Larger Catechism – Day 3 of Lent
Question 6: What
does the Bible make known about God?
Answer: The Bible
makes known what God is, the persons in the Godhead, his decrees, and how his
decrees are carried out.
Question 10: What
are the individual, personal qualities that belong to the three persons of the
Godhead?
Answer: From all
eternity, the Father begets the Son; the Son is begotten by the Father, and the
Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son
A couple of weeks ago I purchased my first “smart”
phone. My old “dumb” slider phone was a badge of
honor. Truth be told, prior to
purchasing my new phone I did not know how to answer Brenda’s smart phone when
it was ringing. Some features on my new phone
were not difficult to master because my tablet has similar functions. Other features on my phone still baffle me –
reading the instructions is like hearing someone speak in tongues without having
someone there to interpret what was being said.
The first question in today’s reading is fairly easy to
come up with partial answers. The Bible
tells us that God is Spirit, all-powerful, all-present, all-knowing, eternal,
loving, just, righteous, etc. How he is
able to be those things is “above our pay grade” or ability to understand. We have a general sense of the meanings of
those descriptive words. God’s decrees
are his commands (the 10 Commandments and all of the other rules he gives
us). Again, fairly straight forward –
even though we may not like them or want to keep them. We can get a fairly good grasp of the answer to Question 6
if we consistently read God’s Word. God
tells us what he expects us to do. He
tells us what he forbids us from doing.
God often gives us a glimpse of his plan for your lives (and his
church).
Question 10 is where human understanding and language
cannot adequately describe or know/understand how the Father, Son and Holy Spirit interact as a
Godhead. The three are the same and yet
distinct. The three have different roles
but yet make up a complete unity. My
brain hurts trying to make sense of the Trinity.
This is where my smart phone illustration comes in. I can use my phone. Every day or two I “discover” something
different about my phone. Then my phone
makes more sense to me. Then I discover
something else about my phone—and the process repeats itself.
When it comes to God, I may not be able to explain what
“beget”, “begotten” and “proceeds” mean in relation to the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit but there are some things that I do know! And, over time I keep learning and
experiencing more about God. Here are
some examples of what I do know:
1.
When I am in the presence of the Father I have a
tremendous sense of awe. Just think, I
am in the presence of Yahweh – like Moses in the wilderness. It is humbling to think that Yahweh would want
to be with me.
2.
When I am in the presence of Jesus I am with my
Savior, Lord, mentor, and in some sense, friend. We have conversations. There are times of silence. There are times of joy. There are times of repentance. He meets with me like he met with his
disciples in the upper room or along the shores of the Sea of Galilee. He truly is risen and live!
3.
I know (in my heart and brain) that the Holy
Spirit is always with me. Yet, there are
times when the Holy Spirit moves in specific ways in my life: he brings a person
to mind that needs prayer, he tells me to call someone on the phone (yes, I
still talk to people on the phone), he convicts me of sin, reminds me of things left
undone or empowers me with wisdom or knowledge.
The Holy Spirit enables me to pray, teaches me to pray and prays along
with me.
These are two questions that deserve a full day in Lent
to ponder over (and then the rest of a lifetime). Spending time in the presence of the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit today may just give us a little more insight into how to
answer these questions.
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