people have broken cups that leak.  When they receive God’s love, it leaks from the cup and that which they pass on is less than they received because of the leak.

 

There are plenty of people with broken cups; some with more damage than others.  The greater the damage to the cup the faster the contents leak from the cup.  Some people seem to have a cup with no bottom and all that is poured into the cup escapes immediately with the cup never able to accumulate what is being poured into it.

 

What I just wrote above represents God’s love and how people receive God’s love.  Some seem so broke they never receive (or can accept) enough of God’s love.  These people need spiritual healing.  Only God knows their needs, but we can continue to allow the love to flow.

 

Some cups are broken because the “nurturing” ingredient they needed when their cup was being developed was never added.  Some people never had nurturing families with BOTH a nurturing father and a nurturing mother.  This is where God’s family can help.  Broken people need nurturing but most of all love.  Jesus said loving others was the second greatest commandment.  We can only pass on what we have received and accumulated.

A Tough Pill to Swallow

There is nothing that happens that God does not allow to happen.  This is a real and profound statement and sometimes a tough pill to swallow.

 

It’s easy to have faith, trust, and believe God when things are going well.  It’s easy to trust God at the beginning of tough times, but that faith and trust can dwindle as time passes and it appears God is not taking action to solve our problem or dilemma.

 

Why is it that sometimes God answers our prayer to heal a life-threatening illness or bring us out of debt but other times He seems to abandon us?  We could lie and tell you it is because you don’t have enough faith, or God is testing you, or that you have sinned and this is God’s punishment, but again this would be lying.

 

Some religious leaders may even tell you, “You are being tested” or this is the storm before the blessing.  We need to be honest and real because God is both honest and real.  The official answer why God is allowing you to suffer is “We don’t know!”; that is being honest.  Only God knows.

 

We seek out churches and religious people so we can be told God wants us healthy and wealthy or to have someone pray for us hoping the solution comes with their prayers, but this does not always happen.

 

The danger with false hope is it can turn us from God in a defiance or developing an opinion God does not exist.

 

Jesus begged his father, God, “if you be willing, let this cup pass from me” (Luke 22:42) as he prayed before his arrest leading to his suffering and death.  Even Jesus seemed betrayed, but he wasn’t.  How do we know he wasn’t betrayed by his father, God?  The latter portion of his prayer is “nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done”.  Jesus’s prayer was answered, not his will but his father’s will was done – He suffered and died!  That is a tough pill to swallow.

 

Jesus gave us the “Lord’s Prayer” which is the model prayer.  One of the sentences of the Lord’s prayer is “Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven”.  When you think about it, this is a tough pill to swallow when God’s will is not what we want or hope for.

 

I hate to say it but this is discouraging.  I personally don’t always like what God does or allows, but I am not God, but He is!  Having faith is not always easy or even desirable if we are honest.  Let’s be honest, it can be painful, but God knows it but still allows it.

 

Does this mean God is not who He claims to be?  No, we just don’t have a mind of God.  God doesn’t want us to suffer but, unfortunately, we sinned and have a sinful nature and the consequences is the curse and physical death.

 

God has a remedy, eternal life and a new body that is not corrupt and sinful, but that is to come later in His time.  He did show us He has the power to resurrect by Jesus, His son, and our example.  Jesus is the promise for having hope and eternal life is the reward.

 

In the meantime, God has given us his spirit to comfort us AND He has given us each other.  We are His physical hands for others to hold and arms to embrace and comfort.  We are to offer words of understanding and comfort.  We don’t need to always have an answer, because we really don’t have an answer.  Just our presence and the thought of knowing someone cares is all a hurting and grieving person needs.

 

Keep it Simple!  Let God’s love flow through you to others.

 

Amen.

The Sin of Adam and Eve, A Thought

The sin that presumably resulted in the curse of death and elimination of the promise for eternal life was the heeding the temptation by Satan to convince humans to partake of the fruit of the tree of “knowledge of good and evil”.

 

The partaking of the fruit is more than likely a metaphor of what happened.  Let’s consider the following:

 

Genesis chapter one tells us why God created humans; 1) to bare His image and be like God, and 2) to reign on earth, meaning to oversee and take care of God’s physical creation under His overall Sovereign authority.  So, what happened?

 

Satan’s (a fallen angel) desire to rule is well established (Isaiah 14:13,14).  God’s plan was to have human’s rule the earth.  Is it possible Adam and Eve’s sin was to agree to allow Satan to rule the earth with his help?  Chances are, they didn’t think Satan’s plan was to rule the earth but thought Satan was offering “knowledge” to help them rule it better, more efficiently.  We must admit this makes sense.

 

Unfortunately, for Adam and Eve, Satan is a wolf in sheep’s clothing and like a lion “seeking whom he may devour” (I Peter 5:8).  He is also the father of lies (John 8:44).

 

Adam and Eve, unbeknownst to them, made an agreement with Satan and ceded their God given authority to Satan.

 

God was NOT unaware this was going to happen, for in Genesis 3:15 we see God telling the serpent, Satan, He will put enmity between your seed and her seed.  The word enmity, according to Don Stewart of BlueLetterBible.org, indicates a “blood feud”.  A blood feud is a fight between family bloodlines, a “family feud”.  This infers there are two fathers, God the father on one family, and Satan the father of the other.

 

Jesus himself referred to some as being of their father, the devil (John 8:44).  If we humans have a sinful nature because of the sin of Adam and Eve, how can we change our sinful nature to a pure and sinless nature?  The answer is, we cannot, but Jesus can.

 

Jesus was of a sinless bloodline because his father was the one and only Almighty God.  Jesus came from a sinless bloodline and therefore was sinless and not guilty of sin whereby he could be condemned and sentenced to death, but he chose death.  Thank God for His offering and Jesus’ willingness to die in our place.

 

The consequence for his dying was our promise of eternal life, but how?  God can become our father through the Spirit of Adoption (Romans 8:15).  We receive this spirit by calling out to God in repentance AND asking Him to Save.

 

God Bless

A Never Changing God

The God we serve, or the one God we should be serving, the Most High God is “Never Changing” (Malachi 3:6).

 

This statement means exactly what it states, God “Never Changes” but, it does not mean our understanding Him more clearly does not change.  In fact, as we grow in our relationship with Him, our understanding Him better should grow.  This means our perspective and understanding of God’s work may change.

 

Our relationship with Him should change in growth but our basic relationship with Him should remain constant and that is the constant of Simple Faith in Him.

 

With current events and abounding evil, we seem to be seeing things we never thought were present.  Satan, in fact is no longer occult or hidden, he is revealing himself for all to see.

 

We seem to be approaching a “Great Awakening” or a “Revelation” of things we never thought to be true.

 

God is Great and Never Changing, we need to never forget this truth.

Trinity Living’s Model Prayer

Below is a model prayer.  It is the contemporary English version of the Lord’s Prayer.  Jesus provided the model prayer since it covers everything that we deal with on a daily basis.  Prayer should be daily since we have no promise on this earth for tomorrow and we need to acknowledge we are 100% reliant upon God for provision and sustaining power.  We exhort you to use this model as an outline of what you pray for daily but always feel free to elaborate; God will take great pleasure in your seeking Him and trusting Him.  God Bless You.

 

Our Father in Heaven, Holy is your name.

We pray for you to establish your kingdom here on earth with Jesus as lord and king.

We pray for your will to be done, asking you to give us strength and courage to accept your will.

We pray for today asking you to meet all our needs.

Forgive us our sins

Give us a heart like yours so we can forebear and forgive others.

Keep us from evil and the evil one, asking you to destroy evil forever.

Lord, you are the Most High God; All things belong to you.

You, the Alpha and Omega, are Almighty.

We praise you and thank you.

God Save Us.

Amen.