God's Beauty!
Hello Foothills Community Church family!
Isn't beauty amazing? Whether observing a colorful sunset or listening to a symphony masterpiece, it is evident that God has surrounded us with and designed us to enjoy beauty. Ultimately, all of these things are invitations to enjoy God's beauty!
Swiss theologian Karl Barth expressed a simple but profound statement about God and beauty. He said, "The triunity of God is the secret of His beauty."
As Seventh-Day Adventists, we believe in the biblical teaching of God as Trinity. For many people, this teaching seems more like wrestling with the abstract than a discovery of something relevant; a futile attempt to solve a puzzle (how can 3 be 1) rather than a wondrous experience of who God is as Father, Son, and Spirit.
This coming Sabbath, our message is entitled "Three-United, And It Feels So Good!" We will look at the beautiful God of our faith, and who He is as Trinity. The driving questions behind the message will be: Why does Trinity matter? How is God's triune nature the secret of His beauty?
This week, in preparation for this Sabbath's message, I invite you to meditate on the following Scripture passages that reveal some of this beauty.
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
For this reason, I kneel before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height, and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Happy New Year church family! As we enter 2024, may you rest in the assurance that God is with you, God is for you, and God loves you!
Pastor Chris
Foothills Community Church