Greetings Friends the world over! This is the time for Thanksgiving in America. Thanksgiving Day is November 28, 2013.

Thanksgiving is an essence of the human spirit which stands inviolate and knows no borders, and is the epitome for good in all people and nations. Sometimes gratitude does not come easily because of our biases and prejudices. To say “thank you” is to express the dignity and decency of our humanity replicated in God’s likeness. “Thank you,” (English) “Danke” (German), “Mahalo” (Hawaiian), “Merci” (French), “xiexie” (Chinese), “Terima Kasih” (Malay), “Takk” (Norwegian), “Kamasahamnida” (Korean), “Paldies” (Latvian), “Gracias” (Spanish), “Spasibo” (Russian), “Dhayavad” (Hindi), “Dziekuje,” (Polish), “Obrigado” (Portuguese), “Bula” (Fijian), and hundreds and thousands of languages and dialects all speak the language of this larger-than-life divine attribute.

Let’s talk “Thanksgiving” today. I’ll do this presentation in three installments in the month of November. Part three will be the combined version of parts one and two. The release dates are, 7^th, 12^th, and 17^th November, 2013. Let’s begin with Part One.

Rest and be Thankful (Wiki Commons) 

Where, how, and when did Thanksgiving began? In America we usually rehash our colonial history and tell the story of the Pilgrims and native Americans, and how they came together to celebrate their autumn harvest crop in 1621. That’s all fine, and I find the story inspiring each time I find fresh bits of information. It was reported the Wampanoag native tribe arrived bearing five deer for the feast. And of course, an abundance of turkey caught in the wild, I’m sure. Although it was not known then by a thanksgiving label, it was obvious gratitude was the prevailing mood among the Pilgrims and indigenous natives. It was reported that they celebrated for three days, not just one. They were thankful to God for surviving the hardships they endured in the New World, for the religious freedom they now enjoyed, and for the successful harvest and bounty before them.

“Thanksgiving” & Eden

Much later, by Presidential edict a day was set aside for a national day of Thanksgiving. But let’s step further back in history and really see where thanksgiving truly began. Let’s go back to the Garden of Eden – yes, as far back as the very beginning. Here, we’ll find where the spirit of “thanksgiving” all started. For the most part, the story of Adam and Eve almost invariably gravitate to their disobedience, right? We don’t look at the life he lived before he alienated himself and Eve from Eden. There is no record how long Adam and Eve remained faithful to God before the fall. This is important, for the life Adam and Eve had with God was the kind of life God had in mind for mankind. It was a relationship that Adam and Eve enjoyed with God. It was a relationship based upon His Love for man which is the sole reason why He created man. What we see in history in the post-Eden era of man, is six thousand years of human experience lived apart from God.

Gratitude – A Way of Life in Eden

The truth is: being appreciative and thankful was a way of life for Adam and Eve as long as God was in their lives. Adam and Eve did not live like Neanderthal cavemen trying to eke out a living. No, they lived in God’s glorious company. Our educational system in supporting evolutionary science (so-called) do our children a great disadvantage in this area of human origin. Think about this, Eden was a garden planted with God’s own hands. He handed it to our first parents with all the blessings of a home where they could live a life of unbelievable miraculous manifestation and live happily as humans. Adam never dropped a sweat off his brow. Eden was handed to him and his wife on a platter – literally. Josephus, the Jewish historian, said that fruit trees in Eden would automatically produce fruits right before our first parents’ eyes when they were hungry. Imagine what that’s like? Adam’s thoughts had the power to materialize what he desired into reality. What do you think happened when God brought the animals to Adam to be named? “Whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.” (Gen.2:19)

Was It a Legalistic Union?

God could well have pointed a dense jungle to Adam and said, “I want you both to go out there and make us a garden-home where we can all live together. I know it’s going to be tough, but it will be good for character-building. Your performance will be a reward of itself when the garden is complete.” No, but unfortunately, many a legalist would have us believe God to be like that. And sadly many a believer fall for that kind of relationship with God. The legalist would have you believe God would never plant a garden for you—you are to plant it for yourself. He would not fight your battles for you—you are to fight your own battles. Of course that is what the “solitary” life brings us. They are proponents of the belief there has to be something we do to earn God’s Love. If that’s so, then whatever man does in his “solitary” expression will be reward unto itself, so at the end of the day, he has no one to thank, but himself. Is it any wonder then that they live thankless lives, because they can’t see God as the Mover and Shaker in their lives? How can we see God in this way where He is the Mover and Shaker in our lives? How do we find every reason to thank Him? Or, is it hard to find reason to thank Him, if ever?

Instruction Was a “Thank You,” Not “Payback”

What was the only instruction God gave Adam? What were they to do with their with their lives and their beautiful garden-home? They were “to work it and watch over Eden, and to not eat from the tree of the fruit of good and evil.” (Gen.2:15, 17). Adam and Eve were to take good care of Eden, their home. And right here – here’s where the origin of gratitude and thanksgiving began. This is the very first directive God gave man – what do you think was Adam’s response when he looked around him, and he saw: 1. He was told he was created from the soil he stood on. 2. He saw his beautiful wife Eve God gave him for a fitting life-partner. 3. He saw this most beautiful garden-home call Eden, with all the abundance to keep them alive and healthy. 4. He saw God living and walking with them; 5.They saw how this relationship created the incredible ongoing miraculous life they were living. There was nothing they saw in all this they could attribute to themselves and pat themselves on the back – none whatsoever.

Here’s where the very first act of man to his God comes through: Adam’s responsibility of “keeping and caring for Eden” was their way of saying “Thank You” to God for His Love. It was their act of worship and gratitude. That was the first and natural reaction of man to God – to respond to what you sees around him, acknowledge the Love of the generous Giver, and say “Thank You, God.” That was all – what else could be more fitting than a heartfelt “Thank You.” Nothing more and nothing less! The act of gratitude is an act of Love flowing back to the God who is Love.

Love is “Free” 

This was a relationship based upon Love that can only be exchanged “freely.” It also tells us the basic determination God had in mind when He created man in His own image. And what’s that? He determined to give and bless man with everything out of His Love, so that man will enjoy living in His presence. It was to make man see and never doubt where his happiness stem from, and how and to whom he is to respond with his gratitude and worship. There’s no price tag attached to this relationship. The relationship in God’s Love was very simple – there is a Giver who lives to give His Love for He is Love; and there’s humans who lives to receive Love for he is the vessel for God’s Love – and whose response to life is to give worship and thanks to the Great Giver. God will not spare anything from man, whom He has made in His likeness. That would be tantamount to denying Himself. Later, His Love would not hold back His only Son but sacrificed Him for man.

“God id Love” (1 John 4:8) (Wiki Commons)

Love Cannot be “Repaid”

The act of taking care of Eden was not to “repay” God. Love can never be repaid. True Love travels one-way, and never expects to be repaid. Jesus said, “If you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? But lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High” (Luk.6:33-35). Jesus was talking about God’s divine Love. If you pay for something, then it becomes a “trade.” By its very nature, Love can never be traded. Think of the sunshine, the air we breathe, the water we get from our rivers and lakes? Think of our earth that hangs in the blackness of space? Can man repay God for His Love He freely gives us?

God’s Love is His unearned favor. Love is priceless. What price tag do you place on His Love for you? For Adam, do you think “working and watching over Eden, and not eating of the forbidden fruit” was enough to repay or earn God’s Love? There is only one response that God’s Love can generate and trigger in us – all we can say to God’s Love is – “Thank you.” There is nothing else to say. God is Love and is not for sale. You can’t buy Love. We can’t say “If I obey God –“work and watch my garden” – He will bless me.” That’s extortion, not Love. The miraculous life comes from His unearned Love, not because of our obedience. For Adam and Eve, “working and watching over Eden and being obedient” was an act of Love and gratitude for God’s Love for them. “Working and watching over Eden and being obedient” was going to be what their life consist. Therefore, all of life itself, is an act of gratitude. Life is an act of gratitude. Gratitude is an act of Love.

We would find the meaning of life if we remember God did not create us out of a judgmental conviction, but out of the wellspring of His unearnable Love. 

God Provided “Freely” for Israel’s Wellbeing

When we look in the Bible, do we find this miraculous life happening on this side of the post-Eden era? The answer is a resounding “yes.” More remarkably, it happened on a national scale. > This relationship with God, though alienated by Adam, was once more brought to earth with Abraham’s encounter with God. Through Abraham’s faithfulness God called him a friend and their relationship was bound by a covenant which extended to his descendants and eventually the nation of Israel. > Israel found itself a slave people in Egypt. God remembered His covenant with Abraham, and through Moses He brought Israel out of Egypt. > How did He do it? By a series of miracles with His own hands, just as He planted Eden with His own hands! We know the story. Israel experienced the miraculous life and saw one miracle after another until the final miracle of the Passover forced Pharaoh’s hand to free the people. (Exodus 3-12) > They left with riches handed to them by the terrified Egyptians. > They saw the pillar of fire leading them by night, and a pillar of cloud by day. > They saw the Red sea part with their own eyes which allowed them safe passage across it. > They saw Pharaoh’s pursuing army drown as the sea collapsed upon them. > They celebrated and gave thanks for their deliverance. > They saw God wrote the Ten Commandments with His own hands at Sinai. > He miraculously fed them for 40 years in the desert where nothing could grow. Their clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on their feet. (Deut.8;4)

The Promise Land

> Finally, when they were ready to enter the Promise Land, He went before them and defeated Jericho in such a spectacular manner that it left no doubt in their minds God was leading them. > He went before them and drove out the inhabitants of the land, and gave > them cities they did not build > vineyards they did not plant > livestock they did not raise > homes they did not build or furnish > riches they did not acquire > wells they did not dig—with God Himself going before them as their Defense (Deut. 6:10-12; Ps. 46:1; Josh. 23:9-11). Just as God planted Eden for Adam and Eve, He handed the Promise Land to Israel – on a platter. The one singular reason this miraculous life was possible was because God was in Israel, as He was with Adam and Eve in Eden. As long as they lived in such an environment their lives was one continuous miraculous expression after another. In that kind of situation, it was hard not to be thankful.

Israel’s Instruction

What was God’s instruction to Israel? Recall, this is the path Adam took humanity in the post-Eden era of disobedience and mayhem. Mankind has lived through so much pain and death under the influence of the unseen enemy. The flood of Noah had come and gone. Israel’s instruction was to keep the covenant. God told Israel, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine,  you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exo.19:5-6). Israel answered, “All that the Lord has spoken, we will do” (Exo.19:8). Where Adam’s gratitude for God’s Love was “to work and watch over Eden,and not eat the forbidden fruit” Israel’s gratitude was to “keep My covenant.” Life was to be lived in a certain way as explained in the Commandments. Living that life was their expression of gratitude for all the miraculous manifestation which saved them from slavery in Egypt and establish them as a nation, which continued to be manifested in their national purpose and life. But instead of “keeping the covenant” as an act of gratitude, they found it a burden. They desired to serve the gods of the nations around them.

Outline, Review

But we know what happened? Let’s look back at this scenario presented to us. Adam failed, and so did Israel. Israel found itself back to where they started as a slave nation carted off by the northern kingdoms. Eden – gone! The Promise Land – gone. The presence of God which brought the miraculous life – gone! Their security and defense with angelic host that stood guard over Israel – gone! Man in the pre-Eden era failed. Man in the post-Eden era failed. You can say both sides of Eden was experimented on, our “solitary” self-centered way of life was put to the test, and found wanting. What happens now? God gave man the only answer. (TO BE CONTINUED)

If you have any questions, please do not 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 blessing of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you today and give you strength for authentic Triune Living as a Bula man-river.*

Kiang                                                                                                                                                          (Your Servant in Christ)

* The “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 Bula man-river, 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

Note: Any information obtained from this website that is used for publication should be acknowledged by citing the website address, date of acquisition and information pertinent to original authorship. For general guidelines regarding web citations see The Guide for Citing Electronic Information .

Greetings once more Friends everywhere!

Readers of my Blog are familiar with the metaphor I use for living life in the Triune Being of God as  believers of Jesus Christ. It’s called “Bula man-river.”* This is also the title of my Book which you can obtain more information via my website: www.bulamanriver.com.  The slogan and watchword for this Blog site is given in the masthead above:  “Whoever believes in me…rivers of living waters will flow from within them.” This is taken from John 7:38. It’s on this passage of Scripture that the name “Bula man-river”* originated and is substantiated. What I would like to share with you in this post is to answer, where and what is the source of this “living waters” which flows in man, and makes him a “Bula man-river.”* 

River with Living Waters – Metaphor for God’s Undying Love (Wiki Commons)

In my Book, I use the River as the metaphor for man and the believer. A River is made up of two parts. There’s the riverbed, and there’s the water which flows through it. Think of yourself as the riverbed – you are the riverbed. Think of the water as the flow of God’s Life and Love in your life. “God is Love,” the Bible tells us in 1 John 4:8. So, God is flowing in you. Now a riverbed is not a River without its waters. And by the same token, the water has to have a riverbed for its vessel. Hence, the two complement and complete each other. One cannot live without the other. The riverbed represents man’s physical existence, and the water represents God’s divine existence in man. I will quote from a passage from my Book which bears the same title and explains the source of “living waters” which makes man a full-flowing River or Bula man-river* with the power of the Spirit. (John 7:38-39)

“I want to share a beautiful story about man’s new beginning as a Bula man-river*. A visitor was once invited to visit a majestic sanctuary. His escort, a learned individual, took him to see the beauty of the massive imposing structure and exquisite surroundings. The visitor confessed that in all his life he had never seen a place as beautiful and majestic, and he was truly lost for words. Then he was told the purpose of his visit. The escort showed the visitor a breathtaking stream flowing from beneath this magnificent structure. The visitor was amazed to see this and wondered how and why a stream could flow from beneath this structure.

“The escort beckoned to follow him along this gentle flowing stream. Then, to the visitor’s surprise, he saw his escort take out a measuring device and measure 560 yards from the building. He asked the visitor to wade through the water and tell him the depth of the stream. The visitor replied that it was ankle-deep. The escort went farther and measured 560 more yards down the stream. He asked the visitor, “Please tell me its depth.” This time the visitor replied, “The water is up to my knees.” He repeated the exercise a third time and the visitor replied, “The stream has become a river, and the waters are up to my waist.” The fourth and final time he told the escort the stream had turned into a wide, deep river that could only be crossed by swimming.

“This story is taken from the prophet Ezekiel in the Bible (Ezek. 47; Rev. 22:1-2). Rivers are spoken of metaphorically as God’s people who flow out to give provision to communities. Notice that wherever this river flowed, it brought life: “So where the river flows, everything will live” (Ezek. 47:9). The escort is an angel of God, and the visitor is you, the Bula man-river.*

“The waters gushing from under the threshold of the awesome structure is the “living water” originating from the very throne of God and flowing in the life of the Bula man-river.* The measurements, carried out by the escort, portray man’s life as it’s lived in the love and generosity of God, from start to finish. Each of the four stages of measurement indicates a different phase in life, from a fledgling stream only ankle-deep to a full-fledged Bula man-river* that is forded only by swimming. The words of John the Baptist are relevant here: “He must increase but I must decrease” (John 3:30, NKJV) as we move from our present place as babes to an even larger place as we mature into full-grown people through the creative action of the Spirit (1 Pet. 2:2; 1 Cor. 3:1-2; Eph. 4:13-14; Heb. 6:1-3). People are always in search of rivers, just as civilizations have always been built around them; they may not know it, but they are. You are that river. There are people you are going to touch in life – people who are waiting and searching for a river that can sustain them with its refreshing and miraculous “living waters” only you will give and share.

Gift

“God’s desire is to see His Son increase in our lives through the flow of His grace by His Spirit (John 16:14). We will not stagnate and die. Rivers never do. Flow or hydrology is the key to life. It starts at the throne of God and overflows your banks. The miracle life emerges from man’s union with the triune God, in Jesus, by the power of the Spirit. God, our Father, gives us an insight into the gift He gives to each one of His children. Man has forgotten or is unaware of who he is – he is the gift. Just as the riverbed is not a gift without its waters, so God’s gift to man is not a gift without the Spirit of “living waters” flowing in him (1 Tim. 4:14). So then, if the gift is the man, because of the “living waters” flowing in him, it is logical to conclude that man, as the Bula man-river,* is his own gift for each other (Luke 6:38).

Man is The Riverbed, The Spirit is “Living Waters” (Wiki Commons)

“History tells us that each time God wants to reach humans He uses other people as His medium of communication. The idea God puts across is that he includes man in His triune life, and man is a blessing for each other through the gift of God in them. The reason for this is obvious: it reflects His own triune nature and love of living as ONE. He made this clear when He gave us His Son, so He too had to adopt His own humanity, thereby using the medium of humans as a blessing to humans through His life, death, resurrection, and ascension.

“The gift is not some illusive “buried treasure” we search for all our lives. You are the attractant for the miraculous life you’re ordained to live because of the gift flowing in you. There is no “fountain of youth.” This is it, and it flows from the spring under God’s temple into your life. Most importantly, it is free. All you do is, ask. This is our birthright as humans created in God’s image and likeness. You have heard the common saying, “If it is too good to be true, it probably is.” Sadly, we translate that affirmation in our relationship with God, and we falsely believe everything has to be earned, including His love. This fearful world, to emphasize its ungodly idea, coins another common phrase: “there is no such thing as a free lunch.” People who make such affirmations have no clue how this “too good to be true” life comes to man. It is made possible for one reason and one purpose only, and no other: we are made to be ONE with God, even as He is ONE in His triune nature of love. What connects us to the God who makes things indeed “too good to be true” is the Bula man-river* that makes our union with Him possible. God’s love is free; it is priceless and cannot be bought.”

“To “flow” means motion or action. Action means the present. Flow is not an act from the past, nor is it in the future; it is now; it is in this moment in time. God exists in the present, so when it comes to hydrology, yesterday is today’s memory and tomorrow is today’s dream. Today is today and it can’t be anything else because of its “flow” and motion. The flow of the Bula man-river,* as represented in the story in Ezekiel, explains the river’s work in the depths of God’s love. Starting from ankle depth, it progresses to knee depth, to waist depth, and finally into the deepest waters of the riverbed. Flow quenches the thirst of drinkers, washes and cleanses the soiled, provides irrigation to drought-stricken land, enriches the riverbed with pearls, sustains marine life, and provides transportation and recreation, along with the endless catalog of other works it does. Most importantly, the river is the hub and attractant which naturally draws people together to a common bond that identifies their place for existence as humans on this earth – its waters. All these works of love the Spirit does in one movement of its “flow” and never stops. The Spirit is the flow through our lives each day, then into the ocean or God’s presence in His heavenly courts. That is the role of the Spirit; He takes us to the glorious courts where Jesus, with our humanity into His own being, in one continuous flow and movement, mediates by representing and substituting for all our human responses before the Father.

“The story of Ezekiel tells us that God’s love at no time stops flowing in the Bula man-river.* And if it never stops flowing, then He is always present throughout our lives. We pray for “breakthroughs” as though God is distant, and we wonder when He’s going to show up. Meanwhile, we fend for ourselves. It contradicts the truth we know about Him in the life of the Bula man-river.*

“Think about this: abundance means the “flow” of God’s love is incessant, relentless, and nonstop from His throne of grace. There is no room to think a single thought of lack and want in this picture; there is no room for fear or death, for it is a picture of overwhelming and undefeatable abundance and richness and true life that comes from man’s union with the triune God in Jesus by the power of the Spirit. There is never a nook or cranny where want or lack is able to enter, as long as the hydrology of “living waters” overwhelms life in the Bula man-river.* Can our thoughts rest in such an unimaginably super-abundant place, looking out into the world of fear and lack around us and not allowing this fearful world to enter? That is how God views life from His place of complete dominance and abundance. It’s not a human place; that’s why the life of Jesus makes such thoughts possible by vicariously taking us into this three-dimensional miraculous life to exist in the Bula man-river* – in you and me.” (Bula Man-River – The Miracle of Triune Living.” Pg.84-89)

Cover of My Book “Bula-Man-River, Miracle of Triune Living”

I hope you found that explanation of the “living waters” of the Spirit flowing in man as a gift from the Father as something we can never live without in life. The gift we receive from God our Father in the flow of the living waters’ will turn a page today as we allow Christ’s mediatory work to flow in our lives. That page in your life comprises all your human responses hidden in the “living waters” of the Spirit in Christ. You see, no one can move or even aspire to a greater and nobler place than they are at present, if they leave undone the things expected of them in their present place. That is the meaning of “flow;” it does something to you. It is not stagnant or inactive. It inspires you to move with it. The “flow” of the present is the key to how “deep” your future will become. When we do what the Spirit moves us to do today, we will then move into “deeper” waters in future. The key to the life of the Bula man-river*is the value of the “living waters” a person gives others. The intrinsic value of the “living waters” is not what you get from life but what you give it. Fittingly, Proverbs tell us, “The man who waters others, will himself be watered” (Prov. 11:25, NASB emphasis added).

If you have any questions, please do not 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 blessing of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you today and give you strength for authentic Triune Living as a Bula man-river.*

Kiang                                                                                                                                                          (Your Servant in Christ) 

* The “Bula man-river” 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 Bula man-river, go to my website www.bulamanriver.com where you can order a copy of my Book. Thank you for your support.

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise

Note: Any information obtained from this website that is used for publication should be acknowledged by citing the website address, date of acquisition and information pertinent to original authorship. For general guidelines regarding web citations see The Guide for Citing Electronic Information .

Greetings friends the world over! It’s autumn here in Texas and its welcome respite from the summer heat. The picture below speaks for the subject of this post.

 A Question Often Asked, Seldom Understood (Wiki Commons)

You may have noticed in my posts I have capitalized the word “Love” where it relates to God, as opposed to a non-capitalized “love” as it relates to humans. Whenever you see that, it is to differentiate between human “love” and God’s divine “Love.” The Bible tells us that “God is Love” (1John 4:8). He is Love because He is first and foremost our Father. (John 17:24) Whenever you see “Love” capitalized it is describing God the Father in His activity in creation, and wholly in man. God is a noun, Love is a verb. God is His Name, Love is His game. They can’t be separated for His nature is to Love. He is not made of Love, He IS Love.

Human ‘love’

On the other hand, we exhibit human love and think it is God’s Love, and it is far cry from it like darkness is from light. The tree of knowledge in Eden which alienated Adam and Eve from God bore the ‘fruit of good and evil.’ (Gen.2:9) Human love springs from the “good” of this tree. God’s Love springs from the “tree of life” which Adam rejected. We sing about love; we write and speak about it; we express it in our families, friendships, romances, and marriages. Even so, our friendships don’t last; our marriages break up at an unprecedented rate, destroying the family unit as the basis of a stable and decent society. There are labor and management conflicts. There are racial discrimination, and crimes against humanity. There are violent crimes, and the obvious disregard for the sanctity of life. It seems everywhere we look there’s increasing fragmentation of relations. We question the sincerity of our love for people and wonder if it is worth our effort trying to love. Why, because it is still human love that is actually undergirded by fear. Humanity lives under the shade of the tree which produce the “fruit of good and evil.”

God impeaches man’s fallen state of being, saying,“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water (in Eden), and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water”  (Jer.2:13, emphasis added). “Living waters” is a metaphor for the Spirit whose Love ever flows in believers. Man, in his fallen state, cannot hold God’s Love – he is a broken cistern. (John 7:38-39; Rom. 5:5) He has to be reborn, have a new life, be a new unbroken cistern, which will hold the “living waters” of Love in the Spirit. (John 3:5-6)

God’s Love comes from the Holy Spirit, or metaphorically, the ‘Tree of Life’ from which Adam ate  freely until he disobeyed and partook of the forbidden fruit. (Rom.5:5) God makes this scathing revelation about human goodness and love, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on Your Name or strives to lay hold of You (Love); for You have hidden Your face from us and have given us over to our sins” (Isa.64:6-7, emphasis added).  We read further, “The (human) heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer.17:9, emphasis added). We must understand that because of man’s alienation from God through Adam’s disobedience, man’s existence have since relied upon eating of the ‘tree of good and evil’ under the sway of the unseen devil. We have existed in our fallen, depraved, and corrupt state of being from Adam.

God’s Love & Sovereignty

Yet, at the same time we must remember this ‘tree of good and evil,’ existed in Eden in God’s presence. What does that tell us – it means that all of human actions and life, whether good or evil, still exist under His sovereignty, and mankind will give account for all he does. Nothing and no one exists outside of God’s sovereignty. (Ps.139) God tells us, “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve” (Jer. 17:10). Yet, for all who man is in his fallen, depraved, and fearful state of being, God’s Love never leaves him, “Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand” (Isa. 64:8). God’s inexpressible Love cannot and will not leave man. Where it says “we are all the work of Your hands,” He takes back to the beginning in Eden where He uttered these words upon man’s creation, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness and let them have dominion” (Gen.1:26). God cannot and will not deny Himself.  He has given man something of His Person – His image and dominion. He has decided not to live without man. How do we respond to this unfailing Love of God our eternal Father?

Only God Could Express His Love To Man

God’s Love can’t be understood except in His Trinitarian Self. So God revealed Himself to man in and through His Son, the Logos. Jesus told the disciples, “If you know Me, you will also know My Father. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him” (John 14:7, Holman Christian Standard Bible). That’s a statement of Jesus’ Trinitarian Being with the Father and the Spirit existing as ONE GOD from eternity.

God’s Love – Like a River of Living Waters Which Never Runs Dry (John 7:38-39) (Wiki Commons)

Man must receive the Savior and Mediator, whom the Father has has provided in His Son as the gift for man’s redemption to bring mankind back to Him. And as man’s Mediator, this is how Jesus introduces God’s Love to us. Jesus said, “A brand-new command I give you: Love one another.” Why did Jesus say this command to Love is brand new? Because God’s Love as symbolized by the “Tree of Life” has been missing in man’s life since Adam. Recall. Adam was cut-off from partaking of its fruit after he disobeyed. (Gen.3:24) The command is new because He wants us to differentiate it from human love. If God’s Love is brand-new, what’s new about it? What’s different about it? He answers, “As I have Loved you, Love one another.” How did He Love us? “As the Father has Loved Me, so have I Loved you. Now remain in My Love” (John 15:9). Jesus is saying in effect, God’s Love cannot be experienced truly except in His Trinitarian Being. This is the reason this blog has always emphasized the “Triune Life” because only from living such a life God’s Love flows into the believer. Jesus, in effect, said, “I came so you can taste the Love the Father has for Me, and I for the Father in our Trinitarian Life, so you also can join Us and Love one another with the same Love in the Spirit.” Jesus’ Love for us is made possible only because He is unified and One with the Father and the Spirit in their Triune Life. So, Jesus was making known the new command of the Triune Love of God. It’s the Love which connects all man’s activity with the Triune God, and not in isolation in his “solitary” self.

How Is The Divine Love Different?

I define the differentiation of human love as existing in man’s “solitary” mode of thinking. God lives in His “Triune” mode of life. His Love is “Triune” because that’s the way God has existed from eternity – the Father, Son, and Spirit existing and enduring as ONE in their Triune Love. The disciples saw this Love in action in humanity through the life of Jesus for three and half years. It’s a Love that springs from the very Triune Being of God who is bound in One in three Persons, indivisible and inseparable. The act of One is always the act of all Three. So it’s a unifying Love. It’s collaborative, interdependent, unified, interconnected, and ONE. We are called to live that kind of life in Christ in the power of the Spirit.

Human love, undergirded by fear, is selfish, independent, uncooperative, disconnected, divided, and will end in death. (Gen.2:17) It’s the difference between a person who lives the “solitary life” who says, “I’ll do what seems right in my own eyes” (Pro.21:12), and the person who lives the “Triune Life” with Christ who says, “Truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father Loves the Son and shows Him all He does.” (John 5:19-20)

Like a River of “Living Waters” God’s Love Course Through Our Lives to Water Others (Wiki Commons)

Never Before Tasted in Human History

The Triune Love and Life between the Father, Son, and Spirit was something never before seen or articulated in humanity until Jesus came and took upon Himself His creaturely human body. As God and man, He was the Immanuel foretold to come. (Isa.7:14; Matt.1;23) Jesus came and made possible our “union” with the Triune God by living, dying, resurrecting, and ascending to the throne of the Father, and thereby glorifying in His humanity the nature of man in the very Being of the Triune God. Jesus opened the way to the “Tree of Life” (Love) that was shut out to man since Adam. In so doing, He made His new Love a reality in human life. Never before in the history of man was this Triune Love seen or tasted in human experience until now. It comes to us from the very Being of God through Christ and in the power of the Spirit. (Rom.5:5; 8:9; 1Cor.3:16; 6:19; 1John 2:27) It was seen in Jesus’ life, where He went about doing nothing but good and healing all who came to Him (Acts 10:38).

When Jesus took our humanity into Himself, this very Love from the Triune Being of God became ours by inheritance. It is because of this Triune union that the Spirit spontaneously joins Himself to the believer through faith in Jesus. All it requires is Jesus’ living faith, and the Holy Spirit makes the divine Love flow in our lives as spiritual “living waters” of the Bula man-river.*

Freedom, Honor, & Your Dream-Life

Human love is different from God’s Love like day is from night. Human love is “solitary,” while God’s Love is unifying and “Triune.” Human love is self-serving, God’s Love is entirely outgoing. Human love is enslaving, while God’s Love is freeing. The pseudo freedom we seek in our “solitary life,” is the very energy which dislodges us from the true freedom we seek. Yet, the very energy we disregard and neglect in living the “Triune Life,” is the energy that will take us to our freedom. In true freedom we find our purpose and calling. And that’s what life is about: to live our God-given purpose and dream-life. You can read more about the Love of God and his purpose for each of us in my Book, “Bula man-river – The Miracle of Triune Living.” Ordering details can be seen on the top banner, “Buy the Book.”

Cover of My Book, “Bulamanriver – The Miracle of Triune Living”

I value your feedback. If you have any questions, please do not 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 blessing of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you today and give you strength for authentic Triune Living as a Bula man-river.*

Kiang

* The “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 Bula man-river, go to my website www.bulamanriver.com where you can order a copy of my Book. Thank you for your support.

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise

Note: Any information obtained from this website that is used for publication should be acknowledged by citing the website address, date of acquisition and information pertinent to original authorship. For general guidelines regarding web citations see The Guide for Citing Electronic Information .

Greetings friends everywhere!

The Miracle-Life 

Man was made a miracle-attractor because he was created in the image and likeness of God. Man is physical and material, while God is divine and spiritual, and when the two intersect miracles happen. A relationship with God makes the miracle-life a way-of-life. From creation man’s process of living has been a miraculous activity, and it will end the same way it began when he is made to live eternally in divine, glorious, existence with the Triune God.

Miracle of Peter Walking on Water to Jesus (Wiki Commons)

Through union with God, Abraham lived a miraculous life. The greatest miracle was the birth of Isaac although he and Sarah were past child-bearing age. Through this miraculous life his descendants grew into a multitude and became a nation called Israel, which continues to this day. Even though as a nation they did not follow the patriarchal faithfulness, their whole national life was undergirded by the miraculous promise to Abraham. The Bible is full of examples of the miraculous life man experiences because of his encounter with the Triune God. Jesus Christ, God who became the Son of Man, went about living the miracle-life and doing good and healing all who came to Him. (Acts 10:38)

To Enjoy Living in The Father’s Presence

The miracle-life is God’s way of pointing man back to Him, for the parable of the Bula man-river* is essentially the story of God revealing the pathway to Him. (You can read a fuller explanation in my Book, “Bula man-river, The Miracle of Triune Living). Let’s be clear about one thing about man’s beginning: it was the presence of God that made Eden a miraculous place for Adam and Eve, not a geographical location. God made man to enjoy being in His presence – that, in its simplest form, is the message of the Gospel. The purpose of miracles is to make that possible. God is Spirit and we are human and physical. To bring us into His presence as a human can only mean to live in a ceaseless joyful miraculous existence. That is why God declares He made every day to be enjoyed and rejoiced over (Ps. 118:24).

One Day at a Time

Jesus tells us how we are to do it in a world that has drifted from its center in the Creator. Live one day at a time! (Matt. 6:34, 25-33) Each day will bring enough miracle detractors to keep us on our toes from living the miracle-life that’s our destiny, and we live as “Bula” man-rivers.* Today is today, yesterday is today’s memory, and tomorrow is today’s dream. Today, this moment in time, is the only reality we have. We can live it as a miracle in the Triune Life in Christ (Bula man-river), or, we can live the “solitary” life that’s left to fate and fatality. Make it a miracle.

I will share the story of my own miracle which saved me, my wife, and two friends. This story is recounted from my book, “Bula Man-River – The Miracle of Triune Living.”

Miracle at Bulu River
“The year was 1996 – the night of November 9th to be exact. I was living and working in Fiji in the South Pacific. The day, like any other, was fraught with its usual hectic demands of work. Yes, even in this beautiful idyllic paradise on earth, the strife of life is no respecter of your world. Little did I know the extraordinary event that lay in wait and about to unfold before me – that day will forever change the course of my life. Scheduled to take an early-morning flight to Canberra, Australia, my wife and I had to drive to the other side of the island where the international airport is located. A couple, friends of the family, traveled with us on this two-and-a-half-hour drive. The night was black as could be, with only the car’s headlights slicing through the pitch darkness. This stretch of the road ran straight and level for about a quarter mile with a bridge at the end and then turned sharply left around a mountain on the far side of the bridge. At around 2:30 a.m. the one thing most dreaded by drivers happened: I fell asleep at the wheel. I drove off my side of the two-lane road, drifted into the opposite lane, and finally went off the road onto the stopping lane. By now the car was not aligned with the bridge ahead to take us safely across the river. Instead, we were heading for a nosedive into the waters below the bridge.

Intense Blinding Light
“My short but deep sleep was the kind you just don’t get out of unless you are vigorously shaken. Then something amazing occurred. In my mind’s eye I saw the most blinding white light I have ever seen. The light was so intensely bright it woke me from my sleep. As I opened my eyes, astonishingly, there before me I saw the source of this intense white light – literally in front of me. I now looked directly at a person clothed in dazzling white garment to his feet, standing in front of me. With his right arm outstretched he held up his lamp, the source of the brilliant light that woke me. He wouldn’t move out of my way. He never flinched but stood his ground. All this happened so fast my immediate reaction was to swerve to evade a crash into the person. As I veered, I found myself on the road landing and crossing the bridge. The spot where the person in dazzling white garment stood led directly into the river below. If he had not stood his ground, forcing me to turn sharply to avoid a collision, we would have headed straight into the river and most likely died of drowning – leaving seven parentless children behind.

Intense Blinding Light Awoke Me From My Deep Slumber

“What happened next was equally astonishing. The bridge, made of concrete and pipe railings, lit up the dark night. Yes, the whole bridge was ablaze in brilliant white light. So as I swerved to avoid a crash into the person with the lamp, I was unwittingly maneuvered onto the bridge. The bridge’s railings turned into lights, something like fluorescent tube lights with a more intense brightness about them. By the side rails of the bridge I saw more people, all dressed in dazzling white shorts and short-sleeved shirts, walking along happily chatting and delighting in each other’s presence. All I could remember from their demeanor in those fleeting moments was the aura of complete joy and peace that radiated from their presence. It was a short but unforgettable few seconds in my life.

“My mind reeling, I wondered what had just happened. As we crossed the bridge and made the ninety-degree turn, we had a good view of the bridge we crossed. All we saw was nothing but pitch darkness, the brilliant light-show evident no more. I drove slowly for a few moments trying to collect my thoughts. “Did you see what just happened?” I asked my wife. She nodded, equally dumbfounded, and said she did. I asked my friends, and they said they too saw what happened. We all sat silent for a moment as the truth sank in: we had just tasted a miracle of angelic intervention. God sent angels to rescue us from certain death.

 The Bridge Rail Turned Into Bright Lights to Guide Me Across (FreeImages)

“As for the person holding the lamp, I believe he is more than an angel. His attire and the lamp are symbolic of his station. At the hotel, my wife and I knelt to thank God for His love and mercy for keeping us all safe. Seven children would have lost their parents that pitch-dark morning, but for the grace of God. It would be an understatement to say the event affirmed and solidified our weak human faith in God’s existence, His sovereignty over our lives, and unquestionably, His extraordinary love. I know the Lord saved us for more reasons than His awesome love for us. You see, a friend from the nearby village had told me stories of lives lost to the awkward bend in the road – but why spare us? I had read about one such tragic incident at this very bridge in the local newspaper not so long ago. As this event kept replaying in my mind, and I recognized God’s unerring hand in my life from before and after the event, I kept asking “why” because I felt no more deserving than the next person. (Extracted from book: “Bula” man-river – The Miracle of Triune living).” (End of quote)

This miracle-life is lived in the Triune Life of God in Christ by the power of the Spirit. Thomans F. Torrance argues that we must think from a center in the Triune God and not from a center in ourselves. In my book I make reference to this as the “Triune” Life as opposed to the human “solitary” life. It’s the life of the “Bula” (Living) man-river* as opposed to the “Bulu” (deathly) man-river.** God’s  miraculous relationship with us is maintained by God Himself in the incarnation of His Son and the outpouring of His Holy Spirit.

If you have any questions, please do not 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 blessing of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you today and give you strength for authentic Triune Living as a Bula man-river.*

Kiang                                                                                                                                                                  (Your Servant in Christ)

* The “Bula man-river” 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 Bula man-river, go to my website www.bulamanriver.com where you can order a copy of my Book.

 ** The “Bulu” man-river is a non-believer. “Bulu” is Fijian word which means “burial” or “death.” This river produces want and death in the person. “Bulu” man-river is the union of man with his fallen, unsaved self who lives under the deception and sway of the devil.

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise

Note: Any information obtained from this website that is used for publication should be acknowledged by citing the website address, date of acquisition and information pertinent to original authorship. For general guidelines regarding web citations see The Guide for Citing Electronic Information

Greetings from Dallas, Texas!

Trinitarian Mindset

The most basic and pivotal knowledge man can have is to understand God is Trinitarian. For the Christian, the mention of the name of God, must always convey His Trinitarian Being of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. From the Trinitarian worldview, the human mind opens vistas of perspectives he would not otherwise comprehend in his “solitary” human worldview. Christ came to open the consciousness of man to a realm unknown to man. Jesus can be seen and lived from a “solitary” human realm and focus. When that happens, we deny His heritage, we put Him in a box of our making, and we deny ourselves a glorious world that’s beyond our knowing, which only He, in His Trinitarian Being can take us.

God is Triune In His Being as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

The second is to translate that Triune worldview so it undergirds the believer’s life, and how it can be made to manifests itself into a practical way of life. Whenever we hear the expression that God is with a person, it means God’s “Triune Life” undergirds the person’s life, for God has eternally been a Trinity. And third, we answer the question, is it humanly possible to live this “Triune Life” of God, and the answer of course is ‘no.’ Only Jesus Christ can bring it to man, for He is Triune as much as He is indivisibly part of the Trinitarian Godhead.

The Trinitarian Life we have in Christ, is not just a doctrine or belief we keep locked up in our heads, but it’s a hands-on, concrete, down-to-earth, way of life. Many believe in the Trinity in the intellectual and theological sense, but haven’t a notion how to live it. Athanasius said this, “The revelation of Christ” (again, when the name of Jesus Christ is mentioned, we understand Him in His basic heritage as part of the Triune God), Athanasius said, “The revelation of Christ is addressed primarily to the will (God’s Love) not to the intellect; it’s appeal is to Faith (Christ’s Faith) not to theology.” That’s to say, the “Triune Life” is to be lived through Jesus’ Faith by the sowing of God’s Love in the field of human relations- it’s not just an academic matter.

Light is Seen in Human Interaction

Jesus asked, “do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt.5:15-16). Light is not something to be hidden but to give illumination. Light by its nature is not something merely to be grasped intellectually or theologically, because its character is to manifest how it affects people in how life is lived in a practical hands-on way. Man can have wonderful ideas about many things, but if they is not sown or tested in the field of human interactions and relationships, it is still “light hidden under a bowl or bushel.”

A Shared Mutual Life

Note that the light is not beaming on man alone, but on the Father ultimately. It’s quite easy to take the glory that rightfully belongs to God, and make it ours by basking in our own self-approval. Once we turn anything that glorifies God into a human “solitary” self-focus we disempower God in lives. Unfortunately, we do that all the time as humans under the influence of the devil. By saying “let your light shine, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father,” Jesus is affirming man’s union in the Triune Being of God. It’s a life that’s lived mutually in the Triune Being of God. It’s a glory God shares with man because through Christ man is brought to have communion with the Triune God.

Devils’ Sin –  to Usurp

The sin of the devil from the beginning was his attempt to usurp for himself the glory that rightfully belongs to God. God desires to share His glory with man, that’s His ultimate purpose for making man in His image. Satan continues to try to usurp God’s glory today in deceived mankind. That life leads to the “solitary life.” We live the “Triune Life” in mutual Love and sharing with the Father, Son, and Spirit. When we live the “solitary life” we live powerless lives.

“Works” Determines God’s “Triune Life”

Jesus encountered many people who did not believe He was the Messiah or the Son of God as He proclaimed Himself. By Pentecost there were only 120 out of the thousands upon thousands He taught and manifested supernatural miraculous healing acts never before witnessed in Israel. It is not uncommon to form perceptions of a person where false information is bandied about. And their perception becomes reality. Jesus knew this and told the people (I’m paraphrasing here), “If you don’t believe Me, that’s fine by Me, but believe the works, for no man can do this unless God is with Him” (John 10:38). By saying “unless God is with him,” Nicodemus validates Jesus’ “Triune Life” with the Father and the Spirit. Even though the whole Jewish religious establishment denounced Jesus and called Him a charlatan and false Messiah, Nicodemus, as much as he liked to side with his fellow rulers of the synagogue, looked to the works of Jesus, and told Jesus no one could do what he did unless God was with Him. (John 3:2) Through the works of God in Him, Jesus’ Triune Being He is corroborated.

“Born Again”

Jesus told Nicodemus, “You must be born again.” It’s a new life which comes from the death of the “solitary life” to the new birth in the “Triune Life.” Jesus was living the “Triune Life.” Jesus, as our example, was showing us how a human being is suppose to live as God was showing through His Son. Jesus tells Nicodemus, “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit” (John 3:5-6). Paul tells us how this death takes place and new birth come about, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal.2:20). If “Christ lives in me” then the “Triune Life” is alive in me. The “Triune Life” is mutually lived so we reflect the God who lives in us. It’s the Triune Life that produces the work of God. The “solitary” human life is powerless to do the work of God.

What “Triune” Means

To be “Triune” simply means a life that’s mutually cooperative, it is interconnected, interrelated, unified, and ONE! Triune means, to use a modern idiom, “ONE for all, and all for ONE.” That’s to say, the act of any One is the act of all Three in the Godhead. It’s a shared life. That’s how God IS in His Triunity! The “Triune Life” is anchored in eternity. It’s the opposite of being “solitary,” self-sufficient, independent, private, self-willed, narcissistic – the end-result of which is disunity and discord. The “solitary life” is anchored in emptiness and extinction. A group of people can be united, like a club of some kind, but still be “solitary” because it is self-serving in its objectives. So, Triune means to be ONE with God, not with other humans. We become one with other humans by first being ONE with the Triune God. So life and relationships are linked to eternity with Love (God) at its core, instead of existing in an abyss of fear and self-love.

Jesus Brings the “Triune Life” to Man

So when Jesus joined man to God as the prophesied Immanuel (Isa.7:14; Matt.1:23), man is given the ability to live the “Triune Life” through a Personage within the Triune Godhead – the Son, Jesus Christ who took our humanity in Himself and unified man to God. Jesus glorified our humanity when He became human, and in His life, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension joined us eternally to the Triune God. Jesus did not just glorify Himself. He was the prophesied Immanuel, “God with us – God with mankind.” He glorified all of mankind in Himself. He said, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to Myself” (John 12:32).

Principle of Imputation/Substitution

This is a vital Trinitarian principle. The principle of imputation, of substitution, of implied consequence. God imputes the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of His Son, for and on behalf of all mankind. Hence, John tells us “God so loved the world, (ie all mankind) He gave His Son, that whosoever believes in Him, shall have everlasting life” (John 3:16). All that’s required is faith. This principle of imputation is an act of substitution for another – God’s Son is representing all mankind. You cannot just attribute His death, resurrection, and ascension, and not His life as well. He was baptized for us, therefore, God accepted his repentance for us. He defeated the devil, therefore God accepted His victory for us, (just as Adam’s failure did.) He lived a life of supreme good through His miraculous Life by healing man from all kinds of sickness and disease, deformity, broken-heartedness, and even raised the dead back to life – for us. He healed all who came to Him. Then He died, resurrected, and ascended for us, and joined us the Triune God forever in Himself.

Living In The Vicarious Life of Jesus

In Jesus, who took our humanity with Him into the Godhead, we can repent and be baptized; now, we can overcome the devil and his wiles; now, we can do good and be “my brother’s keeper,” – not because we have the wherewithal in our humanity to do it, but because Jesus has already done it and God the Father imputes His righteous life upon us. (2 Cor.5:21; Rom.3:24) This born again miraculous “Triune Life” is one we live vicariously in Him. And He comes and does it all over again in us in the power of the Holy Spirit who brings the “Triune Life” to us. Do we believe that? It’s a life of Faith, it’s not about intellect. In my Book, “Bula man-river – The Miracle of Triune Living,” I use the metaphor of the river, calling it “Bula man-river”* to portray this miraculous life we live and have in the “Triune LIfe” of Jesus.

Adam & Abraham

This principle of substitution is a Trinitarian principle. It is the principle of imputing one’s life for another. Life is ONE and unified as He is in the Father, Son, and Spirit. Nothing is “solitary” and exists or subsists by itself. And it does not just apply to Jesus’ work, it has always been there because God’s Triune nature has always undergirded all of life. Think of Adam – one man’s disobedience was imputed upon all mankind. The effect of Adam’s disobedience was a imputing act which alienated all mankind from God. But God promised to send a second Adam in His Son, when He reprimanded the devil saying: “I will put enmity between you and the woman,” or as the Message Tr. Says, “I am declaring war between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers (referring to the Son of Man, Jesus). He’ll wound your head, you’ll wound his heel” (Gen.3:14-15; 1 Cor.15:22). God sealed the redemption of mankind by declaring His Son would come for and on behalf of mankind. In order to do that, He himself had to take on the form of man, and do battle in the wilderness with the devil, and defeat the devil once for all – for you and I.

Consider Abraham, because of his faith God blessed his family through Isaac and Jacob, and all Israel. You’ll notice that each time God stepped in and rescued Israel from their self-inflicting ways, He always fell back to Israel’s default position – what was that? The faith of one man and His promise to him – Abraham, by which Israel was made a chosen people. Long before God chose Israel, He chose Abraham. So, if the Israelites were implied recipients of Abraham’s faithfulness, there was an obvious implicit sense of duty to follow the patriarchal example, and likewise, be faithful. But history tells us otherwise. Their own self-will acts – which is attributive remember – nullified their place in the covenant. What’s our default position? It’s Jesus substitutionary “Triune Life” in place of the “solitary life” of self. It’s Jesus’ Triune heritage as part of the Triune Being of God, which is all the reason He is Savior of mankind. Eventually Israel and Judah went into captivity. But the promise to Abraham still stands – He is bringing many faithful today through a new covenant in Christ. Israel was reenacting this coming reality through their sacrificial system.

Man’s Free Will to Choose

Of course, this principle of imputation does not mean all peoples are locked-in and unable to be rescued from Adam’s ill-fated choice. We still have the freewill to investigate our traditions and norms, and if they are unsound and erroneous (as they are), we acknowledge our error and God is faithful to forgive us through His Son. Notice what God told the Israelites, ¹⁴ “But suppose this son has a son who sees all the sins his father commits, and though he sees them, he does not do such things… He will not die for his father’s sin; he will surely live.¹⁸ But his father will die for his own sin, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother and did what was wrong among his people.¹⁹ “Yet you ask, ‘Why does the son not share the guilt of his father?’ Since the son has done what is just and right and has been careful to keep all My decrees, he will surely live” (Ezek.18:14-19). So the Israelites understood this principle of substitution and implied consequence, asking, ‘Why does the son not share the guilt of his father?’ although not in a Triune sense, but the principle was applicable for God eternally existed in His Triunity. It was explained to them through Abraham’s faithfulness by the priesthood who taught the people.

Jesus’ Own “Triune Life”

On a human level Jesus, who had always existed from eternity within the Triune Being of God with the Father and the Spirit, tells us how our human response to the Trinitarian life this way, “By Myself I can do nothing;” – of course He can’t. How can He when He is indivisibly, inseparably, unified to the Father and the Spirit, as ONE Triune Being. Jesus told the people this about His teachings, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the One who sent Me. 17 Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether My teaching comes from God or whether I speak on My own. 18 Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about Him” (John 7:16-18). Further He said, “I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me” (John 5:30). He is showing us, as our example, how the “Triune Life” is lived. He said further, “The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority” – of course, it’s impossible for Jesus to speak “solitarily” in His Triune ONE-NESS with the Father and the Spirit. He goes on, “Rather, it is the Father, living in Me, who is doing His work. Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in Me?” (John 14:10). How can man live the “Triune Life” unless he is unified to Christ in a spiritual rebirth? Paul said we are seated with Christ in our spiritual resurrected state as He was when he resurrected and ascended to the Father in heaven, making possible the “Triune Life” in man. (Eph.2;6)

Jesus Raising the Dead, He Said, “I Am the Resurrection” (Wiki Commons)

So, even the words were not spoken out of a human “solitary” focus – they were measured and undergirded in the “TriuneLlife” He always had from eternity with the Father and the Spirit. He did not speak out of a self-centered, egotistical, conceited, self? He was human undoubtedly, and had all the pulls of our human nature to live the “solitary life.” Heb.4:15 tells us, “For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have One who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet He did not sin.” But His words were measured, spoken out of a life that’s interconnected with the Spirit who gave Him inspiration with the blessing of the Father.

Applies to You and Me – Paul’s Support of The Triune Principle

Here’s what we fail to realize, this principle of attribution and implied consequence, continues to undergird man’s relationship with other humans today. Man was not made to exist privately and in isolation in himself. Man was made with the potential to have God’s Triune likeness so he can live in Loving communion with his fellow humans, as God does in His Triunity. Yet, sadly, man turns this relationship into something he can utilize for his own “solitary,” narcissistic, and evil interests under the influence of the devil. He let’s his self-will take over, and greed, covetousness, extortion, and corruption, takes over and dominate his life. All his actions carries this imputative consequence. Notice how Paul supports this Triune implied/attributive/substitutionary consequence upon us individually as believers, “For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife (believing), and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy” (1Cor.7:14, emphasis added). Only through the “Triune Life” you have in Christ, is this made possible.

I like the way Paul states this Triune principle in the family context. It starts with your family where your “Triune Life” in Christ covers those around you, so they also are in good standing with God because of you. Though they may not be in direct union with God, you are that connection which brings grace to them. That’s what implied consequence means. That’s how the whole world is saved through Christ, though many may not know it yet.

Holy Spirit makes “Triune Life” Possible

We don’t often realize this, but the Holy Spirit is given to bring and make the “Triune Life” possible in man. This “Triune Life” cannot be lived with human effort and strength alone, though we have the potential to live it because man was made in God’s likeness. When left to ourselves, when we try to use human strength to follow God’s ways, we will always revert back to a “solitary” human focus to something that really requires the Spirit to do in us. Jesus made very plain that the Spirit is given to make the “Triune Life” possible in man: “But when He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. (Notice) He will not speak on His own; (He does not behave or act “solitarily”) He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come.  He will glorify Me because it is from Me that He will receive what He will make known to you.  All that belongs to the Father is Mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from Me what He will make known to you” (John 16:13-15, emphasis added).

Dove Symbol of the Holy Spirit & God’s Love (Wiki Commons)

This is where the “Triune Life” in Christ gives birth in a believer – the Holy Spirit enters and flows like a full-flowing river which flows unabated day and night and never dries up. Jesus said, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified” (John 7:37-39). Twenty four hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks in a year, He flows day and night never ceasing to supply the Love of God to make the “TRIUNE LIFE” possible in you and me. Where is the source of this river? From the mountain – the mountain represents the throne of God. The Spirit is given to man as a gift flowing perpetually through his life, and as He dwells in man, He is at the same time indivisibly and inseparably connected to the Triune God for He is God. So, as long as He lives in us, He brings the “Triune Life” of Jesus to us, and He takes us to the Father through the Son in heaven. That unity with the Triune Being of God which the Spirit makes possible in man, is the essence of the glorious “Triune Life” we have in Christ.

Knowing Christ Through the “Triune Life”

It’s not possible to live the Triune Life, as did Jesus when He walked a human, without the Holy Spirit’s personal presence in a believer. What did Jesus say that will make people recognize we are His disciples? He prayed the Father, 20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message, 21 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.” Notice, in His final prayer before He was taken to be crucified, His prayer was about the “Triune Life” – that man will be ONE with the Father through Christ, through the Spirit He will send on Pentecost. Then Jesus utters a very important proviso what the Triune Life will do to you and me, He said, “May they also be in Us (the Triune God) so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.” How would the world come to know the real Jesus? By each and every believer living the “Triune Life.”

Reaching Christ with a “Solitary” Focus?

We can try to reach people for Christ with a “solitary” focus, but in the end it will not amount to anything. It is impossible to know Christ except through the “Triune Life” man can have only in Christ, who is Himself Triune within the Godhead with the Father and the Spirit. This is God’s work, making known to mankind who He IS. He does it the only way He IS – living the “Triune Life,” through the Spirit who brings it to us.  Jesus prayed, “²² I have given them the glory that You gave Me, that they may be One as We are One— ²³ I in them and You in Me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.” What is the glory Christ received from the Father and gave the disciples? Yes, the “Triune Life” – “that they may be ONE as We are ONE.” That is the Trinitarian Life. Jesus here calls the “Triune Life,” a Life of Glory. Why, because that is where the source of glory originates – from the Triune Being of God! The “Triune Life” was unknown to man until Christ came and revealed the Father and the Holy Spirit to mankind.

Live The “Triune Life”

So, my question to us in this post is, do we believe as did Paul, that by becoming Christ’s, we are thereby obligated to live the “Triune Life?” There is no other way, for Jesus Himself is Triune. The life of Israel as a people taught us that faithfulness cannot be realized through human effort. Jesus brought the Spirit to empower us to make Abrahamic faith possible through the “Triune Life.” Before we say a word, before we act, do we stop and think, my words and my acts have implied consequence. We live the “Triune Life” in Christ so all we say and do have consequential implication, first within the “Triune Life” of God as it affects the Father, Son, and Spirit, and second with our fellow humans? (LUK.10;27) The Triune God is ONE because in their nature of LOVE they act as ONE, as we are likewise eternally joined to them through Christ. We can accept Jesus with a “solitary” focus, and we put Him in a box of our own making – but it won’t be the true Jesus because He is “Triune” with His Father and Spirit. Let our words be measured, and our acts be tampered in the Triune Love of God in Christ, in the power of the Spirit.

Do you believe in your heart that it is humanly impossible to live this “Triune Life” in Christ without the Holy Spirit? In this life and the hereafter, He is the only gift we will ever need from our Father. For from the Spirit who connects us to the Father through the Son, everything else concerning you and me as a person in His plans for us, flows into your life and mine. Make the Spirit personal to your own life, your true Friend, for He was given to be your Advocate and Helper in whatever situation in life. 

If you have any questions, please do not 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 blessing of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you today and give you strength for authentic Triune Living as a Bula man-river.*

Kiang                                                                                                                                                          (Your Servant in Christ)

* The “Bula man-river” 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 Bula man-river, go to my website www.bulamanriver.com where you can order a copy of my Book. Thank you for your support.

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise

Note: Any information obtained from this website that is used for publication should be acknowledged by citing the website address, date of acquisition and information pertinent to original authorship. For general guidelines regarding web citations see The Guide for Citing Electronic Information

Greeting Friends the world over!

Two Tenets of Beliefs

Let’s look at two tenets of Christian beliefs people hold to and examine them from the Triune perspective of God’s Love and nature. As my readers have known by now, examining whatever matter of discussion from the perspective of God’s Triune nature, has always been this ministry’s mainstay and founding principle.  Why is this important? Because when we lock-in to the “Triune Life” in Jesus, the stars become aligned, so to speak – your path is in harmony with the Trinitarian energy of God’s Love which undergirds all your actions. Your perception and evaluation about life will immediately flag out any deviation to the self-defeating “solitary” perspective of life, sponsored by fear. This is what the life filled with the Spirit as the Bula man-river* does to you. Let’s start.

Many believe a person remains unsaved until he makes a decision to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Mediator. Is this a valid claim, or are all humans in a saved condition regardless of his/her decision? Others believe God has chosen to save only some people and not others, so your decision does not matter. If you are ‘unchosen,’ that’s the end of the matter.  What‘s your take on such a claim? Let’s examine both these portraits of beliefs from the Trinitarian perspective. Both these beliefs stem from Calvinist and Arminian roots.

Rublev’s Famous Icon of the Trinity (Wiki Commons)

Jesus Answers

Jesus answers this age-old controversy by stating God is both inclusive and exclusive. What does that mean? It means Jesus saves all mankind regardless of anyone’s opinion or decision in the matter, that is, He is inclusive. Your decision does not save you, God’s decision does that. God does not forgive people in exchange for their repentance and belief. The Scripture proclaims forgiveness is an unconditional free gift that is entirely His grace. We have free will, but your free will, vital as it is to you and God, has no power to save. Redemption comes through a Savior under God’s Loving provision. Freewill merely agrees to what has already been done. Secondly, He is exclusive by selecting people for certain design and purpose. We all have purpose and dreams. The biggest secret about life is to discover it. (Rom.12:6) Most importantly, the inclusive and exclusive expressions are functionalities of grace within the Triune Being and nature of God. He is inclusive in that the Three Persons of the Trinity are eternally ONE God. He is exclusive in that the Three Persons each have their unique function within the Triune Being of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Inclusive & Exclusive

The oft-quoted passage from John 3:16 throws light into this topic – “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” There’s a duality that’s unmistakably revealed in this passage which we can miss. It expresses God’s inclusive and exclusive Love for man. The first part is all-inclusive where God expresses His love for all mankind, “the world.”  That’s to say, no one, not a single human, is left out. “The world” means the world – nothing more, and nothing less. Then, the second part expresses His love exclusively for “whoever believes.”  In the first part, God’s inclusive Love means He Loves and rescues man in his utter depraved and sinful state of being. This He has done in and through His Son – period. There are no ‘ifs,’ and ‘buts’ that stands to qualify what God has done absolutely in His Son for man. Man doesn’t make Christ his Savior by his decision. He has already saved man regardless of his choice in the matter. Jesus said, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to Myself.”  (John 12:32) “All” means all, no one is left out!

What Exclusivity is NOT!

From the foregoing we see that by the very fact of God’s Triune nature He is inclusive and will never leave anyone out whom He has made in His One, Unified, image. Only man can choose not to accept the embrace of God’s Love and leave himself out – not God in His all-embracing mercy and Love. God cannot deny Himself. We’ll do well to remember Jonah’s characteriszation of God’s disposition toward a sinful world, when he said, “I know that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.” (Jonah 4:2) Jonah just wanted Nineveh and its sinful inhabitants wiped off the earth, and never to see the light of God’s grace. Doesn’t that reflect the way we portray God through our belief systems? Their decision doesn’t matter, and if they relent and make good, it won’t make any difference? That we are different – we are special? We are exclusive? They are damned, we are not? Does that depict the God Jonah represents?

Jesus Became Human to INCLUDE All

After Jesus was crucified, resurrected, and ascended to the glory He always had from eternity in God, at that point, all of mankind was saved instantaneously and for all eternity within the Being of the Triune God. From then on, Jesus becomes the center of mankind’s redemption, continuous mediation and deliverance, and the true life-source of mankind. Once and for all, Jesus takes our humanity, makes us holy in Himself by resurrecting man vicariously from death and joined us eternally to the Triune Being of God. This is what believers affirm every time they partake of the Lord’s communion. The bread and wine represent our flesh and blood, our humanity, Jesus took upon Himself when He became human, so He can join man eternally with and in the Triune Life of God forever.  

Jesus at “Last Supper” with Disciples (By Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret, 1852-1929, Wiki Commons)

I’m not sure if our mind is capable of comprehending what that means for each of us – He has bound us to the holiest place of all existence – the very Being of the holy Triune union in God forever. (Eph.2:5-6) It is certain we require the faith of Jesus to take us there, for no human faith can climb this mountain. He took man from a life of solitude on a path to oblivion, to a life of immortality and into the Loving embrace of our God and Father. Even now, in this physical life, it’s through the gift of the Spirit, by whose function we are unceasingly fused to the Father and the Son on an unending eternal union. If that is not mind-boggling and life-altering, I don’t know what is!

What Exclusivity Means

Exclusivity has a negative undertone to most people. In God’s definition, exclusivity is defined by a gift a person receives from God – the gift of the Holy Spirit. It’s not about an exclusivity in the sense of aloofness and superiority over others. That’s not what the Spirit brings to man. The Spirit brings and makes the “Triune Life” possible in man. He seals and protects us from the “solitary life” of the devil. He is the basis of the “Triune” philosophy of Love toward God and humans. Therefore, exclusivity is defined by the Trinitarian collaborative union the person is called to undergird his life in the Spirit’s Love. That exclusive “Triune Life” is not a life of aloofness, but humility to the cause of unity within the Triunity of God Himself in Christ. It is the “solitary life” that is the basis of superiority as it will always been by its nature and expression in the devil himself. Some may say I am a universalist, which I’m not, but that’s a separate subject of discussion.

Man Belongs & is Accepted & Has No Excuse

In an earlier blog I said God envelopes all of creation, especially man, whom He created in His own image, in His all-embracing Love. (Ps.139) The act of giving us His Son, seals God’s all-inclusive Love for man for eternity which can never be reversed. Man cannot escape His Love, even if he wants to. He waits for prodigal man with open arms to step into a relationship where an intimate coexistence can be fostered through faith in His Son. Man, even in his state of depravity and sinfulness has no excuse but to feel a legitimate belonging to God. Humans are fully accepted as sons and daughters of God, the true Father of all mankind. He has accepted all by not sparing but sacrificing His Son for us. God stands ready to accept any person, no matter his color or station in life, to remake anyone and give him or her the privilege of being special and exclusive in His Fatherly embrace. Jesus said He did not come to save the righteous (‘exclusive’ – they are already saved), but sinners who are already saved but have yet to step into faith. (Luk.5:32; John 3:16-17)

So it’s not about your decision, it’s definitely never about being ‘unchosen,’ as the two tenets of beliefs propose. It’s about the all-embracing Triune Being of God and how, in His Loving nature, He responds inclusively and exclusively to man according to His divine will. He chose us individually before creation, that in our most depraved state of being, His Love will lift us up, and did it by willingly sacrificing His Son for you and me.  Why, because we are all special to Him both in an all-embracing inclusive and exclusive way to Him. You are the apple of His eye. (Ps.17:8) God our Father reveals His heart in the face of what man may want to believe otherwise, saying, “He wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1Tim.2:4).

Dove, Symbol of Holy Spirit (Pic: Wiki Commons)

In my Book, I used the metaphor of the Bula man-river* to depict the person who is inclusive through Christ’s universal redemptive work, and exclusive to a calling he has been given through the Spirit’s mediation in His life. (You can read about this “life-gift” God as prepared for each of us in my Book, “Bula man-river – The Miracle of Triune Living”)

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to write me in the space provided below, or email me on bulamanriver@gmail.com.

Blessing

Until my next post, may the blessing of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable inclusive, and exclusive Triune Love, be with you today and give you strength for authentic Triune living as a Bula man-river.*

Kiang                                                                                                                                                          (Your Servant in Christ) 

* The “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 Bula man-river, go to my website www.bulamanriver.com where you can order a copy of my Book. Thank you for your support.

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise

Note: Any information obtained from this website that is used for publication should be acknowledged by citing the website address, date of acquisition and information pertinent to original authorship. For general guidelines regarding web citations see The Guide for Citing Electronic Information

Greetings once more Friends everywhere!

Does God care about your physical well-being? Does God tell us how to live life that can bring on physical health? Let’s answer that question today.  This is not another physical diet dialogue. You can say it is a spiritual diet which profoundly affects our physical well-being. I begin with two passages of Scripture which should comfort us from the outset, and a third passage at the end of this article:-

“Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well” (3 John 1:2)

“…I am the Lord, your Healer” (Exo.15:26, ESV)

Three Drivers

Man is essentially a dualistic being. He lives in a parallel universe of existence – he is mortal, but is driven spiritually. Mortal man is driven spiritually in his mind. The human mind, made after God’s image, is what defines true life, not his mortal body. The physical body is the temple for the mind’s spiritual bidding. The physical existence of man is driven by three areas of life – three drivers, you can say. How we preside and manage these three drivers determines how the body responds to its environment, resulting in good or bad physical well-being. The three drivers are health, happiness, and wealth. (Matt.4) Health relates to physical sustenance of the body that’s energized by food and drink. Happiness relates to the safety and security a person enjoys from uncertainties and worries. And, wealth relates to the material things in his life which gives comfort and convenience. The secret, (everyone loves a secret), is to harmonize the two universes of the physical and spiritual into one life and one expression. Sickness and disease enter when these two universes are set on divergent paths, as they relate to these three drivers of life.

                 

3 Drivers: Sustenance/Health             Happiness/Security                Wealth/Comfort      

“Triune Life”

These three areas of life are what man give his full and undivided attention. There’s nothing wrong with them essentially, for they are what drives man to fulfill his “dominion mandate” given him by his Creator in the beginning. (Gen.1:26-28) Man has always been given two ways as to how to give these three drivers attention. In the beginning, God showed man how. He said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion…” (Gen.1:26)  From the outset of man’s existence on this earth, the Creator revealed to man he is to dominate the earth in a certain way – in the “Triune” fashion.  This is what I have called the “Triune likeness” mandate in my book. God said “Let US…” revealing His Triunity, which Jesus later made known is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Matt.28:19; John 14:26; 1 Pet.1:2) The Hebrew word “Elohim” for God is in the plural. God is Trinitarian in His nature. (You can read about the three Genesis mandates in my Book, “Bula man-river – The Miracle of Triune Living.”)

“Solitary Life”

Conversely, man may choose to manage these three drivers in a “solitary” manner in himself, without recourse to the “Triune mandate” he was given. When that happens, he has deviated from the very Triune energy which fittingly connects him to his Creator and his God-given dominion over this earth in these three areas. What’s the end-result of the “solitary life?” He suffers bodily in his physical well-being. Jesus said, “It is not on bread alone that man is to live; (physical universe) there is life for him in all the words which proceed from the mouth of God” (spiritual universe) (Matt. 4:4, TCNT/Knox emphasis added). The inward spiritual life influences the quality of life that exists outwardly.

God told Adam, “You shall surely die,” if he ate of the fruit of good and evil which leads to the “solitary life.” Adam became the ‘living dead’ so to speak. But worst still, man suffers spiritually, for his physical condition is a reflection of his spiritual death. He inhabits a parallel universe. Man was made an inter-connected being to have a Triune existence with his Maker. It’s in his DNA. When he lives the “solitary life” he disconnects himself from the “Triune Life” of God. He lives in conflict to the Triune energy (Love) which envelopes and energizes the whole universe, and this earth which he inhabits, and he suffers spiritually and physically. (Read my Blog titled “Can Man Live Without God? – God’s Spiritual Gravity of Love” posted 8/14/2013)

Creation of Adam by Michelangelo. Man Made After God’s own Likeness (Wiki Commons)

Man is physical, and his natural and primary motivation will always be his physical survival. So, he applies the three drivers which come naturally to him without any need for stimuli. He has to eat and drink to survive bodily (health); he seeks security for shelter (happiness); and he has materialistic desires for comfort and convenience (wealth). When he seeks them in a “solitary” mindset, he disengages himself from the very “Triune” energy of the Spirit. The Triune energy from the Spirit is what endows him to properly administer his dominion of this earth and all the resources in it. He leads man and brings him the very things he pursue in life which will support his spiritual and physical well-being.

Care!

What does the “solitary life” do to a person? He becomes self-centered, then, covetousness and greed takes over. And before long, the most potent of all causes of sickness and disease sets in – care! The “solitary life” is always dominated by undue, hurtful, care. Damaging care is the harbinger of all sickness and disease in the world today. It breeds anxiety and fear, which in turn negatively affects the body’s cells which brings on harm and disease. Yet, we are told of a life that’s free from care, “be careful about nothing.” Instead, we are told make our hearts known to God, believe and be thankful, and His peace will reign in our lives. In place of care, peace and joy. (Phil. 4:6-7, emphasis added). Through care a person’s focus on life is centered inwardly on himself, and the outward, collaborative, Triune Life which brings Love and peace is totally non-existent. Everything is seen through the lens of the ‘self’ – his family, his career, his home, his community, his country. The Triune Life is about achieving everything we desire in life with Love as the driver, not fear and care. Love, (God is Love) is the foundation upon which our physical and spiritual well-being is built.

Man The Temple

Man naturally and automatically fall back to seek these three areas of life because our human nature have these human survival inclinations. So the application of the “Triune” principles of living as it relates to these three drivers is a discipline that requires more than human effort. The devil realizes this and deceives man to apply a “solitary” focus in these areas of life. So man has to constantly exercise his mind to the Triune principles. Man’s mortal body becomes the temple of the Spirit, and in His Loving condition, the three drivers are brought under the aegis of the Triune Life.

Man’s Example

As believing Christians, we all look to Christ for examples for living. (Rom.8:29; 1 Cor.11:1) Jesus’ example for us in these three areas of life was made plain after Jesus was baptized in the Jordan. Now filled with the Spirit, He was led into the empty wilderness to face the archenemy of man, the devil. Jesus was representing all mankind in this epic duel, in Triune collaboration with the Father. Take a guess what weapons the enemy used to try to defeat Jesus and man? Yes, these very three areas of life which drives man – health, happiness, and wealth. The account is found in Matthew 4:1-11. (You can read about the significance of this duel where Jesus defeated the devil in my Book, “Bula man-river – The Miracle of Triune Living,” Pg.148-152) Jesus defeated the devil at his game. It’s a game he played on Adam, and continues to employ on man today, as he did with Jesus. He plays to destroy man physically and spiritually. The enemy destroys man’s physical well-being by promoting and causing the vicious cycle of corroding care and its destructive aftermath to dominate a person’s life.

Man, Given the Human Mind to Communicate With His Creator (Pic: Wiki Commons)

The Testings/Temptations

1> When it came to our physical sustenance (health), Jesus brushed off the enemy’s ploy, saying, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matt.4:3-4). 2> When it came to happiness, the enemy deviously tried to get Jesus to use the promises of security as a bargaining chip with God. We tempt God, when we think His grace (as expressed in His promises) as commodity to be traded. (V.5-7) 3> Today, as it was in Jesus’ day, wealth is defined mainly by money. The enemy offered Jesus all the worldly wealth if He would bow to him, but Jesus rebuked the devil saying no one can worship both God and wealth (Matt.8-10; 6:24). We prostrate before and serve God alone.The devil failed on all three counts. The devil tempts us at the point of our material ambitions. Wrapped in this momentous duel is the answer to man’s well-being physically and spiritually, and man’s freedom from the stress and care that kills daily.

Choosing Love Over Fear

Though we triumph over the enemy vicariously through Jesus’ victory in these three areas of life, the devil does not leave us alone, for he knows we are individuals with free minds. It was through free will that he deceived Adam, and it will be through our free will that he tries to do the same to us. But we need not fear, for with free will we can choose and make Jesus’ victory our own which the Spirit brings to us, as he did with the fully human Jesus in the wilderness. The Spirit comes to us as a full-flowing river whose power never subsides to conquer and vanquish the enemy at his own game. (John 7:38-39) This is God’s work in us, not ours – and yet is now ours by and in the Faith of Christ: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal.2:20). Our “solitary life” is given up for dead for a life of faith. The faith of Jesus is what constitutes life now. And if it is Jesus who lives in us, then the life we live is most assuredly the “Triune Life” of God, for Jesus is Triune God with the Father and the Spirit.

We ought to remember that these three drivers were given to man for his good in his dominion upon this earth carried out in the Triune expression. But the devil now deviously utilizes these drivers to deceive man with a “solitary” focus, beginning with Adam. If in the Spirit, we are vigilant to live the “Triune Life” in place of the “solitary life” in the application of these three drivers, we will have come a long way to getting back to physical well-being, that’s undergirded by a spiritual wellness in Jesus.

Our Thoughts Define The Life We Live

Paul said, “The weapons we fight with are not weapons of the world. On the contrary, we have divine power to cast down imaginations [demolish evil thoughts and arguments] and every pretension [posturing thought] that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we bring captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:4-6 emphasis added). Our free will is exercised in our minds through our thoughts about how we want to live – whether the “solitary life” in the self that’s influenced by the devil, or the “Triune Life” in Christ that’s led in the power of the Spirit. The choice is for each of us to make.

The devil is the instigator of all physical sickness and diseases through spiritual means  and methods of deception by means of a “solitary” focus in man. (2 Cor.11:14) Jesus said it must be of the Spirit if we are to save the flesh. (John 6:63) We come back to this dual life I spoke of earlier – the physical life that’s driven by the spiritual life. The spiritual life is either the “solitary life” driven by fear, or the “Triune Life” driven by Love. Many speak of coming out of a life of fear, but fail to offer the fitting answer to overcoming it  through the “Triune Life” in Jesus. Jesus’ fast in the wilderness tells us that the true Gospel of Jesus demands an inverted priority where the “Triune Life” outweighs and regulates the “natural” appetite in these three areas of life. It begs the question as to the authenticity of television evangelism of promoting the ‘prosperity gospel.’ It stands in antithesis to the Gospel. The Gospel requires us to be disrobed of our “solitary life” costume and be robed in the “unnatural” (spiritual) garb of Jesus Himself. (Gal.3:27) Jesus taught us this principle when He took on His human body and was subject to every human weakness as we are and overcame in the power of the Spirit to live the “Triune Life” as a human. (Heb. 4:15).

Purpose & Dream-Life

I said in my Book that when we live the Triune Life, the Spirit will lead us to God’s purpose for us upon this earth. We will live our dream-life. I come back to what I said earlier that the two universes of physical and spiritual life in man has to proceed in harmony, and the way this is done is through our purpose, calling, and life-gift. I quote from a relevant portion of my Book: “A person can have authentic joy if he is living the dream life of a Bula man-river* purposed by God. Only God can give us the dream-life we all desire to live. He is the One who created us for it and affirms this: “Then joy will accompany them in their toil [dream-life] God has given all the days of their life…” (Eccl. 8:15). Yes, though we toil, it is the Lord who is orchestrating our purpose, and that’s why we do it with joy (Prov. 10:22). Our toil becomes something joyful because we are toiling in our field of dreams, and it reverberates positively with the identity in our very DNA. Indeed, how can we know joy without the ‘pain’ of toiling in our dreams? Before we find freedom in our dreams, we toil in freeing them from bondage. For no freedom is appreciated without bondage. Living with purpose and faith brings joy to the heart, and our toil comes easy, without damaging stress. There is a sense of purpose, and that brings calmness and peace and joy. That translates to healthy cells in your body and good health. People who hurry, worry! Those who worry live in a competitive and controlling mode always trying to get ahead of others. We live in the creative and loving mode. We are to live healthy, vibrant, and purposeful lives, not unhealthy, sickly, and aimless lives.” (“Bula man-river – The Miracle of Triune Living,” Pg.200)

Living Life with A Purpose (Pic: Wiki Commons)

I go on to say, “We don’t have to be medical experts to agree with what the Bible states clearly and precisely. I believe the most potent cause for good health and powerful prevention of sickness and disease is to have a merry heart – the joy that sings in our hearts even when things “go wrong” or when our plans don’t work out as we “expect” (James 1:2). I’m not saying we don’t have disappointments in life. However, at some point, preferably sooner rather than later, we have to gather ourselves together and follow the best course of action for our wellbeing. The Psalmist declares the underpinning joy of the “Bula” man-river,* “You make known to me the path of life, You fill me with the joy of your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand” (Ps. 16:11, NKJV). The moment we forget our place of abundance as Bula man-rivers,* our minds play tricks on us and we focus our attention on fear and pessimism rather than joy and optimism. Joy leaves our hearts and anxiety takes over. Instead, what may seem like going wrong is in reality working together for our good in our Maker’s mind (Rom. 8:28-29; 2 Tim. 1:9).”

“Life That’s Truly Life”

In other words, true health, happiness, and riches – “the life that is truly life” (1 Tim.6:19), does not come because we seek them absolutely, but it is given as an outgrowth from, an implied consequence of, God’s purpose and calling for your life on this earth. So, health, happiness, and wealth are ‘incidents’ of your gift and dream-life – they are not end in themselves. How do you find this gift? It’s in the Spirit, who is the first gift from Jesus and the Father, from which we discover our dream-life. (John 16:13-15) It’s a life of joy, not care and worry. This life brings you unbound joy that’s out of this world, for now your life is lived in harmony with the Triune God. When this happens, I call this living the “Triune Life.” This is the life of the Bula man-river.*

Physical Wellness Through Diet & Exercise

The spiritual diet and exercise we covered in this post has its physical counterpart. What I have said in no way precludes physical diet and exercise necessary for bodily health. There are numerous books covering this physical aspect of wellness. As I quoted from sources in my Book, 87% of our physical well-being comes from our spiritual diet and exercise, and 13% has to do with physical diet and exercise. If 100% of our physical efforts will produce only 13% of our total bodily well-being, it begs the question, what are we doing about the remaining 87% which requires spiritual input? I said life is expressed in two universes of the spiritual and the physical. In order for a total holistic wellness to breakthrough, the two has to exist in harmony. (You may get more information from my Book, “Bula man-river – The Miracle of Triune Living.”)

            

   Eating Healthy and Exercising Regularly (Pics: Wiki Commons)

Final Word

A word about healing. We all carry baggage, both physical and spiritual. This arises mainly because the spiritual and the physical have existed in contradiction and disharmony. Others may be genetic. The physical baggage of sickness and ailments Jesus will miraculously take away as God’s way of remaking us into His people. Jesus performed miracles and healed the people of all kinds of diseases and sicknesses, and the people saw how Jesus recreated their lives. (Acts 10:38) Jesus mission is to recreate lives, both spiritual and physical, so we can live the purpose He has for us on this earth.

So yes, more than we will ever realize, God takes interest in our physical well-being. Like a shepherd of His people, Jesus leaves the ninety nine, and seeks out the one who is left behind. His compassion and mercy is seen plainly when He came and healed all manner of diseases and sicknesses we see in the Gospels. It is said that the Gospels does not fully disclose all His miraculous healing acts in recreating people’s lives from various physical conditions. What we read in the Gospels are at best highlights. (John 21:25) “When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed ALL the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.” (Matt.8:16-17)

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to write me in the space provided below, or email me on bulamanriver@gmail.com.

Blessings

Until my next post, may the blessing of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you today and give you healing and strength in your body for authentic Triune living as a Bula man-river.*

Kiang                                                                                                                                                          (Your Servant in Christ) 

* The “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 Bula man-river, go to my website www.bulamanriver.com where you can order a copy of my Book.  Thank you for your support.

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise

Note: Any information obtained from this website that is used for publication should be acknowledged by citing the website address, date of acquisition and information pertinent to original authorship. For general guidelines regarding web citations see The Guide for Citing Electronic Information

Greetings once more from sunny McKinney in Texas.

In this post, I would like to announce an added feature I will introduce into my Blog and Web Site. It’s a book store called “Bulamanriver Trinitarian Book Center.” In it, you will find books and resources helpful to the Trinitarian Life I have spoken extensively about in my Blog posts.

Bulamanriver Trinitarian Ministry

Purpose of the Book Store: I would like to add this proviso to the purpose and founding principle of the book store. For purpose of transparency, I mention this proviso from the outset, so nothing adversarial may be said about my motive in this matter. Each sale will earn a commission payable to the Bulamanriver Trinitarian Ministry. The proceeds will be used for the sole purpose of promoting the Trinitarian Life to all. The ministry is inter-church focused, as I’m sure we see the common thread and purpose in the principle of participatory union with a God who is Himself Triune and participatory in His loving nature. There is no fragmentation in our acceptance of that message, but it is unifying. Proceeds from this book center will be used to promote further this Trinitarian ministry.

So, this ministry, as we have always espoused, will be dedicated to doing things the Trinitarian way, so people will see we are transparent in practicing what we preach about God and His Loving nature. The last thing on my mind is to see anything done that’s disingenuous to the Trinitarian principle we espouse. So, this project, and all we will do, is and will be an incubator for the experiment and nurture of the Trinitarian Life to all who choose to participate. It is not “solitary” and exclusive, but “Triune” and inclusive. It is not centered on self, but on Christ – in whom, we have new life and centered on the new self in Him. It is hoped, in this unassuming way, we can experiment, experience and see the practical manifestation of God’s Triune Love in motion. Of course, we know all of life is an open field for the Triune Life to be lived and articulated.

The book store is only the beginning. At a future stage, we will take this incubatory process to another level. In the development of the Bulamanriver Trinitarian Ministry, I will be asking for assistance in kind, and financial, intellectual, and manpower support, to start a project in the idyllic islands of Fiji. Again, I ask for engagement in an open, Loving, participatory spirit and gesture. The project’s focus will be to build a retreat with the aim of promoting the “Triiune Life” in people. It will be a place for short-stay retreats, where people will come and get soaked into the Trinitarian values and practice, and return with energized mindset to face the challenges of life in true Triune mold. Most of all, to use their gifts to promote this awe-inspiring Gospel to their neighbors.

My hope is that readers will participate in the establishment of this project from scratch in a true participatory and Triune fashion. This bears repeating so no one is in doubt as to the purpose and mission behind it. It will be something anyone can be proudly part of, and be at the ground level of this kind of unique collaborative undertaking. More of the details at a later date when we are ready to take the first baby steps. Participation and transparency, the button words for God’s Triune Love, will be key.

For now, I appreciate your support of this fledgling Ministry through the purchase of books advertised in the “Bulamanriver Trinitarian Book Center.” Every purchase through the Book Center, you are participating and contributing to this Trinitarian Ministry to further man’s understanding of this beautiful understanding and how it is to be lived, not just believed. If there are any book titles that interest you, I would be more than happy to get it listed, to help in this ministry.

My hope is you will accept my invitation in a participatory climate as God is participatory with us in His Love. This book store will come online soon.

Books

A word about the book store. The book store will feature authors whose work on the subject of the Triune nature God have contributed much to our enlightenment of this all-important subject of understanding. My book and blog posts have been attempts to expound on God’s Tri-Personal Being in layman’s terms. I realize this can be at the expense of definition and semantics for this most vital topic. I do apologize for that, and hope that by providing a book store with relevant resources, we can read books by authors such as Thomas F. Torrance, and others, for elucidation and discussion and how this “Triune Life” can be brought to mainstream Christian life. My understanding is owed in no small part to their edifying work. For that I’m deeply grateful to them, and to God for their gifts in articulating this subject.

Be that as it may, I must say, my book and blogs have focused on the practical application of this awe-inspiring truth of the nature of the Triune God, and interaction with His equally Triune Love, in the life of the believer. Let’s be clear, the Triune Life is not such a knotty matter that we need a store house of books to understand it. That’s not my message in the establishment of the book store. It’s not some mystical secret that only the wise and powerful are privileged to have. Jesus came, so from the least to the greatest, can understand and live this “Triune Life” in Him through the power of the Spirit. The “Triune Life” is as simple as that. Books are intended to clear the cobwebs in our understanding of the nature of God. It is understood to its fullest, when it is articulated in its practical application in the way we live with and in the “Triune Life” of God, through Christ and by the power of the Spirit.

The metaphor of the Bula man-river I expound in my book, “Bula man-river – The Miracle of Triune Living,” is to explain this belief in the practical, day-to-day life of the believer. Basically, living the “Triune Life” spontaneously preconditions us to a life of miraculous manifestation, hence, in my book, I begin with my own miracle encounter with Jesus Christ. As the saying goes, you cannot plow a field by turning it over in your mind, but by taking the important second step of putting your hands to the plow. And Jesus said, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God” (Luk.9:62). You can’t put God’s Kingdom off by debating it. In other words, what Jesus is saying is, “Seize the day – apply the principles of Triune Living!” My hope is, together, we will travel on this journey into the miraculous.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to write me in the space provided below, or email me on bulamanriver@gmail.com.

Blessings

Until my next post, may the blessing of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you today and give you strength for authentic Triune living as a Bula man-river.*

Kiang                                                                                                                                                          (Your Servant in Christ) 

* The “Bula man-river” 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 Bula man-river, go to my website www.bulamanriver.com where you can order a copy of my Book.  Thank you for your support.

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise

Note: Any information obtained from this website that is used for publication should be acknowledged by citing the website address, date of acquisition and information pertinent to original authorship. For general guidelines regarding web citations see The Guide for Citing Electronic Information

Greetings once more, friends all over the world!

The Trinitarian Mindset

The most basic and pivotal knowledge man can have is to understand God is Trinitarian. Why is that? Because it is the basis for which God spontaneously and organically connects Himself to man through His Son, and in the power of the Spirit, from man back to God. If God was “solitary” rather than “Trinitarian,” then we have no way of explaining Jesus origin from the Being of God. Neither do we have a way of explaining man’s union with God, for Jesus is the Way to the Triune God. (John 14:6-7; 16:13) Man would be left to his own devices, to superstition, and forsaken and lost without the Spirit who unifies us to the Father through the Son. But it’s God’s interconnected Triune Being, inhabiting eternity and flowing in outgoing Love, that moved God to create mankind, and chose to relate with humans as His children in Love, as He always has in His own Triune Being. Ultimately, man is to co-exist in His Trinitarian likeness for all eternity. (Gen.1:26-27)

Rublev’s Famous Icon of The Holy Trinity (Wiki Commons)

“Solitary” Vs “Triune”

If God was “solitary” in nature and not “Triune,” He would not be bothered about man. He would be inward and have lived well in solitude. But there is no such God. The God we know in Christ reveals Himself to us emphatically as, “God is Love.” Therefore He is relational and gregariously outgoing in His “Triunity.” (1 John 4:8) All of God’s creation reflects a God who is Triune, and His interconnected Trinitarian culture undergirds all of life. We see a universe and world that exist out of the pouring forth of Loving mercy rooted in God’s unified Being.

Trinitarian LOVE

In this post, I’ll expand on an aspect from my previous editorial about God’s Love more than we have ever realized or imagined. I hope it will help you appreciate more the intimate extension of God’s Loving hands in your life. His Love wraps and caresses all living things and man whom He has made in His likeness. In the divine Triunity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God inhabits eternity in their Love for each another. Through Jesus, God extends and surrounds you in the same Love. In your journey like a true Bulamanriver,* with the Spirit joining you to the eternal Love-Being of God, you will come to the place whose only purpose is like Christ’s own purpose when He walked this earth, to owe no one anything but the debt of Love. (Rom.13:8; Acts 10:38)

Physical Gravity & Spiritual Gravity

Think of the force of gravity in our physical environment, as the counterpart to God’s Love as the gravitational energy in His spiritual environment (eternity). In other words, what gravity is to our physical realm, Love is to our spiritual environment. Naturally, all our acts in our physical environment has to compensate for our physical gravity. That is what happens as we grow up, we unconsciously adjust to the gravitational force until we live with it intuitively. We take gravity for granted. All our actions also answer to another, equally real gravitational force – the spiritual gravity of Love. We may not realize this, just as we’re not ‘aware’ of our physical gravity, but it does answer to, and affect all our actions – more real than we care to know or admit. Why, because the spiritual gravitational force of Love inhabits eternity, including man’s actions. Our physical gravity inhabits just our physical earthly sphere. God’s spiritual Love-gravity inhabits eternity and tells us how God has always been close to us, and has never left us, since creation. Since God is omniscient, He fills all of time and space, and His presence surrounds us as the air we breathe. (Psa.139:1-18; Job 33:4; John 20:22)

Implied Consequence

Everything, including man’s behavior has this implied gravitational consequence which connects with everything around him. That’s a Trinitarian principle. (See my earlier blog, titled, “The One-man Principle of Implied Consequence,” goto: http://bulamanriver.net/?p=1076). True to the proverb, ‘no man is an island’ we can’t get away from this interconnected Love of God which governs and undergirds all creation. When we are up on a high elevation, we instinctively look for something to hold onto, we dare not challenge gravity. We have this reflexive appreciation of what gravity is capable of doing to us. We can seriously injure ourselves in a fall. He Loves us beyond our knowing. And every evil act against Love, like defying the force of physical gravity bounces back, boomerang-like, to hurt us. By the same token, when we accept His Love, we live uplifitng and abundant lives. Love is the place of abundance and well-being.

This is identical to the spiritual gravity of Love, when evildoers break the spiritual Love-gravity it hurts them, just as surely as breaking physical gravity hurts anyone who disobeys it. We see this happening all over the world today before our very eyes. This spiritual gravity (Love) is real. It’s not a mere empty analogy. Everything we do is connected and carries implied and conditional (good or evil) consequences and their respective spin-off values. All the suffering, pain, sorrows, man’s inhumanity to man, we witness in the world today is the result of man defying the spiritual gravity of God’s Love which we all inhabit. If you like, we’re all inhabitants of God’s country called Love, and governed by its laws. The Bible calls this sphere God’s Kingdom, of which we are all citizens. (Phi.3:20; John 14:2) Evil is confined to this earth and nowhere else in the universe because of man’s fall to evil at the hands of the devil. (Gen.3) But more so Love, for Love exists in all of space and time and the universe, and is the spiritual gravitational force governing human relationships. Love is the Triune template of the Tri-Personal God in which all of life derives its existence.

The Difference

Here’s the difference, we don’t learn to live within Love’s spiritual gravity, as we do within our physical gravity, because the spiritual gravitational effect (Love) does not immediately penalize us like physical gravity. The Bible tells us this, “When evil people are not punished right away, (like physical gravity) it makes others want to do evil, too.” (Eccl.8:11, emphasis added) You see, all our acts are interrelated like God in His Triunity, is interconnected and ONE as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. On the physical level, we learn very quickly that we need a chair to break our fall when we sit, but we fail to equate breaking Love’s spiritual gravity with the same presence of mind and innate urgency. So, we’re frivolous when it comes to evil, let alone investigate its causal outcome. Thus, we suffer all its problematic consequences of living a vicious life in this meaningless bubble. (Eccl.1:2) Why, because man does not understand what Love truly IS. It is not defined by our “solitary” human narrative of it.

The only reality in life is God’s Triune Love, and everything else is fleeting. Evil, like a meaningless bubble, pops and disappears in God’s sphere of Love. His Love surrounds and caresses us, and all we have to do is embrace Him. (You can read more on this aspect of God’s Love in my Book, “Bula man-river – The Miracle of Triune Living. See the links above on how to obtain a copy).

God’s Love is Real Like Physical Gravity Which Governs Human Relationships (Pic: Wiki Commons)

Understanding Love

Love is the spindle from which all of life rotates, and take its cue. We fail to understand this difference – if we are observant of what’s happening in the world around us, especially in human relations, we’ll see that this spiritual gravity is more real than the physical one. Both are real, both unseen. One is physical, the other is spiritual. Like physical gravity, Love is no respecter of persons. In a manner of speaking, you are your own judge. Your own actions, your heart, will be the judge of your life. That’s why people feel guilt when they do wrong, they have judged themselves. We ought not to judge anyone. (Matt.7:1-5) I judge no one, my calling, as it ought to be with every other human, is to owe no man anything except the debt of Love (Rom.13:8) On the other hand, placing blame on others does not work. To blame is like taking a fall due to your own misjudgment, then blaming someone pushed you over when there’s no one around but you. It’s all a question of understanding the reality of physical and spiritual gravity which govern our actions.

We Live in a Parallel Universe

If we don’t believe this parallel reality – our parallel physical/spiritual universe, if you like – it does not alter the fact it’s at work despite our opinion in the matter. It’s like insisting the world is flat, when our consciousness has yet to arrive at the reality of how our planet exist. We have come to survive ‘unawares’ in the universe of our physical gravity, why do we think it untenable we’re also living ‘unawares’ in our parallel spiritual gravity and universe. (You can read more on this aspect of God’s Love in my Book, “Bula man-river – The Miracle of Triune Living.” See the links above on how to obtain a copy).

Love Always Comes Through

But how can we Love as God does in His Triunity, when, in Adam we stand condemned in our fallen, depraved, state of being. The law says, “The one who sins is the one who shall die.” (Ezek. 18:20) All have sinned. (Rom.3:23) All will be called to give account of their lives before God. (Rom.14:12) And right here we see our magnificent God and Father who inhabits eternity in His Love, comes through for us. He cannot and will not leave man to his fate. Why, Because we are inhabiting His universe of Love. Because He is Love, and inhabits eternity in His Triune Being of Love. In His Love, He gives us His Son to atone for our evil and wicked ways, so we don’t have to stand condemned and judged. In place of our fallen and depraved state of being, He gives us Himself in the Spirit to live life in a Loving and abundant state of being. All our guilt is removed, and we’re given a new birth in His Love (Spirit) to lead and change us forever. (2 Cor.5:1-5)  “For God so Loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) Eternal life will be given to any whose life will be composed of Love as God IS. This is how we learn to live like we owe each other nothing but the debt of Love in the Spirit’s power.

Our Human Narrative of Love is Not God’s Love (Wiki Commons)

Love Will Always Be A ‘Mind Thing’

God’s spiritual gravity, God’s Love, is only made effective through the process of the mind, human thoughts, thought forms, and decision-making and actions in good deeds. The Bible says, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph.2:10). That’s the paramount difference between these two gravitational forces. One is innate, physical, and mindless. The other requires the mind and our decision-making process to live within Love’s gravitational force. What does that tell us? It tells us first and foremost, Love is the continuous exercise of the mind of God. God, as the Father, Son, and Spirit, are not androids who thoughtlessly live and behave like machines. They have minds, and they have eternally decided to be ONE in their Triunity, for “God is Love” (1 John 4:8). When God tells man “Owe no man anything except the debt to Love,” it is only by the continuous exercise of our minds can we live within Love’s gravity. (Rom.13:8, KJV) Love is a ‘mind thing.’ It’s in the human mind that the Spirit comes to us so we can be connected to His eternal Being of Love. (Rom.5:5) It is by and through the Spirit that we are guaranteed our adoption in eternity and God’s Loving presence. (Eph. 1:13-14; 2 Cor. 1:21-22) That is why, among all God’s creation, only humans have minds, because humans are made in God’s own image with the potential to inherit eternity in His Love.

At creation, God or Love ‘decided’ and said, “Let US make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness, and let them have dominion…” (Gen.1:26-27). THEY made us to have minds so we can Love as THEY do in THEIR Triunity. The Hebrew “Elohim” is God in the plural. He wants this so much for us that He said, “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13). The Spirit is the divine deposit and God’s guarantee of man’s immortality in His eternal Kingdom of Love. If I were to surmise life in one word, it would be: life is all about making choices. Love is about making the choice to live within Love’s gravitational force and influence in the Spirit. It is an exercise of the mind which produces all things good. (1 Cor.13; Acts 10:38) We are told to embrace God and His Love in our minds and our thoughts. (2 Cor.10:5) Our earth is the only place in the universe where Love can be birthed, lived, and exercised, because humans are made with God’s mind with the capacity to Love. We can learn to make the choice to Love as God does in His Triunity. Sadly, evil too is birthed in the mind, but evil exists in a bubble under God’s sanction, which, in His divine purpose and time will be brought to nothing. Jesus made this plain in His parable of the weeds. ‘Weeds’ is metaphor for evil and sin will be removed forever according to God’s sovereignty and timetable. (Isa.45:7; Rev.21:1-7; Matt.13:24-30)

The Entire Creation and Life Is Sustained In His Love (Wiki Commons)

God Fills Eternity In His Love

You see, God fills all of existence in His Love, where there’s no room for evil to take hold, let alone exist. The devil wants us to think otherwise by getting more people to follow his evil ways and thereby obscure His Love. But evil can’t be sustained on an ongoing basis, for it has its own seed of self-destruction. God fills all time, space, and eternity in His Triune existence. That is why Jesus, in His eternal deity in the Triune Being of God, bore the fullness of our humanity in Himself, taking on His human form through Mary. He lived a perfect, sinless and Loving life for us, and in so doing, He embraced humanity’s eternity in Himself when He was crucified, resurrected, and ascended to heaven. He unified man in His divine/human Self with the Triune God for eternity in Love. To this very moment, Jesus continues to mediate on man’s behalf through His glorified humanity, for our eternal inheritance. Hence, we read Paul saying, “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in Love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the Love of Christ, and to know this Love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen! ” (Eph.3:18-21, emphasis added).

Yes, this Love, in all its height, depth, length and breadth, expresses God’s fullness which encompasses all of life and eternity where no evil can enter. (Rev.21:8) “Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all” (1 Chron.29:11). This tells us simply that God inhabits all of space and time (eternity) in His Love. The prophet Daniel speaks of man’s eternal future in God’s presence in this way, “Those who are wise will shine as bright as the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever (eternity)” (Dan.12:3). Yes, God created mankind to be His very children He can Love into eternity.

I hope you have found this post helpful. My sincerest wish is that we can come to see God who encompasses eternity in His holy Love and goodness, is the very essence of Himself with which He seeks and desires to embrace humanity and all creation. With that end in mind, let us never cease to be grateful in our hearts for the Father, Jesus, and the Spirit, ONE God, who is constantly at work in us, and will never leave or fail us in Their Love.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to write me in the space provided below, or email me on bulamanriver@gmail.com.

Blessing

Until my next post, may the blessing of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you today and give you strength for authentic Triune living as a Bula man-river.* I Love you all in the only way I know best and how – by the Love of Christ, who died and saved me, and now eternally flows in me through the power of the Spirit as the Bula man-river.*

Kiang                                                                                                                                                          (Your Servant in Christ) 

* The “Bula man-river” 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 Bula man-river, go to my website www.bulamanriver.com where you can order a copy of my Book. Thank you for your support.

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise

Note: Any information obtained from this website that is used for publication should be acknowledged by citing the website address, date of acquisition and information pertinent to original authorship. For general guidelines regarding web citations see The Guide for Citing Electronic Information .

Greetings once more, Friends everywhere!

I sincerely hope my last post have made clear the meaning of the metaphor I use in the title of my Book, “Bula man-river.” I also hope you can see yourself as an authentic Christian believer through the union you have with the Triune God, which, as a Bula man-river, is the very ground where you make your stand in life.

In this post, I hope to answer the question of good and evil in the world, how they affect us personally, and our understanding of them. It is my hope we will come to see that God, who encompasses eternity in His holy Love and goodness, is the very essence of Himself with which He desires to embrace humanity and all creation. With that end in mind, let’s begin. Think about this quote which a mother gave her incarcerated son,

                “A lie will die, but truth never dies, but lives forever”

Spoken glibly you might say, but its far-reaching hands extends out to touch us all without fail. A lie has its beginning in evil, while truth is centered in Love. Evil doers are living a lie that will die, while those who live by Love will shine as the stars in the heavens for all eternity. The antithesis of Love is evil. This tells us that knowledge can be categorized into two broad way of life – Love and evil! The knowledge that emanates from Love is eternal, while knowledge which stems from evil is temporary and will die. Man is given a mind with the abilities to choose which way to follow. The Bible tells us God is Love and Truth. (1 John 4:8; John 14:6) The Bible also tells us that Satan is the father of lies and evil. (John 8:44) God inhabits eternity with His Love. Therefore, Love is eternal. Evil is based upon lies that cannot be sustained in a world dominated by God’s Love. Love and truth are God’s signatures of eternity. Love inhabits eternity, as does Truth.

God is Love, and Love is God – 1 John 4:8 (Wiki Commons)

Living the Way of Love, or the Way of Evil

If Love inhabits all of time and space eternally, then evil exists in a vacuum. Like a bubble with a lease on ‘life,’ it pops and is gone forever. Solomon said it this way. It is temporary and cannot be sustained on an ongoing basis. “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” (Eccl.1:2) Another translation this passage saying, “Utterly meaningless, all is meaningless.” A life without meaning is a lie, and becomes a passing, fleeting experience, which has no correlation with the eternity God inhabits. Solomon goes on to say, “There is no remembrance of former things…” (Eccl.1:11) Every vain, meaningless (evil) act is a bubble which has no real life. All things that people pursue in life can either exist in this meaningless bubble, or it lives in God’s eternal Loving purpose which expands forever into eternity. Evil will not exist as a viable option in God’s eternal Love environment. All lies evaporate and perish in the prism of Love’s eternal life-force.  So we read Solomon’s answer to his search for meaning in life, “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: fear God and keep His commandments. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil” (Eccl.12:13-14). All who live by Love are living the truth which brings the element of eternity to his or her actions and behavior.

Love

If these two ways are so contrasting with eternally far-reaching consequences, it behooves us to take a closer look and consider their origin, and how they affect us day-to-day, so we can be secure in His Love eternally. It makes us aware that all knowledge can be separated into two categories, and we are forced to make a choice as to which way to follow. Whether intentional or unintentional, they influence our choices in life. What is Love, what is its beginning? The Bible says, “God is Love” (1John 4:8). God has eternally existed in Love. So Love, read it as a noun and verb, has no beginning. Love has always been there, when nothing else was. It has eternally existed for “God is Love.” On the other hand evil and fear has a beginning, as we shall see later. Love is relational. Therefore we see God reveals Himself as Triune in these Bible passages: Matthew 28:19; John 14:26; 15:26; 2 Corinthians 13:14; 1 Peter 1:2. The reason God is Love is because He is Triune, and He is Triune because He is Love. He is relational in His Triunity, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is ONE, but He is not “solitary,” He is “Trinitarian.” Triune means to live in interdependent Love. God is not made of Love, He IS Love. God is eternally ONE in His Triunity, therefore, in their Triune Love, they inhabit eternity. This is vital for our “solitary” human understanding – Love inhabits eternity, because the Three Persons of the Trinity, have always existed in their nature of Love. This is not our human narrative of love that’s conjured in our “solitary,” self-absorbed, expression man inherited from the devil.

Evil

How did evil come about?  How did it originate? We have established God is eternal and fills all eternity with His divine Love. So anything that exists in antithesis to Love has to have a beginning, and is temporal and fleeting in nature. Nothing will challenge the all-embracing God who fills all things seen and unseen. The Bible tells us that evil started with angelic beings. Angels are created beings, like humans, only made and composed of spirit. Some have become fallen angels, and led man away with them. From this, we realize anything that proceeds from things created, including angels and man, without the seed of Love, are temporal and will come to an end and cease to exist. The things that will abide are those that align with God’s Love, for the very fabric of all life is Love or God. That is why Jesus Christ is the only pathway to eternity. Only Jesus, who Himself is God with the Father and the Spirit, who is Love, can take man to the eternal end from which He Himself originate as God. So Paul affirms this wonderful truth with these short but telling words, “We are complete in Him, who is the Head of all principality and power” (Col.2:10).

Lucifer

The Bible tells us that all evil started with the archangel Lucifer. So we see evil has a beginning, Love does not. Love (God) has always existed from eternity, and fills all eternity. Love is the foundation of all life and existence. When we understand this concept that true life can only come from the Divine Triune Love, we will understand that everything that stands hostile to Love is temporary and carries the seed of self-destruction and will die like all things that’s has a beginning.  Lucifer was created in Love by God. The meaning of his name tells us a lot about God and His Love: Lucifer means, “morning star” and “bringer of dawn” (light). (wikipedia.com) So, he was made an archangel of light to reflect God and His Love. Then at some point in time, for reasons known only to him, he opposed all God stood for, and said, “I will ascend to the tops of the clouds. I will ascend to the heavens. I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly.” (Isa.14:12-14, emphasis throughout). If Lucifer can’t live in harmony with God as the other holy angels, then the only other way is to live in conflict with God and His Love, which is the way of fear and evil!

Lucifer fallen Morning Star from Milton’s Paradise Lost (Wiki Commons)

How can anyone displace, what for eternity, has been the essence of life and the bulwark for all goodness inhabiting and filling all eternity in God (Love)? Lucifer, somehow, became blinded to this Truth. So, here we find the birthplace of evil with the seed of its own death and destruction implanted in it. It is now inflicted upon man by the devil’s deception of Adam in Eden. (Gen.3) The light of God’s Love in Lucifer went out, and darkness (evil) filled the void. Lucifer brought darkness to mankind. God changed his name from Lucifer to Satan, which means “adversary.” Satan became the author of the “solitary” life in opposition to God’s “Trinitarian” life. The “solitary” life has its underpinning in fear and evil, not Love and interdependence (Triune). As the adversary of God, he promotes the “solitary” life in man, and channeling his spirit of evil, rebellion and strife, greed and avarice, distrust and fear, self-centeredness and jealousy, resulting in lack and broken dreams, depression and heartaches, sorrows, and ultimately, death. 

Adam & Eve Tempted by Devil To Follow Human Self-Determination of “Good and Evil”/Right and Wrong (Wiki Commons)

Holy Angels

With the fallen angels, there are innumerably more good angels who have remained faithful to God and His purpose in man. They exist as holy angels within the realm of God’s Love. They come to our aid as God’s servants to help and protect us from fallen angels who have become demons. Jesus said,“I tell you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God. But whoever disowns me before others will be disowned before the angels of God” (Luke 12:8-9). As humans and believers, we need not be afraid, for we all have guardian angels over us. In my Book, I give an account of angelic protection that save me, my wife, and two friends, from certain death. They are the most powerful bodyguards, and not for sale, yet priceless.

All Will Be Called to Account

Evil exists because the adversary of God continues to oppose all His Ways of Love and Truth. Evil derives its life from fallen angels who tremble before God because of the certain judgment to come against them and their evil deeds. (James 2:19) All who follow their evil ways will be brought before God’s judgment seat where they will be called to give account. Jesus made us understand why God allows evil in the world in the parable of the weed, where in the end, evil will once and for all be expunged and destroyed forever. (Matt.13:24-30) So, in this parable we see that even though evil exist, it does so at God’s (Love) sovereign will. When we read the following, “I form the light (Love) and create darkness (evil), I bring prosperity (Love) and create disaster (evil); I, the LORD, do all these things” (Isa.45:7, emphasis added), it must be seen in the context of God who inhabits eternity, and in that context, allows all to happen according to His sovereign, Loving purpose.The only place in the universe where evil is confined is upon our earth. (Jude 6) Good and evil proves the existence of God and the devil. It is because of His Love for mankind that He has shown the patience against the enemy, so man can come to and see the light of His Love and change from the dark ways of the enemy, and instead follow His Son. (2 Pet.3:9; 1 Pet.3:19-20) All this is happening in the wake of the holy angels who come to our side to help lead us to God.

Gravity is Real as God’s Love is Real (Wiki Commons)

Physical Gravity

This is not some goofy ‘religious’ stuff – it bears scientific relevance. Sometimes we think science and God are opposing factions, when it is one and the same. All of creation and the universe reflect God’s interconnected Trinitarain Being. The obvious conundrum seems to be that man cannot help explore things except from his “solitary” tunnel-vision perspective which he inherited from the devil. And the universe continues to endure on God’s Trinitarian, interrelated and unified, impetus. Man has to be reborn and see all things from God’s Trinitarian perspective – the Way He has created everything. (John 3:3) Let me clarify God’s Love by a true and life-like analogy. Think of the force of gravity in our physical environment, as the counterpart to God’s Love as the gravitational energy in His spiritual environment (eternity). In other words, what gravity is to our physical environment, Love is to our spiritual environment.

Spiritual Gravity

Naturally, all our acts in our physical environment has to compensate for our physical gravity. That is what happens as we grow up, we unconsciously correct ourselves to the gravitational force until we live with it intuitively. We take gravity for granted. All our actions also answer to another, equally real gravitational force – the spiritual gravity of Love. We may not realize this, but it does answer to, and affect all our actions more real than we care to know or admit. Why, because the spiritual gravitational force of Love inhabits eternity, including man’s actions. Everything, including man’s behavior has this implied consequence which connects with everything around him. True to the proverb, ‘no man is an island’ we can’t get away from this interconnected Love of God which governs all creation. And every evil act against Love, like defying the force of physical gravity, bounces back to hurt us. When we are up on a high elevation, we instinctively look for something to hold onto, we dare not challenge gravity. We’re aware of what gravity is capable of doing to us. We can seriously hurt ourselves in a fall, and probably get ourselves killed.

This is identical to the spiritual gravity of Love, when evildoers break the spiritual Love gravity it hurts them, just as surely as breaking physical gravity hurts anyone who disobeys it. We see this happening all over the world today before our very eyes. This spiritual gravity is real. It’s not merely an empty analogy. Everything in the created universe is connected and carries implied and conditional (good or evil) consequences and respective spinoff values. All the suffering, pain, sorrows, man’s inhumanity to man, we witness in the world today is the result of man defying the spiritual gravity of God’s Love which we all inhabit. Evil is confined to this earth and nowhere else in the universe. But more so Love, for Love exists in all of space and time and the universe, and is the spiritual gravitational force governing human relationships.

The Difference

Here’s the difference, we don’t learn to live within Love’s spiritual gravity, as we do within our physical gravity, because the spiritual gravitational effect (Love) does not immediately penalize us like the physical one. The Bible tells us this, “When evil people are not punished right away, (like physical gravity) it makes others want to do evil, too.” (Eccl.8:11, emphasis added) On the physical level, we learn very quickly that we need a chair to break our fall when we sit, but we fail to equate breaking Love’s spiritual gravity with the same presence of mind and innate urgency. So, we’re frivolous when it comes to evil, let alone investigate it. Thus, we suffer all its problematic consequences, living life in a bubble. Why, because man does not understand what Love truly IS. It is not defined by our “solitary” human narrative of it. The only reality in life is God’s Triune Love, and everything else is fleeting, and like a bubble, pops and disappears.

Understanding Love

Love is the spindle from which all of life rotates, and take its cue. We don’t understand this difference – if we are observant of what’s happening in the world around us, especially in human relations, we’ll see that the spiritual gravity is more real than the physical one. Both are real, both unseen. One is physical, the other is spiritual. Like physical gravity, Love is no respecter of persons. In a manner of speaking, you are your own judge. Your own actions, your heart, will be the judge of your life. That’s why people feel guilt when they do wrong, they have judged themselves. We ought not to judge anyone. (Matt.7:1-5) I judge no one, my calling, as it ought to be with every other human, is to owe no man anything except the debt of Love (Rom.13:8) But how can we Love when in Adam we stand condemned in our depraved, fallen state of being. The law says, “The one who sins is the one who shall die.” (Ezek. 18:20) All have sinned. (Rom.3:23) All will be called to give account of their lives before God. (Rom.14:12)

The Good Samaritan Love – Luke 10:25-37 (Wiki Commons)

Love Always Come Through

And right here, we see our magnificent God and Father who inhabits eternity in His Love, come through for us. He cannot and will not leave man to his fate. Why, because He is Love, and inhabits eternity in His Triune Being of Love. In His Love, He gives us His Son to atone for our evil and wicked ways, so we don’t have to stand condemned and judged. We can have all our guilt removed, and be given a new birth in His Love (Spirit) to lead and change us forever. (2 Cor.5:1-5)  “For God so Loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) Eternal life will be given to any whose life will be composed of Love as God IS. This is how we learn to live like we owe each other nothing but the debt of Love in the Spirit’s power.

Love Will Always Be A ‘Mind Thing’

God’s spiritual gravity, God’s Love, is only made effective through the process of the mind, human thoughts, thought forms, and decision-making. That’s the paramount difference between these two gravitational forces. One is innate, physical, and mindless. The other requires the mind and our decision-making process to live within Love’s gravitational force. What does that tell us? It tells us first and foremost, Love is the continuous exercise of the mind of God. God, as the Father, Son, and Spirit, are not androids that thoughtlessly live and behave like machines. They have minds, and they have eternally decided to be ONE, for God is Love. (1 John 4:8) When God tells man “Owe no man anything except the debt to Love,” it is the exercise of our minds. (Rom.13:8, KJV) Love is a ‘mind thing.’ It’s in the human mind that the Spirit comes to us so we can be connected to His eternal Being of Love. (Rom.5:5) That is why, among all God’s creation, only humans have minds, because humans are made in God’s own image.

At creation, God or Love ‘decided’ and said, “Let US make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness, and let them have dominion…” (Gen.1:26-27). He made us to have minds so we can Love as He does in His Triunity. If I were to surmise life in one word, it would be: life is all about making choices. Love is about making choices with our minds. We are always making choices within the gravitational force of Love in the Spirit. It is an exercise of the mind which produces all things good. (1 Cor.13) Our earth is the only place in the universe where Love can be birthed, lived, and exercised, because humans are made with God’s mind capable of Loving. We can learn to make a choice to Love as God does. Sadly, evil too is birthed in the mind, but as we saw, it exists in a bubble under God’s sanction, which, in His divine purpose and time will be brought to nothing. (Isa.45:7; Rev.21:1-7)

The Second Adam – Jesus

When Adam came on the scene in Eden, Satan deceived and convinced him to follow his evil ways which has since brought suffering, deprivation, pain and death upon mankind. (Gen.3) But because God inhabits eternity in His sovereign eternal Love, He was left with no option but to respond in His Love, answering this evil perpetrated upon man, by spontaneously promising from the beginning, to send the second Adam, His Son. Jesus would come, and have come, as mankind’s Savior to bring man out of the jaws of evil and death, and put him back on the path to Love and immortality. (1Cor.15:45) The second Adam, Jesus, the Son of God, was the only human who bore the full expression of God’s Love and the only human qualified to bring man back to God’s habitation of Love and eternity.

Jesus, the Second Adam, Depicted With Disciples at Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci (Wiki Commons)

You see, God fills all of existence in His Love, where there’s no room for evil to take hold, let alone exist. God fills all time and space as we know it in His Triune existence. That is why Jesus, in His eternal deity in the Triune Being of God, bore the fullness of our humanity in Himself, taking on His human form through Mary, and lived a perfect, sinless and Loving life for us. In so doing, He embraced humanity’s eternity in Himself when He was crucified, resurrected, and ascended. He unified man in His divine/human Self with the Triune God for eternity in Love. Hence, we read Paul said this, “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in Love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the Love of Christ, and to know this Love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen! ” (Eph.3:18-21, emphasis added).

Yes, this Love, in all its height, depth, length and breadth, expresses God’s fullness which encompasses all of life and eternity where no evil can exist. “Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all” (1 Chron.29:11). This tells us simply that God inhabits all of space and time (eternity) in His Love. The prophet Daniel speaks of man’s eternal future in God presence in this way, “Those who are wise will shine as bright as the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever (eternity)” (Dan.12:3). Yes, God created mankind to be His very children He can Love into eternity. I hope you have found this post helpful, and adds a little to make your faith even more faithful.

Blessing

Until my next post, may the blessing of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you today and give you strength for authentic Triune living as a Bula man-river.*

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to write me in the space provided below, or email me on bulamanriver@gmail.com.

Kiang                                                                                                                                                          (Your Servant in Christ)

* The “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 Bula man-river, go to my website www.bulamanriver.com where you can order a copy of my Book. Remember, when you purchase my book all the proceeds go towards Jesus Christ’s work of dispensing the Gospel. Thank you for your support.

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise

Note: Any information obtained from this website that is used for publication should be acknowledged by citing the website address, date of acquisition and information pertinent to original authorship. For general guidelines regarding web citations see The Guide for Citing Electronic Information .