Day 93: Longing for The Game’s Healing Power

DAY 93

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of fait

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

WEEK FOURTEEN: MONDAY 15 JUNE 2020

Longing for The Game’s Healing Power

“Perhaps there is no greater example of the healing power of baseball than following the attacks of September 11, 2001. The first game played in New York was only 10 days after the tragedy … it was a somber occasion as fans and players alike were brought to tears after the singing of the national anthem … The melancholy lingered into the eighth inning until … a home run caused the fans to erupt in joyous celebration. It was if a single swing had lifted a collective weight, giving permission to New Yorkers, and perhaps the nation, to cheer again. Spectator sports have therapeutic benefit in times of both national and personal crisis.” - Recent newspaper article by the same title

Sitting in my office trying to stay focused on my work was proving impossible, as my mind and emotions kept drifting into the territory of personal family issues. Telling the office I was leaving for the day, I drove to Busch Stadium in downtown St. Louis for an afternoon Cardinals baseball game. My free clergy pass, compliments of the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company, gained me entrance to the general admission section and I hiked up to an isolated top row. I love heights, and being there, the expanse of the stadium, the fans, the focusing on every play, soon found me in a different, better, more peaceful place. I can testify to the ‘therapeutic benefit,’ the ‘healing power’ of sports. It gave me back perspective. (And I miss baseball in St. Louis and Seattle.)   

Reflective question: What about you? Do sports figure in your pandemic lockdown, and if so, are you open to the Holy Spirit using sports in some way in your life?

Reflective Scripture: 2 Timothy 2:5 – “… if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor’s crown unless he competes according to the rules.”

Reflective hymn: In baseball there is a tradition of what they call a ‘walk up song’ played as a player walks up to the plate. Christian players sometimes choose songs like “Battle Song” © 2011, rap by Lecrae. You can listen to it on YouTube.    

            

Was engineered in my mother’s womb for God’s glory,

Plenty faith in the persecution inventory.

I’ve been spit in the face, still exhibiting grace

Kicked out many a place, just for sharing my faith …

My belt tight, shoes laced, plus a breastplate,

My war helmet on now got my head straight.

The battle’s on but the war is over when Jesus reigns,

And fo’ His name I withstand the pressure and take the pain.

And if they drop us, this promise, we’ll take it to the grave,

That tonight we may die, but to die is our gain!

Day 92: Keep, O Lord, Your Household the Church

DAY 92

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

WEEK FOURTEEN: SUNDAY 14 JUNE 2020

Keep, O Lord, Your Household the Church

Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness, and minister your justice with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. - The Book of Common Prayer for the Sunday closest to June 15th

He was a priest assigned by the Vatican to guide tourist groups, tourists who became his ‘revolving parish,’ into the catacombs where the earliest Christians met in secret to worship, well beneath the street level of bustling Rome above. As he spoke of the intersection of early pagan Rome and the new religion of Jesus followers, he would ask us questions and engage in discussion with us. The more he did so, the more he recognized that we were a group committed to Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit in the church today, as was he. Finally in the deepest most interior place, with niches carved into the dirt walls containing the bones of the dead, he felt free to be fully himself in his faith with our particular tourist group, and suggested we sing the worship chorus, “He is Lord.” So standing there in what became a palpably holy place, we quietly filled the space with “He is Lord, He is Lord, He has risen from the dead and He is Lord; every knee shall bow, every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord.” We felt one with those earliest Christians who had worshipped in the same space almost 2,000 years ago, aware that God has been ‘keeping his church, the household of faith’ intact from that day to this.

During this pandemic, in the absence of being in a building architecturally perceived as ‘a church,’ we are given an opportunity to reflect on what the church as God’s household really looks like. How would we perceive it if we were living in China and attending an illegal, ‘underground’ church? How would we perceive it if as a Christian we were part of a small secretive Bible study in Saudi Arabia where not a single church building is allowed or exists? A clue can be found in considering how those earliest Christians perceived what it meant to be the church, God’s household, in a day when ‘church’ buildings had not yet even begun to be built, the saints in Rome worshipping in the only safe place they could find, underground burial sites. Pray the prayer at the top of the page and ask the Holy Spirit to ‘unpack’ it within you.

Reflective question: What does God’s ‘household the church’ mean to you apart from buildings?

Reflective Scripture: 1 Peter 2:5 – “… you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house, …”

Reflective hymn:

“I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord” – Timothy Dwight (1752-1817)

I love Thy kingdom, Lord, the house of Thine abode,

The Church our blest Redeemer saved with His own precious blood.

Sermon Notes: “When the Foundations are Being Destroyed” - June 14, 2020

“When the Foundations are Being Destroyed”

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

Sunday 14 June 2020 - Flag Day

Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Job 1:13-22        

1 Corinthians 3:10-11        

Psalm 11

“When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Psalm 11:3

“When the foundations are being destroyed…”

The foundation of health – the coronavirus pandemic. 

The foundation of income-through-work – almost 40 million unemployed.

The foundation of human equality – the deep running wound of racism erupting again.

The foundation of trust and civility – the corrosion of leadership.

The truths of Scripture in secular documents.

The Declaration of Independence, signed at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - 4 July 1777.   “…all men are created equal…”

Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania battlefield 19 November 1863.   “…all men are created equal.”

Pledge of Allegiance, Francis Bellamy, 1892   “…with liberty and justice for all.”

Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial 23 August 1963 “… all men … the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” “It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment … The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright light of justice appears.” Amos 5:24  – “Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream.”

“... what will the righteous do?”

The foundation of Jesus Christ - 1 Corinthians 3:11   “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

The foundation of God’s Word – Ephesians 2:19-20   “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ himself as the chief cornerstone.” 

The foundation of the ownership of our lives, our existence – 2 Timothy 2:19   “… God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription, ‘the Lord knows those who are his.’” 

The foundation of good works that are the evidence of our faith – 1 Timothy 6:18-19   “Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will be laying up treasure for themselves, as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of life which is truly life.”

The foundation you choose determines what happens at the end of your life - Matthew 7:24-27

MONDAY MORNING

Which of these foundations under attack is God calling you to get involved in in some way?

Which of these foundations in God’s Word is God calling you to pursue and cultivate?

Day 91: “A time to choose what matters and what passes away.”

DAY 91

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

WEEK THIRTEEN: SATURDAY 13 JUNE 2020

“A time to choose what matters and what passes away.”

“Is the coronavirus pandemic a judgment from God? It is being debated by many Christians. Pope Francis, in the extraordinary prayer service broadcast live from an empty St. Peter’s Square on March 27, prayed:         

‘Lord, you are calling to us, calling us to faith,

It is not the time of your judgment, but of our judgment:

a time to choose what matters and what passes away,

a time to separate what is necessary from what is not.’”

- A recent newspaper article, “Is the Coronavirus Pandemic a Judgment from God?”

We had 24 hours from the time we made the decision to evacuate before we needed to leave. In three days, a high category four hurricane was to make landfall where we lived – we were ground zero. Knowing our house was not built to withstand anything other than a category three, we felt we had no choice. So I went through the house gathering what I didn’t want to lose, and packed the car and we left, emotionally exhausted - two cars, three adults, a 1 ½ year old and a dog. We could not return for two weeks due to washed out bridges and highways, but when we did our house was intact, the hurricane having decreased in strength at the last minute.

I will never forget how I felt, for a surreal shallowness had taken over my soul as I focused on ‘things’ I didn’t want to lose should a hurricane tear our house apart. All I was doing, however, was postponing my relinquishing of what I had taken, for death will release my grasp on it all.   

The thing about choosing between “what matters and what passes away” is that the things that matter can’t be packed or transported: faith, hope, love, peace, forgiveness, relationships. In a challenging reduction of this principle Jesus put it this way: “do not worry about … what you will eat … or what you will wear … But seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you …” Matthew 6:25-33. This pandemic offers us time to “separate what is necessary from what is not,” and in the separating, grow closer to God who will take care of us.

Reflective question: What choices do you need to make between what matters and what doesn’t?

Reflective Scripture: Joshua 24:15 – “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve …”

Reflective hymn:

“God Will Take Care of You” – Civilla Martin (1869-1948)

All you may need He will provide; God will take care of you.

Nothing you ask will be denied; God will take care of you.

God will take care of you, thro’ every day, o’er all the way.

God will take care of you; God will take care of you.

Day 90: An Ancient Prayer for a Current Pandemic

DAY 90

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

WEEK THIRTEEN: FRIDAY 12 JUNE 2020

An Ancient Prayer for a Current Pandemic

St. Francis of Assisi 1181-1226

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace

Where there is hatred, let me sow love

Where there is injury, pardon

Where there is doubt, faith

Where there is despair, hope

Where there is darkness, light

And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may

Not so much seek to be consoled as to console

To be understood, as to understand

To be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive

And it’s in pardoning that we are pardoned

And it’s in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

Francis was born into a family of wealth. Given to all sorts of sinful behavior, he was headed to fight in the Crusades when God spoke to him in a dream, the first of several experiences on his journey of conversion, in which his heart and his life were turned around. One day, while praying in a church, he heard Christ speak to him from the crucifix saying “Francis, repair my church.” He soon renounced his father and his inheritance. While never a priest, he began to attract followers to his simple rules for living which became the foundation for the Franciscans: (1) the rich young ruler told to sell everything and give to the poor; (2) the apostles told to take nothing on their journey; (3) and the command to take up the cross daily. Within 10 years he had 5,000 followers.  Franciscans, in the order he founded, are engaged in ministry around the world today and his prayer to this day has been popular with Christians from all parts of the Body of Christ.

Reflective question: During this pandemic, which of Francis’ petitions do those around you need you to embrace?

Reflective Scripture: Luke 9:23 – “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

Reflective hymn:

“Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken” – Henry Lyte (1793-1847)

Jesus, I my cross have taken, all to leave and follow Thee;

Destitute, despised, forsaken, Thou from hence my all shall be.

Perish every fond ambition, all I sought, and hoped and known;

Yet how rich is my condition. God and heav’n are still my own.

Day 89: “‘Quarantinis’ are a virus meme, but relying on alcohol could lead to serious problems.”

DAY 89

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

WEEK THIRTEEN: THURSDAY 11 JUNE 2020

“‘Quarantinis’ are a virus meme,

 but relying on alcohol could lead to serious problems.”

“For many Americans, the days of the coronavirus quarantine have been bracketed by coffee at one end and happy hour at the other. Drinking memes and ‘quarantini’ recipes are everywhere, and off-premises booze sales surged by 55 percent in mid-March as people started turning to alcohol to deal with the stress, anxiety and grief brought on by the isolation.” - From a recent newspaper article by the same title

He was lying in the gutter, literally, passed out drunk and strung out on drugs. The American missionary picked him up and took him to a Christian residential treatment center. Years later I met him when I was preaching to a congregation of 500 in the center of Madrid, Spain, 90% of them former alcoholics and drug addicts. He had been clean and free for a number of years and was on the pastoral ministry team. What built that church? The power of the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, bringing the life of Jesus to those present, who had reached a point where they confessed their lives were out of control and they needed a power not their own to be saved, both spiritually and from the destructive grip of alcohol and drugs. The first step of Alcoholics Anonymous is consistent with this Gospel dynamic: “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol that our lives had become unmanageable.” Is this you?

A Prayer for Those Struggling with Addiction

“O blessed Lord, you ministered to all who came to you: Look with compassion upon all who through addiction have lost their health and freedom. Restore to them the assurance of your unfailing mercy; remove from them the fears that beset them; strengthen them in the work of their recovery; and to those who care for them, give patient understanding and persevering love. Amen. - The Book of Common Prayer

Alcoholics Anonymous: www. aa.org

Reflective question: Do you, or does someone you know, have an alcohol problem exacerbated by the coronavirus lockdown? If so, find help at aa.org.

Reflective Scripture: John 8:36 – “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Reflective hymn:

“Jesus, I Come” – William Sleeper (1819-1904)

Out of my bondage, sorrow and night, Jesus. I come; Jesus, I come.

Into Thy freedom, gladness and light, Jesus, I come to Thee.

Out of my sickness into Thy health, out of my want and into Thy wealth,

Out of my sin and into Thyself, Jesus, I come to Thee.   

Day 88: Nation Must Address Longtime Stain

DAY 88

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

WEEK THIRTEEN: WEDNESDAY 10 JUNE 2020

Nation Must Address Longtime Stain

“I refuse to have it take away the attention from the stain we need to be working on. These are things that have been brewing in this country for 400 years.” - Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, in response to Minneapolis race riots

“Whites Only,” said the sign on the laundromat; “Colored” said the sign above the warm water drinking fountain while “Whites Only” was what the sign said above the refrigerated cold water drinking fountain a few feet away –  I still have the pictures I took.  “Blacks have a different kind of soul than white people,” the woman told me, a passionate follower of Jesus. Whites, then Indians, then Mexicans, then Blacks, was the social order on the Indian reservation where I lived for a while, an unspoken, unwritten caste system reflected in the housing of each group.

These have been some of my own experiences with racism. It is complex with education and economics playing a role, a whole separate discussion, and the question of nature versus nurture as primary determinative factors in personality formation. At its heart however, racism has its genesis in the human heart, a deep insecurity and brokenness that saw the only race ever chosen by  God to be His ethnic people on earth ending up calling half-Jewish-half-Samaritans ‘dogs.’

Prejudice – an easy word to dissect: from the Latin ‘pre’ meaning’ in advance’ and the verb ‘to

judge’ – to judge in advance, ahead of knowing who a person is, ahead of knowing anything about them. It is judging the inner person based on skin color, ethnic or cultural background, economic status, education, gender, sexual orientation, handicap of whatever kind, or religion. For those of us who claim Jesus as Lord, there is no category of persons for whom He did not die on the cross and we therefore are not to treat any category of persons any different from our own.

Reflective question: Will you ask the Holy Spirit to show you any stain of racism or prejudice that is in your heart?

Reflective Scripture: Psalm 139:23-24 – “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Reflective hymn:

“There is a Fountain Filled with Blood” – William Cowper (1731-1800)

There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins,

And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

Lose all their guilty stains, lose all their guilty stains.

And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.  

Day 87: What Happens When We Lose the Art That Brings Us Together?

DAY 87

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

WEEK THIRTEEN: TUESDAY 9 JUNE 2020

What Happens When We Lose the Art That Brings Us Together?

“Entertainment might seem trivial in the coronavirus era, but the closing of places that enrich us culturally is also a cause for much grief. What do we do now? What actions can each of us take to stay healthy, connected and sane, to fight the dangerous secondary infections of boredom, selfishness and panic? How are we going to stay busy? How are we going to keep ourselves entertained?” - recent newspaper article by the same title

Entertainment – that which might appear a bit inappropriate for a topic of reflection during a pandemic might seem so because of a bit of residual legalism in our inherited DNA. Even today some religious cultures deny engagement in the arts on Sunday, ‘the Sabbath,’ as though somehow God is offended by that which, more than any other activity, reflects who God is – One who creates ex nihilo, out of nothing. And is this not what all art is, that which never existed until it was birthed within the artist, created out of nothing, a broken reflection of God’s nature? 

The etymology of entertainment finds two Latin words juxtaposed – ‘inter’ meaning ‘together,’ and ‘tenere’ a verb meaning ‘to hold.’ So, entertainment is that which holds us together. This is what the arts do when we are exposed to them – they ‘hold together’ something within us that needs holding, nurturing, exposure to the creative as reflections of the Creator.

I am moved by music. I close my eyes and feel roiling emotion when hearing Handel’s “Messiah” as “Worthy is the Lamb” is sung because someday I will literally get to sing that in His presence. But Brahms’ piano concerti can move me as well. And who can watch and listen to ‘Les Miserable’ and not come away feeling hopeful? Of all the arts, music in particular, is used by God in our lives. 

From the artisans in Solomon’s temple to the singers and dancers in temple worship in antiquity, to the dazzling three dimensional artistic rendering of the holy city in Revelation with streets of gold and a catalogue of precious jewels in its construction, and the songs sung by the redeemed, heaven will be a visual and audio feast of the arts fulfilled by God Who created them.

Reflective question: What in the arts helps to ‘hold you together’ during this pandemic?

                                                                                                                                                                        

Reflective Scripture: Exodus 31:3 - “I have filled him with the Spirit of God…to make artistic designs …”

Reflective hymn:

“Come to Us, Creative Spirit” – David Mowbray (1938 -     )

Poet, painter, music maker, all your treasures bring;

Craftsman, actor, graceful dancer, make your offering:

Join your hands in celebration! Let creation shout and sing! 

Day 86: An Incalculable Loss: U.S. Deaths Near 100,000

DAY 86

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

WEEK THIRTEEN: MONDAY 8 JUNE 2020

An Incalculable Loss: U.S. Deaths Near 100,000

“They were not simply names on a list. They were us. Numbers alone cannot possibly measure the impact on America, whether it is the number of patients treated, jobs interrupted, or lives cut short.” - Newspaper that published 1,000 names, 1% of deaths thus far. 24 May 2020 in a headline article by the same name.

Years ago in one of my earliest ‘read-through-the-Bible-from-start-to-finish’ endeavors, I found myself in the Book of Numbers, so called for a reason – it numbers people with lengthy lists of hard-to-pronounce names. So I simply skipped over them, skipped over a part of what I believed was, in its entirety, the inspired and trustworthy Word of God, without error. The Holy Spirit, Who wrote the whole thing, convicted me in my heart in words similar to those above: these were not just names – they were me, every name the name of a unique human being known to God, of great value in His sight. From that day on I do not hesitate to read with careful measured cadence the lineage lists for Jesus in the birth narratives at Christmas.   

As some in leadership in our nation focus on mourning the loss of a robust stock market, there is silence when it comes to mourning the loss of human life – no national day of mourning, no marking of the macabre milestone of 100,000 dead bodies, all with names, all unique human beings lost to themselves, lost to their loved ones, lost to us as a nation, no prayer service of thanksgiving for who they were or of thanksgiving for selfless health care workers. It is indeed an ‘incalculable loss’ that rather than being acknowledged is, disturbingly, being minimized. But …

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” - John Donne, 1572-1631.

Reflective question: How do the deaths of others in this pandemic affect you, change your life?

Reflective Scripture: Isaiah 43:1 – “I have called you by name …”

Reflective hymn:

“He Knows My Name – Tommy Walker – written 2009

I have a Maker He formed my heart,

before even time began my life was in His hands.

He knows my name, He knows my every thought,

He sees each tear that falls and He hears me when I call.

Day 85: “Conduct in their homes some form of religious worship …”

DAY 85

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

WEEK THIRTEEN: SUNDAY 7 JUNE 2020

“Conduct in their homes some form of religious worship …”

“Resolved, in view of the prevailing condition of our city and the widespread prevalence of influenza … we, the Pastors’ Federation, in special assembly, do place ourselves on record as cheerfully complying with the request of the Commissioners … We furthermore recommend that our people shall conduct in their own homes some form of religious worship remembering in prayer especially the sick …” - Pastors Federation of Washington, D.C.

The Pastors Federation of Washington, DC, meeting at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, unanimously passed the above resolution. It was not, however, in response to the current coronavirus pandemic, but rather to the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1917-1918, in which a much  smaller populated capital city saw 50,000 cases and 3,000 dead, the nation some 675,000 dead and the world an estimated 50 million dead. 

In the absence of even the basic communication and technological resources we have today – made possible by satellites and the internet, and with limited radio access, most churches back then were left to encourage people to come up with ideas of their own: “… conduct in their own homes some form of religious worship.”

So now you have the Sunday service on the internet. What about the rest of the days of the week? Married or single, children or empty-nested, you can establish a pattern of daily worship for the enrichment of your soul(s) during this stay-at-home pandemic time and then beyond.

Helpful resources to get you started:

1. Ministry-to-children.com - see “How to do Family Worship” by Tommy Kummer
2. Ligonierministries.com - see Family Worship 101, by William Boekstein
3. Forgodsfame.org - a free comprehensive 21 page publication with lots of good ideas
4. Desiringgod.org - inspirational teaching by John Piper on family worship

Reflective question: What would worship look like in your home if you put it together yourself?

Reflective Scripture: Joshua 24:15 – “As for me and my house we will serve (Hebrew = worship) the Lord.”

Reflective hymn:

“Happy Our Home When God is There” – Ken Bible (1950 -     )

Happy our home when daily prayer bears every daily need;

When parents share God’s Holy Word and daily let Him lead.

Happy our home when children praise, lifting our Savior’s name;

When parents speak and show His love, faithful each day the same.

Sermon Notes: "Who is Like Our God?"

Trinity Sunday | “Who is Like Our God?”

Rev. Benjamin Garris, Associate Pastor   

June 7th, 2020

Trinity Sunday

1)      How would you describe the Trinity? If a non-Christian asked you to explain it would you be able to describe the Trinity accurately?

2)      Deut. 6:4, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

Exodus 20:3 NLT, “You must not have any other god but me.”

“It (or There) is not to be to you (singular) other gods in my Presence."

3)      Modalism espouses that God is not 3 distinct persons but rather God shows himself in 3 distinct forms as perceived by the believer.

4)      Arianism comes from a Christian priest born in 250 AD by the name of Arius who believed that because there was a point in time when Jesus was born, both the Son and the Spirit were creations of the Father and not one with the Father himself.

5)      John 8:58, “before Abraham was born, I am!”

God said to Moses in Exodus 3, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you…this is my name forever.’”

6)      Revelation 19:10, “Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said, “No, don’t worship me. I am a servant of God, just like you and your brothers and sisters who testify about their faith in Jesus. Worship only God. For the essence of prophecy is to give a clear witness for Jesus.”

7)      In Philippians 2:6, “being in very nature, God, [or literally in the form of God subsisting, existing, or to be] he did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited…”

8)      “begotten of the Father from all eternity, God from God, Light from Light, Very God from Very God, begotten not made being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made.”

9)      Genesis 1:1-2 we read, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”

10)  Monday Morning: How does a right understanding of the Trinity influence your life?