Doctrine Week 1 Trinity : God Is DISCUSSION (Suze)

Hello all! So, I have actually listed to this series once before, but it was quite a few years ago when my husband first discovered Mars Hill Church online. But I am SO happy to be listening to it once again. It is so important to "go back to the roots" if you will, when you are a Christian. There are so many wonderful books and studies out there for us to use as resources, but the foundation of our faith should be from the Word of God, which we find in the end all, be all of books: The Bible. That is what I love about this series. For me it solidifies the foundation on which I try to build my life, and my daughter's life on. For my wonderful new-Christian Al, it is going to clarify to many things about the Christian faith and help her build her family's foundation with Jesus as the building blocks. (I love you Al, and am so happy for you!) With that said, I think Pastor Driscoll underscores this point by citing Titus 2:1 at the beginning of the sermon: "You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine." A pastor who keeps pointing his congregation back to the Bible with specific verses is one who truly wants the people to grow from the Word of God, not the word of man.

In order to know and follow God, we must realize and submit to the fact that HE IS THE ONLY GOD! 1 Timothy 2:5 "For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people..." He- God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit- is the only God there is. For me, us, as Christians that truth is so exciting and redeeming! We know the God of the universe and he chose us to worship Him here on earth. He chose us to believe in His son Jesus so that one day we will live with him forever in his kingdom. If that isn't exciting, I don't know what is!!

The Bible also speaks of another truth, one that is much more difficult to swallow: the truth of false gods, fallen angels, and demons. 1 John 4:3 "but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world." Wow... chills. It is scary to know that major world religions look to these antichrists as their gods. But the good news is God died for all of us, even followers of His enemies. They too can be forgiven and redeemed if they would repent and turn thier hearts to Jesus. What a merciful God we serve!

I have more to say on this topic, but I have to finish up a paper for Pharmacology :(. I am going to post this and hopefully come back to it soon. Thanks all.

Doctrine Week 1 Trinity : God Is DISCUSSION (Al)

We have watched our first seminar this week (hooray!) which you can also view on this blog by clicking 'Mars Hill Church' to the right under 'find what you're looking for'. Here are our thoughts on this first week and if you have some to add we'd love to hear from you so please leave comments if you'd like!

AL : Since this is our first discussion let me set up what is happening. I have posted my overall thoughts on Doctrine Week 1 below. I also typed out notes while watching the video and have posted them as a comment to this post so if you'd like to read them while watching the video or just to read them check in comments. We set the deadline for January 30th so you'll see Sue's post between now and the 30th here as well!

Summary : I should add that Susan has been a Christian for the past 7 years and I have just become one and am still learning so much. This seminar opened my eyes to who God is and that there truly can be only one God, our God. I always used to say that I believe in God but I don't deny other religions and their beliefs. I never understood why some would be so adamant that there is only one God, our Savior and I took this as closemindedness but I now know that any other spirits, gods, etc that others worship are false as it is stated in the Bible that there was God first and no other before or after Him. There is no love without God and Christianity because God IS love. If you are not a Christian you do not understand or know love, God and the doctrine. I really enjoyed the end of this seminar because everything that you'd think someone would want out of life IS the trinitarian life. Who wouldn't want to be happy, full of love, submitting to God in times of need and transparent and open with nothing to hide. People should be jumping at the chance to become Christian and lead a trinitarian life! I believe that this is the life I've always tried to lead but have stumbled and been unsure at times if I was actually living in this way but by being a Christian I am given direction and have many resources (God, church, loved ones, other Christians) to always help guide me.

Doctrine Week 1 Trinity : God Is

We will be watching a seminar weekly. Feel free to watching and discuss/comment anytime! We will post when we plan on watching each seminar by so that you can expect to see our discussions on or around that date.

Our Deadline : January 30, 2011

Transcript Available : http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/doctrine/trinity-god-is

(for some reason when I hit play the first time the video does not work but when I refresh the page and click again it works fine, just a tip!)