Background pic by me. Me by God.

You'd figure that I'd have the imagination to find another, less-often quoted verse to put there. But I don't. It encapsulates my belief very nicely.

The Easy Things

I believe that there is a God who created this Universe. I believe there is a God who created me. I believe He created me with love and care. I believe He created everyone with love and care. I believe He created All these things with love and care.

But, despite His love and care, the World has slipped from the beauty and greatness that it could have been. It gives Him such terrible grief for the state of Everything to be like this. He is, after all, also a just God, and He gave us laws to be followed. And the penalty for those laws is death. Death. No less.

And so, we have all earned death innumerable times over. But, in His love, He has given us a Way. He gave us His Son, come down as one of us. Jesus came down, teaching God's ways, leading people to the Truth. But that was not His Purpose. A purpose, but not The Purpose.

Jesus led a sinless life, the one that avoided death...but He died nonetheless, accused by Jews, crucified by Gentiles--the Romans. He took upon Himself the penalty we were meant to suffer, and paid it in full. No other could do this; only the Son of God, having lived a perfect life, could atone for all.

But death did not keep Him down. He rose, after three days in this Hell, returning to Life everlasting, sitting by His--our--Father. And if we believe in Jesus, accept Him as the Savior, give God the love that He gives us, allow ourselves to be freed from the sin that meant death--we will follow Jesus, in time.

And most important is that we make the choice. The Father and the Son watch over us, but for the most part, leave us be. He did give us our lives, after all, and our free will. The Holy Ghost, everpresent and always concerned with us, does come to us all the time--but, more often than not, is the subtlest of forces in our lives....

More Difficult Things

I do not presume to be an expert on these things...just how I see them.

The Trinity

God in Three Persons. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (or Holy Spirit). What does it mean? How can one God be Three?

I like to think of it as three facets to one person. For instance, take my father (not Father, mind you). He is, at one time, a man, a father, and an engineer. Three different things, but he is all three. He is a man to his wife--my mother. He is a father to me. And he is an engineer to his profession.

God the Father is the easiest to grasp. The powerful creator of the Universe. "In the beginning, I AM." He set Adam and Eve in Eden. He took them away from the Garden when they sinned. He gave Noah warning of the flood--and then did it. He promised Abraham to raise his people to a mighty nation. He gave the law to Moses. He led Israel to its mighty triumphs--and let Israel to its terrible defeats when it turned its back on Him.

God the Son is Jesus Christ, a man, and more than a man. He is the Word become flesh. In a fashion, He is the most tangible aspect, but harder to understand. How could God be contained in physical form? Why would God be contained in physical form? But for God, all things are possible, and God was willing to do it. Jesus lived the perfect life--He was as the Law demanded, and saved through the Law. But He gave up that salvation so that we could gain a greater salvation: that by faith through God's grace.

God the Holy Ghost (or Holy Spirit) is difficult to think about for many, and that still includes me. The Spirit...like the Father and Son, this is also God. It is all so hard to describe.... I can only say that when I feel the joy of God, and know Peace with God, that is the direct effect of the Spirit working within me. Needless to say, the feeling, and the understanding that comes with it, simply cannot be summed up in words. Not by a long shot.

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