Trellis to the Trinity
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Prayer
Your glorious Majesty surround me,
the blessed Trinity protect me,
and the eternal Godhead preserve me.
Your unlimited mercy support me;
your loving kindness encompass me;
your favor make me to rejoice.
The eternal truth of God be my delight,
the saving knowledge of Christ strengthen me,
and the all-prevailing grace of God be sufficient for me.
May the grace of God the Father lead me,
the wisdom of God the Son be my consolation,
and the power of the Holy Spirit enlighten me.
Lord my Creator, stand by me;
my Redeemer, save me;
and my Comforter, dwell with me. Amen.
*by Johann Habermann*
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The Forgotten God by Francis Chan
Holy Spirit Here and Now by Trevor Hudson
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“Please don’t be intimidated by the word ‘rule.’ A trellis is a tool that enables a great bind to get off the ground and grow upward, becoming more fruitful and productive In the same way a Rule of Life is a trellis that helps us abide in Christ and become more fruitful spiritually.” Pete Scazzero
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“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.” Ephesians 3:14-19
Now the Lord appeared to Abraham by the terebinth trees of Mamre (in Hebron), while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day. When he raised his eyes and looked up, behold, three men were standing (a little distance from him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed down (with his face) to the ground, and Abraham said, “My lord, if no I have found favor in your sight, please do not pass by your servant (without stopping to visit). Please let a little water be brought… and (you may) wash your feet and recline and rest comfortably under the tree. And I will bring a piece of bread to refresh and sustain you; …And they replied “Do as you have said.” Genesis 18:1-5 AMP
Invited
by Wendy Gerdes
While going through a stack of mail on the desk, I spotted a previously opened envelope and quickly opened it. A neatly printed invitation was inside that I had set aside with good intentions to respond, but had promptly forgotten about. The date was now past and I had missed out on the experience of a celebration. The invitation represented their hope for my presence to celebrate life with them and their close friends. An invitation ignored; not out of bad intentions but lack of attention. I had treated the invite carelessly and as a result, missed out on what would have been a special time with friends both old and new.
Life is like that. There is always a fight in us to tend to the urgent at the expense of the important. If we do not make room for the important, the urgent will always win. Important things require planning and intention, but the urgent things do not.
This is no different in our life with God. In fact, this invisible and deep, internal place is easily neglected in favor of the physical happenings of our life. In a culture where what we do is more important than who we are, we can become accustomed to tailoring our life to external demands and in the process, we miss an important invitation. We have all been invited into a deep relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This eternal Trinitarian God has invited us to just be with Him. He longs for us to sit with Him at His table, enjoy Him and come to know His love more deeply. This longing for us to deeply know Him is beautifully illustrated in Ephesians.
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Holy Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:16-19
We are invited to be with Him SO THAT Christ may dwell with us. This means He wants to live our lives with us at work, at home, in the hospital, on vacation, at church, and wherever else we go. He wants to abide with us and for us to abide with Him! This is made possible through the power of the Holy Spirit in us! The invitation is open, but will we come? And if so, how do we come? The invitation stands, but our coming depends on us and what we decide to do with the invite. Good intentions are rarely enough to help us choose the important.
We need to make space for God and cultivate awareness of Him. Making space for our hearts to respond to His invite is important. A ‘Rule of Life’ helps us to orient our days around what is important. This helps us make practices that cultivate awareness of Him a priority in our lives so the invite doesn’t lay forgotten because of the urgent.
Pete Scazzero says, “The rule of life is an intentional, conscious plan to keep God at the center of everything we do….The starting point and foundation of any Rule is a desire to be with God and to love Him.”
A ‘rule of life’ is like a trellis for us to build our lives on and gives us the structure we need to be able to cultivate our relationship with God. It will look different for everyone, but usually involves different spiritual practices like journaling, prayer, listening prayer, reading and many other things. It can be doing art, playing music, going on a walk, getting out in nature and any number of other activities. It is any practice that we do for the purpose of cultivating our relationship with Him. There are common practices, but almost anything can be a practice that we invite God into.
I used to hate doing laundry for our family of six until God reminded me we wouldn’t have so much laundry if we didn’t have the gift of so many clothes. Laundry became a time when I would thank Him for the provision and pray for our children as I folded. Those moments became time with God in the middle of my day. It was a response to His invitation to be with Him. Ordinary moments can become meeting places with Him through intentional turning to Him.
His invite to us stands every hour of every day no matter where we find ourselves. He is always waiting for us with open arms. We don’t show up and wait for Him to come, He is waiting for us already. We may not sense Him every time we come, but we can be assured He is there with us and just like a plant grows daily in often undetectable ways, we too will grow in the understanding of His love for us.
Link to Wendy's blog