Honoring The Emperor --- God's Way

Christians always have had to consider how best to relate to the authorities in their society. Regardless of whether the government is democratic or dictatorial, ruled by a king or by popular consensus, there has been the question of how much a follower of Jesus should be supportive or subversive and when to be which. This precisely is the issue being addressed by the apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans. In the heart of a great but oppressive empire, the new believers in Rome were figuring out what it means to be a follower of Jesus being ruled by pagan (and at times even anti-Christian) governmental officials. Paul urges the believers to trust that even pagan rulers were part of God's "gift" of government, to be the best of all citizens, and to apply the power of God's love to their involvement in the institutions of society.

Designed For Destiny

Creation is one of the greatest affirmations of our value and worth as individuals. God's purpose in creating all things is to give us life that shows his nature of love. In the light of the stars and the wonder of our world we can see the signs of God's providence and care for each and every individual human being who has ever lived and will live. So we are not simply random accidents in the chance happenings of an aimless universe. Rather we are intended by God to exist and to live our lives in the purpose God designed for us in God's mind even before the beginning of the world.

All Existence Is Relative --- To The Triune God!

God is dynamic and relational because God is within himself a community of three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Yet God is not three beings. modes, partners, or expressions, God is one being and each of the three persons is fully God. This understanding of God tends to bend our minds a bit. That is because it is not an idea thought up by some religious philosophers, but rather it is a reality we discover because of Jesus. God the Son comes to us in the man Jesus, and through our relationship with him we come to know the Father and the Spirit. This is why Christianity is relational before it is religious, because our understanding of God is all "relative" to our experience of Jesus as completely divine as the Son of God and as completely human as Jesus of Nazareth.