In my prayers, I specifically thank Jesus for dying on the cross and for making a place for us in heaven. After all, it was Jesus the Son who died a terrible death on the cross preceded by a horrible beating with a whip and other painful, humiliating, and cruel actions. God the Father allowed His Son to endure all that so that we can co-exist with them in heaven. All decent fathers know how crushed God the Father must have felt.
As for the Holy Spirit, I give Him credit for what I write. He provides the inspiration. He intercedes for all of us in prayer when we just don’t know what to say or how to say it. He helps us understand scripture. He’s there in ways in which we are not aware.
Still, it was Jesus who, as both God and man, was tortured and then hung on a cross – not His Father, not His mother, not the Holy Spirit, not any saint, not a statue, not Santa or the Easter Bunny. Christ deserves the worship, praise and glory for sacrificing Himself for our benefit. I know if I had gone through something like that, I wouldn’t want my loved ones to go to someone else for their needs or to worship or to praise. Christ’s goal was to win the hearts of men and women so we can live with Him in heaven. His expectation is for them to obediently follow Him through His teachings, although His teachings were from His Father. No one or nothing else is to get the glory for God, the Son, laying down His life for us. According to Exodus 20:4-5a (one of the 10 Commandments), we are not to make “an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them …”
Stay focused on Christ but don't neglect the Old Testament in which God, the Father, is predominant in teaching us about sin and in the process, we also learn history. Don't forget about the Holy Spirit, who is a tutor of sorts and is there when you are stumped about something you read or heard. He's there when you say your prayers and gives you inspiration and remembrance as needed. I've had it said to me that the three are like the fingers on a hand, though in that case there are five-in-one.
This passage from John 14:23-26 says it best: 23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. 25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
--Becky Wall
beckyowall.blogspot.com
4-19-25
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