Family Camp Speaker Devotional - February 2012

This month, we feature a devotional by Bill Smith, our Week 1 Family Camp Speaker. Bill is the Director of the C.S. Lewis Institute Fellows Program in Atlanta, GA. He is also founder and president of On the Way Ministries, an equipping ministry devoted to renewing the mind, engaging the heart, and encouraging community. Bill teaches in a variety of contexts in order to help men and women to know God in a deeper way and develop practical wisdom for every area of life. Bill lives in Duluth, Georgia, with his wife, Lisa, and two daughters Jessica and Jana. We look forward to welcoming Bill for Week 1, June 30-July 7. For more resources, you can visit the C.S. Lewis Foundation - Atlanta website by clicking here.

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit

When it comes to discussing the fine points of the Bible’s teaching about the Trinity most people will eventually ask the question, “So What?” Even a brilliant philosopher like Immanuel Kant claimed that at the end of the day the doctrine of the Trinity made little practical difference. I think that a lot of people would second Kant’s comment and thus I want to demonstrate that the belief that God is essentially one and yet mysteriously three (Trinity) makes all the difference in the world for how we relate to God, especially in our worship.

As Christians we gather together for a number of reasons but one of the main reasons is to worship God by thanking, praising, and adoring Him. Of course every religion has its own forms of worship, so what makes Christianity any different from Hinduism, Islam, or Judaism? The answer is that in Biblical religion true worship is always a response to the God who has revealed Himself to us centrally in Jesus Christ. It is for this reason that we praise, sing to, and worship Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:5-11; Rev. 5:13). John tells us “No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him” (Jn.1:18). Jesus is the face of God so Jesus can say “He who has seen me has seen the Father (Jn. 14:9). The Spirit is given to believers to glorify Jesus Christ (Jn. 16:14) and enable them to cry, “Abba Father!” (Gal. 4:6).

Coming to God through Jesus Christ reminds us that our worship of God is grounded on the work of Christ - not on our own merit; thus we enter into worship and prayer “in Jesus name.” Participating in authentic worship means that we are not making up our own ideas about God and then worshipping an idea; rather we are responding to God as he has revealed himself to us.

The fact that our worship is Trinitarian should remind us that:

1. The Holy Spirit is the one who inspires the writers of scripture to record God’s revelation to us found in the Bible (2 Tim. 3:16). The Spirit also works in history to insure that the books tell us the truth about God are included in the Bible. The Holy Spirit also creates new life in us so that we are born again to new life (Jn.3:1-21; 2 Pt. 2:2)
   
2. Jesus Christ reveals God to us through his words and actions included in the Bible (Heb. 1:1-2). He also provides for our reconciliation to God through his death on the Cross and his resurrection to new life. His ascension positions Jesus Christ as the giver of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:33).
   
3. This new life that comes to us through the work of Jesus Christ gives us peace with the Father and places by adoption into God’s new family where we are given access to the Father in worship and prayer (Eph. 2:18).

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