I have to admit, that I’ve come to the conclusion and have accepted the fact that the Lord likes the hour of 4 a.m.! Once again He decided to wake me up at what I always thought was an un-Godly hour because he had plans for me, plans much different than mine. Mine would have involved at least another 2 hours of sleep, but apparently he had work he wanted me to do.
First he wanted me to finish what I started last night, and that was to complete and submit my application for admission to the Licensed Local Pastor program. I am praying that it will be accepted and that I can move forward on my calling to ministry. I ask for your prayers as I begin this step in my life.
Then he had me make contact with someone that’s been heavy on my heart for several years now. I pray that I used the words that He wanted and that it does open the doors to reconciliation.
And lastly, He said………..WRITE! So here I am writing and rambling a bit.
This week in church I had the privilege to lead service and bring the message, so today I thought I’d share the message I gave with all of you. Some of you have heard it already, so forgive me for repeating, but some of you haven’t.
The title of my message was Biblical 3’s.
As a born and raised Catholic, one of the things that we did not do was spend a lot of time reading the Bible or studying the Bible. When I first started reading the Bible, it began to occur to me there were a lot of 3’s appearing.
- In the Old Testament:
God is omniscient, omnipotent, & omnipresent:
omniscient – is the capacity to know everything infinitely, In Latin, omnis means “all” and sciens means “knowing”.
omnipotent – is unlimited power.
omnipresent – the ability to be “present everywhere at the same time”
Noah had three sons (Gen 6:10) and Job had three daughters (Job 1:2; cf. 42:13);
Israelite men were required to appear before the Lord three times in a year: “Three times a year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles” (Deut 16:16)
In the instructions for making a burnt offering there are three types of animals that could be used: the bullock from the herd, the lamb or goat from the flock, and the turtle-dove or pigeon from among the fowl.
For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly;
- There are also some interesting occurances of 3’s in our every day life – coincidence? I don’t believe so…
The basis of all things, the atom, has 3 basic parts, proton, neutron & electron
The basic elements – earth, wind & fire 3 again
To survive we need 3 things – food, water, & air
Properties of matter – liquid, solid, gaseous i.e. steam, water & ice
Primary colors – red, blue & yellow
- In the New Testament:
The Trinity – Father, Son & Holy Spirit
It is the number of the Godhead, it stands for the triune God. It is formed by 1+1+1, but if the 1’s are multiplied, the result is still 1. So God is three in one and one in three.
When Jesus parents left Him behind, how many days did they have to search before they found Him? Three days.
When Jesus was driven into the wildness to be tempted of Satan, how many times did Satan tempt Him? Three times was Jesus temped by the devil.
Jesus answered Satan’s threefold temptation by citing three scriptural passages Matt 4:1-11).
Jesus raised three people from the dead. The only son of a widow from Nain [Luke:11-4]. The daughter of the religious leader Jairus [5:22-43]. Lazarus [John 11:1-44].
When Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane He prayed three times to His Father to remove this cup if at all possible, after the third time Jesus collected Himself and said not My will, but Thou will be done.
Jesus fell three times on his way to be crucified
Jesus was crucified the third hour [Mark 15:25].
When Jesus was crucified how many do we see being executed? Jesus and one on each side of him, bringing the total to three.
Three nails
At Jesus’ trial, how many times did Peter deny his Lord? He deny Him three times. Each denial was for one in the Trinity.
After His resurrection, how many times was Peter asked to confirm his love? Three times one for his denial of the Father, one for the Son and one for the Holy Spirit.
Paul experienced three shipwrecks (2 Cor 11:28)
How long did Jesus ministry last? Three years.
Ecclesiastes 4:12 speaks of how “A threefold cord cannot quickly be torn in two.”
If you read Ecclesiastes 4:8-12, it discusses the struggles of a singular person, and the benefits of two people working/being together, but it ends with the single line above – “A threefold cord cannot quickly be torn in two” I believe this was telling us, that if any two of us keep the Lord, keep Christ, woven into the cord of our lives, we will be stronger and we will be closer and we will never be separated from each other or from him. It was showing us that we need to keep Christ in our lives or the things of the world will pull us apart. I used two young people in our church to illustrate this principal.
I also used another example. I had two items, side by side on the table with a cord between them. The items were touching. The cord represented God/Christ in the relationship. This represented, a relationship between two people, could be a husband and wife, mother/daughter, father/son, you and your job, whatever kind of relationship.
As with most new relationships, they start out really close, happy, fun, but as time goes on, the world starts to impose, we get busy, we get distracted, we get tired, and we may even forget that God/Christ is still present. This was represented by the items starting to get further and further apart. All this while stretching out the cord that binds them. If this goes on for too long, and the relationship drift too far apart and Christ is forgotten, the cord can become frayed or even snap, leaving the relationship broken. But there is good news here! The cord is Christ! If we keep Christ in our lives, if we keep Him as the center of the cord and if we start to elevate Him, what naturally happens? As the center of the cord (Christ) gets higher in our lives, the space between the items or the relationships, gets closer together! Christ brings our relationships back, He brings and keeps us close, He binds our lives with his love! We need to keep Him the center of our lives!
The relationship of 3, has also been illustrated with a triangle with Christ at the top and the husband/wife or boyfriend/girlfriend at the bottom points. If the husband and wife remain at the bottom without Christ, all they have is a straight line, and they usually are going in opposite directions. But, if the relationship has Christ as it’s focal point and they actively keep their relationship focused on Christ, the closer they move up the triangle toward Christ, the shorter the space between them and the closer they get to each other.
I know this may be harder to visualize without the actual demonstrations, but my main focus of the “3’s” was this. No matter what the relationship, be it husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend, mother/daughter, father/son, you/work, etc. There is and should be a third party involved and that is Christ! If you keep Christ as the focus of your group of 3, you can never go wrong and you relationship will remain strong.
As in Romans 8:38 – For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to be, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Friends, may you welcome the third person into your relationships. May the joy and the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen the bond in your relationships and may His presence be a visible sign to those you touch that He is present and He is in control.
God bless you all!
thecatholicdropout 
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