an unexpected lesson...

The past several weeks... I have been mentoring a student preparing for confirmation... one of the sixth graders from Bible study...

Yesterday's lesson... baptism...
The suggested Session Starter...

Meet by the water, any water. Talk about water and wonder together why God chose water for this important event.

In preparation... I considered... Why...water...?
What came to mind was the three states of water that we come across each day... water... ice... and steam...

It struck me... three in one... a picture of the Trinity... one substance... three states... One God... three Persons...
Steam... Father God... spirit... invisible...
Ice... the Son... the Word made flesh... solid...
Water... Holy Spirit... streams of Living Water...
Therefore water makes a perfect substance for baptism...

...baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit...

With a plan in place... I gathered three glass cups... filled one with ice... one with water... and the third... empty... I had filled a thermos with hot water... hoping that when it was poured... there would at least be some heavy condensation... a visual... to make an impact... but as I poured... it was clearly a bust... we put a hand over and could feel the heat... but other than that... it wasn't really what I had in mind...

As I reflect today... it occurs to me... 

It's hard to capture steam... 

and... it's hard to capture God...

He doesn't fit in a box... and He's hard to get a handle on...

He's the One who is omnipresent...

yet unseen...

He is the Lion...

and the Lamb...

The Servant King...

The sinless One...

who died for sins...

The Righteous Judge... 

who bore the punishment...

He is an oxymoron...

revealing His greatest strength...

through weakness...

As soon as we think we have Him figured out... 

He sets us straight...

There is no... capturing... God...

But I'm... Oh... so... grateful... He captured me...

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

1 John 4:10 NIV

An unexpected lesson for the mentor... and a reminder... of my... First... Love...

Father God... I praise You as the Mystery and Wonder that You are... Thank You anew... for capturing my heart... for loving me... that I might love You...

mentoring prep... explaining God: Father, Son, Spirit

Confirmation... the challenge... teaching thirteen lessons in seven weeks... my question in preparation... Do I devote a full lesson to Jesus and then the Spirit or can they be taught in one?

Last week... introductions and God... Creator... Father...
Shared the idea of Trinity... knowing what was ahead... a new concept for a new faith...

Today's treadmill reading confirmed the teaching of Jesus and Spirit in one...

Compelled to take King's Cross to the treadmill... a new book... unopened... inside... Timothy Keller ignited my mind with brain-bursting truths of Triune...

The Christian teaching of the Trinity is mysterious and cognitively challenging. The doctrine of the Trinity is that God is one God, eternally existent in three persons. That's not tritheism, with three gods who work in harmony; neither is it unipersonalism, the notion that sometimes God takes one form and sometimes he takes another, but that these are simply different manifestations of one God. Instead, trinitarianism holds that there is one God in three persons who know and love one another. God is not more fundamentally one than he is three, and he is not more fundamentally three than he is one.

--- Timothy Keller, King's Cross

Thoughts returned to last week's lesson... ideas to build on the question... what does it mean...

God created man in His own image...

...new faith understanding: how He imagined... He created...

The Potter creates a pot... forethought... intention... something completely outside Himself... different... but of Himself... in His image... what He imagines... emerges from the clay...

... theologically sound understanding: like Himself... He created...

The Author creates a story... characters... in His image... ones with whom He can relate... yet... completely outside Himself...

Creator... always greater than the creation...

Potter to pot...

Author to book...

A unique Being... a mystery to the created...

God created the entire universe... a three-dimensional creation... therefore He must be greater... more complex... multi-dimensional... something the created can never fully comprehend... something profoundly different... a mystery... the threshold for entering the gates of faith...

Pictures and words... building to explain the unexplainable... to new faith...

God's faithfulness never ceases to amaze...
a simple question...
an answer received... in an unexpected way...
a great God...

"Ask and it will be given to you;

seek and you will find;

knock and the door will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks receives;

he who seeks finds;

and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."

---Jesus

Matthew 7:7-8

mentoring: a fresh perspective

Yesterday... I began a mentoring relationship... a new confirmation class... a new experience for me... I have never officially "mentored" before...

My confirmand... a lovely young lady... thirteen... seventh grade... her story unique...

Her only connection with church has been through friends... those over the years who have invited her along... no family connection to church... not one whose mother makes her go... she desires to be present... and... thankfully... has a friend whose mother brings her...

My new friend has blessed me with a new perspective... just one meeting... I see a heart beating for God... one ready to make a commitment to be a member... not because of family... but because of Him...

Together we read...

So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:27

The question...

What do you think it means to be created in the image of God?

Her answer... (paraphrased)

That He created us just the way He wanted. According to the image in His mind.

A fresh perspective... born of fresh faith... I only thought... like Him... with His character... a creation with whom He can build a relationship... theologically correct...

But from this new friend... I gain another true perspective... one more personal... more intimate... We were not just created like Him... but just the way He liked... as imagined in His mind before creation...

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10

Unexpected... a new perspective... from a new friend...

I can't wait to see what else I get to learn on this journey!