Greetings Friends!
In this post I would like to share with you the Mission, Vision, and Values of the BULAMANRIVER Ministry. My purpose is to give our readers in a clear and concise explanation of who we are, what we do, and how and why we do it. Let me first explain what the name of this blog site, BULAMANRIVER, means. As a beneficial side issue, you will find the message relevant to the freedom we celebrate on the upcoming Independence Day on 4th July.
Cover of Book: “Bulamanriver – The Miracle of Triune Living”
The etymology of BULAMANRIVER comes from three words: ‘bula,’ ‘man,’ and ‘river.’ Bula is a Fijian word which means “life.” (Fiji is an independent South Pacific Island nation). Man is God’s creation in whom God breathed the “breadth of life” or the spirit of life in man. (Gen. 2:7) River is the metaphor for God’s Love flowing in humans. (John 7: 37-39)
Therefore, Bulamanriver, conveys the meaning that “man has true life walking in God’s Love.” Of course, these three words also have biblical derivative: ‘life’ (bula) is a gift from God to humans (Gen.2:7); ‘man’ was created in God’s image and likeness (Gen.1:26-27), and ‘river’ pictures the flow of God-life in the human-life. (John 7:37-39) So, the Bulamanriver can be summed up from the following passage of scripture:
“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. For the Scriptures declare that rivers of living water shall flow from the inmost being of anyone who believes in me.” He was speaking of the Holy Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him” – John 7:37-39.
The above passage expounds BULAMANRIVER scripturally as follows: man is the riverbed, who is the receptacle for the “living waters” of the Spirit of God (God-life/Love), which brings true life he shares with his fellow humans. (Rom.5:5) Therefore, BULAMANRIVER is the depiction of the believer. You, are the BULAMANRIVER. You are the riverbed, God’s receptacle, in which the “living waters” of the Spirit (Love) flow giving true life to your once dead spirit which the devil gave humans through Adam’s fall. (John 3:3,5; Gen.2:17)
Having explained the meaning, and having seen that You are the BULAMANRIVER, let me now spell out its Mission, Vision, and Value statements.
Mission
The Mission of the Bulamanriver Trinitarian Ministry is founded upon the words Jesus commissioned His followers shortly before He was received by angels to return to His Father in heaven, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matt.28:18-20)
The Trinity-Man Called to Enter and Live the “Triune Life” in Christ (Rublev’s Icon of Trinity, Wiki Commons)
The thrust of Jesus’ mission is founded upon what this passage authorizes the disciples and His followers to do: to “baptize humans into the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” It means to immerse or saturate humans into the Life and Being of the Triune God. It means to bring believers into the “Triune Life” of God. The image and Being of the Triune God is hardwired into two basic characters of His divine nature: Love and Freedom. The Bible declares, “God is Love” (1 John 4:8). And, “If the Son sets you Free, you will be Free indeed” (John 8:36). God is not a ‘solitary’ God as many assume, He is a Tri-Personal God. Because God is Tri-Personal in His Being, He is three free Persons living in unified relationship of Love. The human personality is fashioned after the three free Persons of the Tri-Personal Being of God
Man was robbed of this “Triune Life” when Satan deceived Adam, and, introduced his own deathly “solitary life” of Fear and Bondage through sin. From then on, man was living the “solitary life” of the devil in place of the “Triune Life” of God. The “solitary life” means man does what is right in his own eyes, in place of the collaborative “Triune Life.” (Prov.12:15; 30:12; 21:2).
So, the Mission is to enlighten the human mind of the Triune nature of God, and His call to be immersed in the “Triune Life” and so be fashioned and conformed in God’s image of Love and Freedom. (Gen.1:26-27) God’s creation is immersed in His Love we see all around us including man, but unlike everything created, man has to use his mind to reciprocate to His Love; thereby, man has to exercise his God-given Freedom and choose to Love God through Christ.
Jesus at the Last Supper with His Disciples (Wiki Commons)
Vision
The Vision explains the why and how of the Mission. The Vision is to bring humans into the nature of Love and Freedom of the “Triune Life” of God by freeing man from the prison of Fear and Bondage, the “solitary life,” Satan has incarcerated man ever since the fall of Adam. How is this done? Through faith!
Paul said, “He (God the Father) is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins” (Eph.1:7, NLT). By believing in Jesus Christ as personal Savior, man is immediately and directly freed from the bondage of Satan, and brought into God’s Loving union. In the realm of God, faith produces miracles. (Eph.1:13-14) Faith makes the reality of God happen in the spirit world. Just as faith imprisoned man because Adam and Eve believed the devil’s deceptive word, so we are freed from the devil when we believe in God’s Word (Jesus). This is the way God the Father has pre-arranged to bring man back to Himself – for “it is impossible to please God without faith” (Heb.11:6). Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) Jesus is the way to Love and Freedom.
So, the Vision of our work is to continue the work of Jesus to Free mankind from Fear and Bondage to the Love and Freedom man can experience in the “Triune Life” of God through faith in Jesus.
The Value
The Value explains how we share and carry out the Vision the Bulamanriver Trinitarian Ministry. Paul said, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.” (Rom.8:9b) God is a Tri-Personal God, thus, if you receive Jesus you receive the Holy Spirit as well, for both are hypostatically One God with the Father. The Holy Spirit is the core ingredient of BULAMANRIVER’s (man’s) Value.
Again quoting John, we see how the values of the “Triune Life” is inculcated in the believer through the Spirit’s move, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. For the Scriptures declare that rivers of living water shall flow from the inmost being of anyone who believes in me.” He was speaking of the Holy Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him” (John 7:37-39).
Dove, Symbol of the Holy Spirit (Pic: Wiki Commons)
With the Spirit as the core of the believer’s Value statement, He moves in us to accomplish God the Father’s purpose in His Son, “God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love Him along the same lines as the life of His Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity He restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in Him. After God made that decision of what His children should be like, He followed it up by calling people by name. After He called them by name, He set them on a solid basis with Himself. And then, after getting them established, He stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what He had begun” (Rom.8:29-30). Paul explains the Value the Spirit brings in the Love chapter of 1 Corinthians 13. This is the heart and essence of the Values we have in Christ which the Spirit makes happen in the believer. (John 16:14)
So man’s intrinsic Value is the act of surrendering to the move of the Spirit in his life, and allow Him to conform the personhood of man to the image of Jesus, God’s Son. (Rom.8:29)
Today, the Spirit moves in believers to make known the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole world – the primary mission and vision of the BULAMANRIVER Ministry. Man uses various forms of media to publish and make the “Triune Life” of Jesus known to the world. The “Triune Life” is the Gospel, for from it we obtain all that’s necessary to make the Gospel work come to fruition. Jesus said this in His prayer to the Father before He was crucified about the “Triune Life” they shared from eternity, which the disciples have now embraced, which will become the cornerstone in their lives to make known the Gospel known, “That all of them may be One, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in Us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me (Gospel work). I have given them the glory that You gave Me, that they may be One as We are One (“Triune Life”)— I in them and You in Me—so that they may be brought to complete (Triune) unity. Then the world will know that You sent Me (Gospel work) and have Loved them even as You have Loved Me (from eternity)” (John 17:21-23, my emphasis throughout). The Spirit moves in man which makes this unity (“Triune Life”) possible, and demonstrates BULAMANRIVER’s value proposition in the Spirit’s life.
An abbreviated version follows:
Mission: To immerse and saturate humans into the Life and Being of the Triune God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Matt.28:18-20) Mission reveals the Love of the Father! (John 3:16)
Vision: Jesus is the One who Frees us and makes us live in the Love and Freedom of the “Triune Life” of God, rescuing us from the prison of Fear and Bondage of Satan. (John 14:6; John 3:16. 8:36) Vision brings the Freedom of the Son! (John 8:36)
Value: The value of the Gospel is the message of the “Triune Life” the Spirit brings to man. Man is the riverbed, and the Holy Spirit is the living waters which make us BULAMANRIVER – the personification of the “Triune Life” (“the Spirit of life in man walking in God’s Love”) (John 7:37-39; 1 Cor.13) Value activates the work of sanctification of the Spirit! (1 Pet.1:2)
And so, in all we do, and whatever we teach, in whatever forms fo media, we are commissioned to accomplish this three-fold objective of the Mission, Vision, and Value, of the BULAMANRIVER.
(Web Site Address: http//bulamanriver.com)
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to write me in the space provided below, or email me on bulamanriver@gmail.com.
Blessing:
Until we meet again in my next post, may the blessings of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you always. May the Spirit enliven your spirit and make all things concerning you possible as you live the Triune Life as a Bulamanriver.* Be strong in the Lord’s joy.
Kiang,
* Bulamanriver” is the metaphor describing the union of man with the Love of the Triune God flowing in humans, making possible the “Triune Life” – the source of the miraculous life in man. To read the many facets of life of the Bulamanriver, go to my website www.bulamanriver.com where you can order a copy of my Book.
All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise.