What Come To Mind When You Think About The Trinity?

Hello, this is Will Hardy with ManTalk Radio. We are all about breaking down the walls of race and denomination. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few minutes. Enjoy it, share it. But most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Network Podcast.

This is the Truth Network. But life doesn't usually feel that way. Jesus speaks of narrow gates and wide roads. But the masculine journey is filled with many twists and turns.

So how do we keep from losing heart while trying to find the good way when life feels more like a losing battle than something worth dying for? Grab your gear and come on a quest with your band of brothers who will serve as the guides in what we call the masculine journey. The masculine journey starts here now.

Welcome to masculine journey. We're glad you're with us this week. And we have a room full of if you're not watching us on a live as we record the show. You want to do that because we cannot fit any more people in here.

I think we counted 13 that we have in the room and you're just going to take my word for it. If you're not live, I guess you're gonna have to go do that. But you can see it live on Facebook.

Or you can also see it live on YouTube on our YouTube channel masculine journey radio. So you can find us there if you look us up. But we do don't know why you'd want to look at us.

I can looking around the room saying, No, probably not. But yeah, you might want to at least put a face with a voice and then quickly shut it off. But you can do that. And you can watch us each week. And we do record both shows. And so you can set and kind of listen to us kind of go through that whole thing that we do. But this week's topic is one that I brought to the team, but it came from church service I was at a few weeks back. We've been doing a series on the Holy Spirit. And Tim, who was preaching that week talked about a quote from a W tozer that said, what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. So I'm gonna read that again, I want you to think about it. What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

And then he said, and that's what it became a question I sent out to the team is to think of that a little bit bigger. But what do you think about when you think of God, the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit? Do you think of them individually? Do you think of them collectively? Do you think yes, both?

You know, how does that work? And so what comes to your mind when you think of them? And that's, that's the springboard to what we're going to talk about today. You know, and so I've heard all the different clips that we have and but I'm not really sure where we're going to go because you know, God's going to take us where we decide we want to go and off on that wild adventures, Jim, who has the first clip. But that might be the first time I've ever said that. I think Jim, it's been a while here. It's been a while. Yeah, it's, it's been a while. Well, he's never here. He's always on a cruise. That's true.

I'm back. Yeah, but now Jimmy had the first clip. And it's one of our three clips from the shack. Yeah, the shack is not something we would normally agree on, but with three of them, I think we, God brought us together. And it is one of the few places that you do get to see all three in a movie. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

And, and you also have Father as Mother. And that offended a lot of Christians when it came out. But it's a lovely picture of how confused we are, or how confused I am over what the Trinity really is. And this, to me, was a great shot of taking a guy who's in a terrible way. He's angry, and he has every reason to be. His daughter was murdered.

And he is guilty about that from not watching her as closely as he should. And we're coming into this where he gets a letter from God. He's confused because there's snow on the ground and there are no tracks to the mailbox. And you'll hear him talking to the postman, and then to a friend, and then to his wife. And everyone that you hear Mac speak to after that is God in one form.

He starts with Jesus, he goes on and meets God, and then towards the end you have the Holy Spirit. And here's the clip. The letter showed up in my mailbox with no tracks in the snow. There's no stamp. No.

No, it's not stamped. It's not delivered. You're not thinking about going back there, are you? It's crazy. But I gotta do something. We've lost so much already. I don't want to lose you too. Got a fire going inside if you want to warm up. I know someone would love to see you.

We're so happy you accepted our invitation. Morning Mac. I understand. It's confusing. Do I know you?

Not very well. Are you saying that you're God? I am. Am I dead? Do you feel dead?

He's having a hard time believing this is real. Why did you bring me back here? Here's where you got stuck. Where were you when I needed you?

We were there together. There's no easy answer that'll take your pain away. We're on a healing trail to bring closure to this part of your journey.

I am at work in your life. No matter what you're going through, you never have to do it alone. That clip was one that almost says it all for my life. I've always believed in God from my earliest memories, but I always had him in a box that was convenient for me. He kept breaking out of it, but one of the things, and Sam reminded me of this, but I didn't remember, but the person that he met as God was somebody that took care of him when he was young. And I identified with that because I had what I call a second mom that was wonderful to me, but God through all of my different strange behavior over the years has always been there for me, whether I realized it or not, and in all forms. None of us really understand the Trinity, but my view of it has changed drastically over the years. But now to me, I've finally at least gotten to the point where I think Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are more one than they are separate in my mind, and that's an important place for me to be.

But I know that I've heard from all, and there will be more talking about that, but for the most part, I identify with God and have since I was young, but I know that they all are part of my life, and I appreciate that. Thank you, Jim. I think I have time to get another small clip in, and so we'll go ahead, which would be mine because it's 34 seconds. I know you guys are going to give me grief, but I didn't go first this time.

We have five minutes, so I'm good to go on that. So on this clip, I'll play it here in a second, but when I first heard this topic, I sat down right at church when Tim asked about it, and I start typing, you know, I think of God as the loving Father. You know, that's how I see him.

Now, that's not how I would have seen him 20 years ago, right? Twenty years ago, I would have saw him as distant and aloof and things that I saw my earthly father as, right, that they love me, but not around. You know, that's changed as God's worked on my heart, but I see him now as a loving father. See Jesus as a friend, and we joked before the show there's lots of songs about that. You know, I have a friend in Jesus, right? And then the Holy Spirit is, to me, funny, mysterious, powerful, you know, just its own entity, you know, and it's uniqueness.

The wild goose. Yeah, I was going to say very unique, but I know that really makes Jim upset when I do that, so I try not to say that anymore, but when I first was asked this question, I said, oh, yeah, distinctly, I think of three distinct differences in him. But then I started thinking about when I hear the voice of God, the Holy Spirit resides in me, so do I hear the Holy Spirit? Do I hear the Father? Do I hear Jesus?

Yes. Do I hear all three? But then I also think at times that I've heard God's voice, and sometimes distinctly it is a father's voice, speaking to me as a loving father, and I hear that in the voice. And other times I hear it as a friend, you know, and then sometimes it's just this funny aloofness, you know, a little bit, and I don't mean that negatively, but a positive, unable to get my hands around it kind of thing, and I attribute that to the Holy Spirit. But as I thought more about it, and I came down to this clip, all in all, over the years, I've really started to look at God as friend. You know, and if you've had a good friend, or you're fortunate to have a few good friends in your life, there's a way that only a friend will talk to you. A, there's only a way a friend will talk to you that's allowed, right, because you wouldn't let other people say what sometimes what a friend would say to you.

But then you also know that there's love behind it, right, that they can almost say whatever they need to say, because they have a love for you that you know is 100% there. Right, and so I got this clip from Bagger Vance, and I know it's not Bagger Vance week, that was the week before and the week before that, but I do have a clip from Bagger Vance, and what's happened in this scene when it plays is Bagger's been playing, or Juna's been playing terrible, and Bagger's is catty. If you haven't seen the movie, Bagger Vance is a catty, he's the Holy Spirit, kind of Jesus character, God character in it. And then you have Juna, who's the golfer that's kind of lost his way, and there's another character in there, but doesn't come into this clip, so we won't really talk about it. You have him, and Juna's been playing terrible, he's like 12 strokes behind, and he finally makes a decent shot. Right, and so after he makes a decent shot, he turns to Bagger, and you hear him say this, and I want you to hear the exchange, and it'll play through the announcer a little bit, and you'll hear another exchange between Bagger and Juna, but just think of a good friend speaking lovingly to another friend. I think I found my game. No good news, Mr. Juna.

Now all we got to do is figure out what game that is. By the 18th tee at the close of the morning round, Jones and Hagen were neck and neck. And as for Juna, has it become embarrassing? Oh, no, sir. It's been embarrassing for quite some time now. And I absolutely love this movie, but this is probably one of my favorite scenes from the whole thing, is because you've got him just saying very lovingly, very truthfully, it's been embarrassing for quite some time now.

You're 12 strokes down, and you're just now realizing this? And I find God talking to me that way many, many times. Yes, there are times he'll come to me as a loving father, and he'll say, Son, I love you, and I hear things that I need to hear, but more times than not, it's more of a friend just talking to me about, are you really sure you want to do that?

Is that really going to be that good of an idea? One of the really cool things I love about this movie is we all love the movie, but everybody relates Bagger as a different person. In other words, Andy always says he's the father, that Bagger's the father. And usually we've said he's the Holy Spirit, but clearly now he's your friend. He's Jesus. So it's fascinating that he does fit into all three categories. It's one person, and it's just neat.

I mean, you couldn't watch the movie too many times and not pick up on all the attributes of God that that character plays. Oh, absolutely. And so for me, it's just been a very good season of saying, okay, I am talking with my friend, right?

And so we do have a boot camp coming up. It's coming up November 21st through 24th. It's the weekend before Thanksgiving. I know you may not remember the 21st through 21st.

Ah, I can't even say it. 21st through 24th, but you will remember the weekend before Thanksgiving. Go to masculinejourney.org to register. You can also reach out to us if you have any questions.

Our first name at masculinejourney.org. Talk to you after the break. What we have in our boot camp is something that makes you stronger and gives you the strength to go on your regular walk with God. It's something that will make you be bigger than you were when you got there. The first one I had no clue what I was walking into and then realizing that other people were in the same boat and, you know, how open everybody was to share their struggle. It was a great group and a lot of contacting was able to be done. It is a tight bond of men.

Everybody's the same. And each and every time that I've come to boot camp, I've learned something different. And not one man that's ever been there neglects not to take time out to talk or to share. It's serious business, and you need to come one time to break free with the men and fellowship, feel the atmosphere, hear the people pray, and get down to earth about what's going on in life and get real.

Register today at masculinejourney.org. I believe in God our Father. I believe in Christ the Son. I believe in the Holy Spirit. Our God is three in one. I believe in the resurrection that we will rise again. For I believe in the name of Jesus. Well, that was from Hillsong Worship, I believe, or really it's the Apostles' Creed.

And, you know, I just think it says it all. I mean, it really covers the Holy Spirit. I mean, the Trinity. Well, the Holy Spirit's one of them. I don't know why. It obviously covers all three.

You know, God three in one. Did we play it again? Yeah, exactly. I'm tired, man. And it begins.

It's been embarrassing for quite some time. Exactly. Let's link them together. I'm going to tap out. Jim, you should have done the bump.

No, that was a very good bump, Andy. Thank you. I appreciate it. Can we move on now? We can move on. It's quite embarrassing.

I'll let you just stew it out a little bit longer. Robby, you actually have the next clip if you want to tell us a little bit about Brother Bear. Yes, the movie Brother Bear, a Disney movie. And recently, you know, Morgan Snyder with Wild at Heart has done some podcasts on the idea of Jesus being your bigger brother, which is a fascinating concept in the whole idea. And again, just like all family relationships, it may conjure up a lot of pain for you.

Your bigger brother might have taken advantage of you in some way or another or, you know, wasn't present for you or all the things that can happen with the father. And obviously, Satan attacks families because he knows that that relationship is significant. So he really challenged me to begin to see that. And when you see it, Jesus is your future, you know, husband. But he's also – you're his sister, so it's kind of like Abraham deal.

So there's that idea of him being your brother. But this particular movie, when you really think about it, it does an absolutely amazing job, in my opinion, of showing us all three. And here at the beginning of this is the trailer where it talks about the Indian, you know, priestess, whatever, is going to go up and see where the lights touch the earth. And there the spirits are going to speak to her about the totem that the young hero of the movie is going to get. And that idea of a totem is kind of an identity that he's going to get.

And it's very cool that the identity he gets is love, but it comes in the form of a bear, naturally, you know, with a brother bear idea. But that idea where the light touches the earth, that's the destination, and that is the father. And when you think about it, Jesus makes accessibility to the father. He told you that's the reason he came was, you know, to come so that – take you to the father. And so that's really cool that the movie is so much about the journey, but the journey is you're available to the father at any given moment if you want to, not to mention the ultimate destination is the father.

And so Phil Collins wrote this amazing song, you know, we're on our way to help you see the availability of the father in the journey. But without the Holy Spirit, bringing that all to your mind, which is, again, pictured in this movie by, you know, a spirit that actually comes and changes people into bear. And you'll hear her talk about the magic. Well, you know, when you think about the Holy Spirit, it's all kind of this magic that's going on behind the scenes.

And so play the clip and we'll talk about it in a minute. The world is full of magic. Small things become big.

One thing always changes into another. How's it going, bear? I'm not a bear. Well, gee, eh? You're one big beaver. Don't kid me. I'm a man. OK. Are you OK? I wish you transformed into a bear, magically.

You're crazy. Gesundheit. Try not to scare off the fish there, buddy. My name's Koda. Say it with me. Koda.

Oh, duh. Tell everybody I'm on my way. New friends and new places to see.

No, no, no, no, no. Tell everybody I'm on my way. And I'm loving every step I take. I don't want brag or nothing, but I got some moves. When I get in a fight, I'm a raging ball of Ralph first.

Oh, really? Discover the meaning of brotherhood. I always wanted a brother.

You know, he did look better as a bear. No matter what you choose, you'll always be my little brother. So I love that line, no matter what you choose, you'll always be my little brother.

Right? And everybody, I think, longs for that big brother. I mean, you may have been hurt in that way, a lot of it, but there's a lot of that situation that gives you that idea of that big brother that's going to help you in the journey to get to the destination both minute by minute. And all through, the idea of Koda there is, you know, we're that little raging ball of fur, as the case may be. And the idea that Jesus needs us as we need him, but it all does end up in the same package. And when I look at my whole life, and I continue to pursue that whole trinity, is that to try to get the fullness of all that God is offering in family is to see the relationship of sister, father, brother, mother, you know, grandparent, et cetera. Thank you, Ravi.

Andy, that brings us back to you, my friend. You have the next book. Well, I was hoping I would pair with Danny on the second show. Well, you're pairing now. Okay. I was also hoping to get a break before I had to talk again.

No breaks for you. So this is from the shack. So you know the story, Jim told us, set up the story well. And Mack is getting to a point to where God's going after him, and he's drawing him in, and he actually meets God. He meets the trinity in this clip, and I'm going to let the clip speak for itself. But just listen for his different perspectives on the three persons of the trinity, and then we'll talk about it. Mackenzie Allen Phillips.

My, my, my. Look at you. Do I know you? Not very well, but we can work on that. I've been so looking forward to this, to finally see you face to face. Can I take your coat?

And that gun, we wouldn't want anyone to get hurt, now would we? I understand it's confusing. We all do.

We will do this on your terms and time. How about some introductions? I'm Aluja.

I have a lot of names, but that's one of my favorites. Or if you want, you can call me what Nan does. You know Nan?

Oh, yes, very well. Are you saying that you're? I am. The I am? I am that I am.

Look at that. Already quoting scripture. You bet my son. Great to see you, American. Your son? Of course. And, um, so how are you? So who? Syria.

It means a breath of wind. All right. So which one of you is?

I am. And you have no idea how much I love you. It's okay, baby. Let it go. We all collect things we value, don't we? I collect tears. All right.

It's good to meet you guys. You know, there's just so much packed in there. I mean, you know, you talk about the... Jim mentioned that you see God, the Father, as coming as a mother. But there's scripture that indicates that he bounces on his knee like he's a mother to us. So that's not a totally foreign concept in the Bible.

He truly is Father, and it gets into that later in the movie. But, you know, how he meets each one of them, it's very awkward. And if you think about it over the time period of your life where you've kind of delved into the different persons, it's been very awkward. It's been weird, right? It's just encapsulated.

The scene is encapsulated into a short time. But really it's weird for us. But, you know, I just think back, the one that made the most impression, you guys have heard me talk many times about when I really began to see God as my Father. And I was okay with Jesus because he came down here and he knew what it was like. God had no idea what I was going through up here, right? The Father had no idea.

Only Jesus did. Or the fact that I saw my aspect of God was, yeah, he loved me, just like my Father loved me. But my dad disappeared and I didn't really feel like I was connected. I didn't really feel like I had a father that I was connected to close.

Didn't really know that it was available. You can read boards on a page all day. But if you don't feel that in practical living it out, experiencing it. But I began to hear that that was possible and I began to seek that and seek God as my Father in a deeper way. And it really changed my life. It opened me up to really the role of all three, actually. I think God brings light into that situation about what the aspects are of all three persons. You know, you think about Jesus.

He truly could understand where I'm coming from because he was here on the earth. And you know, you don't want to leave out the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's moving in all of this and making all of this possible.

God says that no man can come to God unless the Spirit draws him. So they all play their role, kind of rambling. But they've all made an impact on my life, as they should. That's what we're created. But you know, on the pre-show, what's been on my heart is the uniqueness, not the very uniqueness, but the uniqueness of the Trinity is, to me, they're a representation of family. And I found a Scripture that pretty much indicates that. It's funny how God brings his Scripture to you in an opportune time, you know, just when we were coming into this topic. But Ephesians 3.14 says, So I mean, you can see it right there. It talks about the Trinity, and all of them have an aspect of who you are.

And it is a family affair. So the question I have for you is a question that we all started with. What comes into your mind when you think about God?

And Tozer will say that's the most important thing about us. So what is it that you think about when you think of God, when you think of Jesus, when you think of the Holy Spirit? And walk with Him this week. Spend some time digging into it with Him, saying, God, I'm going to let you lead me in this. I need you to help me see what I truly believe and to walk with you into a deeper unity. Go to masculinejourney.org to register for the upcoming boot camp the weekend before Thanksgiving. And love somebody well this week. We'll talk with you next week.