00:00:08
Speaker 1: Life Audio.
00:00:11
Speaker 2: Did you know that Jesus Calling has its own YouTube channel. It's full of great content that will enhance your spiritual life. You'll find beautiful videos with short devotional moments to help you through your day, as well as stories on video from celebrities, authors, pastors, and everyday people who share what their faith journey has meant to them. You'll also find that Jesus Listens Stories of Prayer series hosted by Susie McIntyre Eaton, featuring new guests monthly. Subscribe today for new videos each week.
00:00:41
Speaker 1: The Early Church spoke of the Trinity not merely as doctrine, but as something that could take a lifetime of exploring and pondering and could deepen and enrich our worship in wonderful ways.
00:00:58
Speaker 3: Welcome to a special scripture focused bonus episode of the Jesus Calling Podcast, where we think about the concept of the Trinity, the Father, and the Holy Spirit and what their presence and purpose means to each of our individual lives. Pastor, author and speaker Timothy Jones helps us contemplate this relational view and how the communing of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit brings a new level of intimacy and belovedness to each of us.
00:01:23
Speaker 1: I'm Timothy Jones. I'm a pastor and author and speaker and retreat leader. I live near Nashville, and I love to write and teach. One of the things that gives me joy is seeing people grow closer in their relationship to God. And I've just in fact, spent the last couple of years exploring and writing about how God comes close to us in the Trinity. While some of us find that ancient belief to be intimidating or confusing, I found that knowing God as Father's son and Spirit warms our view of God. There's a real tenderness here, and that surprises some people. I see in that three personed portrait of God a wonderful invitation to know all three in more intimate ways, to realize how God comes close to give us help even for our everyday life. The idea of a highly relational God goes back to the very beginning. In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, we hear God say, let us make humankind in our image, and for centuries scholars have puzzled over that moment when God said, let us make people in our image. It's plural. That seems a little odd when we profess belief in one God. But I see a hint here, a glimmer of the trinity. There's one God, and yet there's so much richness in that oneness suggested in that odd little quirk of grammar. Let us make, I think shows us that there's a blessed, wonderful complexity in God's own being in nature. For from before time began. This is telling us there was conversation. There was already a communion, a community of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They've always commune. That kind of boggles the mind, I know, to think that eternity past grims with relationship, before humankind even appeared on the scene. God already was busy relating from before time, and it makes sense that that God, already full of love and communing, would create to create befits, a triune being who overflows with love and life. As the creation's story unfolds, we see this communal aspect in action. We see how, for example, a wind, the breath of God, the Spirit, as Genesis tells us, moved over the face of the unformed waters. This was not something flighty even in these primordial beginnings. The spirit didn't just kind of hang around or hover. It brooded, as some say that word could be translated. It moved with tender care, like a bird minding its eggs or hatchlings. So order and beauty grow out of the Spirit's active participation. And Jesus was there too. Again, God said, let us make he was there. Jesus was, as John would later say in his Gospel, he was there the word of God, and God's word had a hand in calling forth, in speaking forth the world. So I like to think of it like this. If you picture an artist, how an artist can fashion something wonderful out of marble or clay or oil paints. Consider all the more Jesus Vincent van Go with the artist, pained though he was by despair at times in his life, saw Jesus as the supreme artist. He was, and he was with God the Father and God the Spirit at the very creation of the world.
00:06:00
Speaker 3: Stay tuned for more with Timothy Jones after a brief message. These uncertain times bring anxiety and fear, but Jesus listens prayers for every season gives you daily prayers of comfort with seasonally inspired illustrations. This beautiful book includes prayers that speak to your situation, whether it's a time of stress or strength. Look for Jesus listens prayers for every season wherever you buy books.
00:06:34
Speaker 1: Throughout the Gospels, Jesus speaks of the Father with words of profound closeness. I and the Father are one, he said, The Father loves the Son. I just think it's amazing. It's almost jarring, how intimate that all seems. But that says to me that at the living center of our faith, God is not some aloof distant being. This is not some deity who can't understand and what it means to be an intimate relationship. This is not a being who is impossible to know, or experience or have a conversation with. We see that in this picture as God, the Father and Jesus the Son relate and converse. They've been living in joyous communion throughout eternity. There's communion among the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. And he has revealed. God has revealed this picture to us to give us hope. We wouldn't have thunked up ourselves. But because God has shown us this picture, we glimpse a delight that grows out of a communion that's already at play between the three persons of the Trinity. And I would say, if you think that's a stretch, remember how at jesus Baptism we see the son in the water, the spirit descending, and the Father's voice declaring, you are my beloved son. They're used to having conversations. They always have, they always will, and that should encourage us. I love how in John chapters fourteen through seventeen, Jesus speaks repeatedly about the shared life he has with God and our invitation into it. In John fourteen twenty he says, on that day you will know that I am in my Father and you and me and I in you. And in John fifteen four he says, abide in me and I in you. And that word abide is a rich word. It has to do with not just being next to somebody, but sharing their life, being in communion. This belief in the Trinity, And in light of passages like these in John, lets us talk about God in family like words, with intimate names, terms of affection. Sometimes when people think about the Trinity, they get kind of intimidated by all of the philosophical speculation that surrounds it. But when you think about it, what is more appealing or inviting than words like father, son, living spirit. And the amazing thing to me is we're invited into that loving kind fellowship. And I think this is really important right now. We are in a cultural moment defined by epic even epidemic lonelines. There are fractured relationships we experience. Who of us hasn't recently had a polarizing conversation, And I think in the midst of all of this, all the more we're searching for a more lasting love, something that's reliable, sturdy, dependable, and abundant. This is what I see in this picture of the Trinity. The Trinity because of all of this relational depth, it's not intimidating as much as it is life changing. We compete, we strive. Sometimes when we're online, we're worried about how we present ourselves or if we're going to get that coveted like from somebody visiting our sites. And I think that leaves us searching for a deeper connection, not to know that we're liked, but to know that we're beloved. To discover also, then in the midst of that that human tenderness alone will not cannot satisfy our deepest longings, our deepest selves. So what I'm seeing here can heighten our anticipation for a life with God, for a relationally richer life, and we may translate that into our relationship with God feeling like, well, I've somehow got to impress God, I've got to earn his favor, and that just doesn't work. What we most want to know and experience is found in that experience of being fully beloved, knowing we're loved, not just tolerated, but cherished. Here's another thing that's important to me in this We get here vivid pictures that God knows and cares about the most heartbreaking questions of everyday existence. Jesus himself, of course suffered, he became a human person, he was rejected, he died a painful death. And we see in that segment, or in that chapter of the Story of the Trinity, how God cares about our most daily worries, about the hardest things that happened to us, cares about whether we're loved and valued. The answer we see and witness in the Trinity is a three word sentence, you are loved. The early Church spoke of the Trinity, not merely as doctrine, but as something that could take a lifetime of exploring and pondering and could deepen and enrich our worship in wonderful ways. There's mystery here, but not mystery that puts us off, but rather something intriguing that invites us to draw closer to experience more of that relational richness of God. And I have found that picture sometimes drawing me into prayer. So sometimes I will address a prayer to the Father, sometimes to Jesus, like Jesus at Mercy. Sometimes to the Spirit. I will pray, Come, Holy Spirit. That's a genuinely biblical prayer. But often the Trinity, the Three, the fellowship of the Three, is the bigger backdrop to all that I ask, or say or pray. And I realize in those moments that I'm addressing a God who is already actively relating and communing. I become part of that conversation. That delight and that picture actually makes me want to pray more because there is an invitation that's hinted at when we look at that picture of God, an invitation to join the fellowship God already enjoys. God likes to hear us talk. We can pray freely. Nothing is too little or an insignificant to bring to God. Nothing is too big to bring to God. And I believe God will communicate with us. Jesus will turn toward us a tender face. Jesus listens. He bends his ear close to our lips. This is about grace, isn't it? Grace through and through this promise. The conviction that we are fully beloved isn't something we claim through our effort. His nearness is not a standing we earn or somehow achieve. It's a gift we receive. And that's where daily attentiveness comes in. Jesus listens. April sixteen, My loving Lord, thank you for loving me regardless of how well I'm performing. Sometimes I feel uneasy, questioning whether I'm doing enough to be worthy of your love. But I realize that, no matter how exemplary my behavior may be, the answer to that question will always be known. You've been showing me that my performance and your love are completely different issues. You have loved me with an everlasting love that flows outward from eternity without limit or conditions. You have clothed me in your robe of righteousness and This is an eternal transaction. Nothing and no one can reverse it. This means that my successes and failures have no bearing on your love for me. I've discovered that even my ability to evaluate how well I'm doing is flawed. My limited human perspective in the condition of my body with its mer curial variations, distort my assessment of my behavior. Lord, I bring my performance anxiety to you, and I ask you to replace it with your unfailing love. Help me to stay aware of your loving presence with me in everything I do. Please direct my steps as I go through this day in your precious name, Jesus am In.
00:17:11
Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to this special scripture focused bonus episode. To learn more about Timothy, please visit Reverend Timothy Jones dot com and be sure to check out his book Fully Beloved, Meeting God and Our Heartaches and Our Hopes, available at your favorite retailer. Enjoy our entire series of scripture studies, each with different Bible teachers and experts guiding us through specific books, topics, and people in the Bible on the Jesus Calling YouTube channel. To discover more inspiring stories of faith, visit Jesus Calling dot com slash podcast.
00:17:49
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to the Jesus Calling Stories of Faith podcast on the Life Audio Network. Every week, we'll bring you stories from people who share their journeys of faith and how prayer and a relationship with God transformed their lives. Be sure to follow us on Apple, Spotify, I Heart, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and leave us a review so others can be inspired weekly by these stories of faith. Finally, you can find encouragement resources and more on the Jesus Calling website at Jesus Calling dot com
Speaker 1: Life Audio.
00:00:11
Speaker 2: Did you know that Jesus Calling has its own YouTube channel. It's full of great content that will enhance your spiritual life. You'll find beautiful videos with short devotional moments to help you through your day, as well as stories on video from celebrities, authors, pastors, and everyday people who share what their faith journey has meant to them. You'll also find that Jesus Listens Stories of Prayer series hosted by Susie McIntyre Eaton, featuring new guests monthly. Subscribe today for new videos each week.
00:00:41
Speaker 1: The Early Church spoke of the Trinity not merely as doctrine, but as something that could take a lifetime of exploring and pondering and could deepen and enrich our worship in wonderful ways.
00:00:58
Speaker 3: Welcome to a special scripture focused bonus episode of the Jesus Calling Podcast, where we think about the concept of the Trinity, the Father, and the Holy Spirit and what their presence and purpose means to each of our individual lives. Pastor, author and speaker Timothy Jones helps us contemplate this relational view and how the communing of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit brings a new level of intimacy and belovedness to each of us.
00:01:23
Speaker 1: I'm Timothy Jones. I'm a pastor and author and speaker and retreat leader. I live near Nashville, and I love to write and teach. One of the things that gives me joy is seeing people grow closer in their relationship to God. And I've just in fact, spent the last couple of years exploring and writing about how God comes close to us in the Trinity. While some of us find that ancient belief to be intimidating or confusing, I found that knowing God as Father's son and Spirit warms our view of God. There's a real tenderness here, and that surprises some people. I see in that three personed portrait of God a wonderful invitation to know all three in more intimate ways, to realize how God comes close to give us help even for our everyday life. The idea of a highly relational God goes back to the very beginning. In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, we hear God say, let us make humankind in our image, and for centuries scholars have puzzled over that moment when God said, let us make people in our image. It's plural. That seems a little odd when we profess belief in one God. But I see a hint here, a glimmer of the trinity. There's one God, and yet there's so much richness in that oneness suggested in that odd little quirk of grammar. Let us make, I think shows us that there's a blessed, wonderful complexity in God's own being in nature. For from before time began. This is telling us there was conversation. There was already a communion, a community of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They've always commune. That kind of boggles the mind, I know, to think that eternity past grims with relationship, before humankind even appeared on the scene. God already was busy relating from before time, and it makes sense that that God, already full of love and communing, would create to create befits, a triune being who overflows with love and life. As the creation's story unfolds, we see this communal aspect in action. We see how, for example, a wind, the breath of God, the Spirit, as Genesis tells us, moved over the face of the unformed waters. This was not something flighty even in these primordial beginnings. The spirit didn't just kind of hang around or hover. It brooded, as some say that word could be translated. It moved with tender care, like a bird minding its eggs or hatchlings. So order and beauty grow out of the Spirit's active participation. And Jesus was there too. Again, God said, let us make he was there. Jesus was, as John would later say in his Gospel, he was there the word of God, and God's word had a hand in calling forth, in speaking forth the world. So I like to think of it like this. If you picture an artist, how an artist can fashion something wonderful out of marble or clay or oil paints. Consider all the more Jesus Vincent van Go with the artist, pained though he was by despair at times in his life, saw Jesus as the supreme artist. He was, and he was with God the Father and God the Spirit at the very creation of the world.
00:06:00
Speaker 3: Stay tuned for more with Timothy Jones after a brief message. These uncertain times bring anxiety and fear, but Jesus listens prayers for every season gives you daily prayers of comfort with seasonally inspired illustrations. This beautiful book includes prayers that speak to your situation, whether it's a time of stress or strength. Look for Jesus listens prayers for every season wherever you buy books.
00:06:34
Speaker 1: Throughout the Gospels, Jesus speaks of the Father with words of profound closeness. I and the Father are one, he said, The Father loves the Son. I just think it's amazing. It's almost jarring, how intimate that all seems. But that says to me that at the living center of our faith, God is not some aloof distant being. This is not some deity who can't understand and what it means to be an intimate relationship. This is not a being who is impossible to know, or experience or have a conversation with. We see that in this picture as God, the Father and Jesus the Son relate and converse. They've been living in joyous communion throughout eternity. There's communion among the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. And he has revealed. God has revealed this picture to us to give us hope. We wouldn't have thunked up ourselves. But because God has shown us this picture, we glimpse a delight that grows out of a communion that's already at play between the three persons of the Trinity. And I would say, if you think that's a stretch, remember how at jesus Baptism we see the son in the water, the spirit descending, and the Father's voice declaring, you are my beloved son. They're used to having conversations. They always have, they always will, and that should encourage us. I love how in John chapters fourteen through seventeen, Jesus speaks repeatedly about the shared life he has with God and our invitation into it. In John fourteen twenty he says, on that day you will know that I am in my Father and you and me and I in you. And in John fifteen four he says, abide in me and I in you. And that word abide is a rich word. It has to do with not just being next to somebody, but sharing their life, being in communion. This belief in the Trinity, And in light of passages like these in John, lets us talk about God in family like words, with intimate names, terms of affection. Sometimes when people think about the Trinity, they get kind of intimidated by all of the philosophical speculation that surrounds it. But when you think about it, what is more appealing or inviting than words like father, son, living spirit. And the amazing thing to me is we're invited into that loving kind fellowship. And I think this is really important right now. We are in a cultural moment defined by epic even epidemic lonelines. There are fractured relationships we experience. Who of us hasn't recently had a polarizing conversation, And I think in the midst of all of this, all the more we're searching for a more lasting love, something that's reliable, sturdy, dependable, and abundant. This is what I see in this picture of the Trinity. The Trinity because of all of this relational depth, it's not intimidating as much as it is life changing. We compete, we strive. Sometimes when we're online, we're worried about how we present ourselves or if we're going to get that coveted like from somebody visiting our sites. And I think that leaves us searching for a deeper connection, not to know that we're liked, but to know that we're beloved. To discover also, then in the midst of that that human tenderness alone will not cannot satisfy our deepest longings, our deepest selves. So what I'm seeing here can heighten our anticipation for a life with God, for a relationally richer life, and we may translate that into our relationship with God feeling like, well, I've somehow got to impress God, I've got to earn his favor, and that just doesn't work. What we most want to know and experience is found in that experience of being fully beloved, knowing we're loved, not just tolerated, but cherished. Here's another thing that's important to me in this We get here vivid pictures that God knows and cares about the most heartbreaking questions of everyday existence. Jesus himself, of course suffered, he became a human person, he was rejected, he died a painful death. And we see in that segment, or in that chapter of the Story of the Trinity, how God cares about our most daily worries, about the hardest things that happened to us, cares about whether we're loved and valued. The answer we see and witness in the Trinity is a three word sentence, you are loved. The early Church spoke of the Trinity, not merely as doctrine, but as something that could take a lifetime of exploring and pondering and could deepen and enrich our worship in wonderful ways. There's mystery here, but not mystery that puts us off, but rather something intriguing that invites us to draw closer to experience more of that relational richness of God. And I have found that picture sometimes drawing me into prayer. So sometimes I will address a prayer to the Father, sometimes to Jesus, like Jesus at Mercy. Sometimes to the Spirit. I will pray, Come, Holy Spirit. That's a genuinely biblical prayer. But often the Trinity, the Three, the fellowship of the Three, is the bigger backdrop to all that I ask, or say or pray. And I realize in those moments that I'm addressing a God who is already actively relating and communing. I become part of that conversation. That delight and that picture actually makes me want to pray more because there is an invitation that's hinted at when we look at that picture of God, an invitation to join the fellowship God already enjoys. God likes to hear us talk. We can pray freely. Nothing is too little or an insignificant to bring to God. Nothing is too big to bring to God. And I believe God will communicate with us. Jesus will turn toward us a tender face. Jesus listens. He bends his ear close to our lips. This is about grace, isn't it? Grace through and through this promise. The conviction that we are fully beloved isn't something we claim through our effort. His nearness is not a standing we earn or somehow achieve. It's a gift we receive. And that's where daily attentiveness comes in. Jesus listens. April sixteen, My loving Lord, thank you for loving me regardless of how well I'm performing. Sometimes I feel uneasy, questioning whether I'm doing enough to be worthy of your love. But I realize that, no matter how exemplary my behavior may be, the answer to that question will always be known. You've been showing me that my performance and your love are completely different issues. You have loved me with an everlasting love that flows outward from eternity without limit or conditions. You have clothed me in your robe of righteousness and This is an eternal transaction. Nothing and no one can reverse it. This means that my successes and failures have no bearing on your love for me. I've discovered that even my ability to evaluate how well I'm doing is flawed. My limited human perspective in the condition of my body with its mer curial variations, distort my assessment of my behavior. Lord, I bring my performance anxiety to you, and I ask you to replace it with your unfailing love. Help me to stay aware of your loving presence with me in everything I do. Please direct my steps as I go through this day in your precious name, Jesus am In.
00:17:11
Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to this special scripture focused bonus episode. To learn more about Timothy, please visit Reverend Timothy Jones dot com and be sure to check out his book Fully Beloved, Meeting God and Our Heartaches and Our Hopes, available at your favorite retailer. Enjoy our entire series of scripture studies, each with different Bible teachers and experts guiding us through specific books, topics, and people in the Bible on the Jesus Calling YouTube channel. To discover more inspiring stories of faith, visit Jesus Calling dot com slash podcast.
00:17:49
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to the Jesus Calling Stories of Faith podcast on the Life Audio Network. Every week, we'll bring you stories from people who share their journeys of faith and how prayer and a relationship with God transformed their lives. Be sure to follow us on Apple, Spotify, I Heart, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and leave us a review so others can be inspired weekly by these stories of faith. Finally, you can find encouragement resources and more on the Jesus Calling website at Jesus Calling dot com
