I'm going through a Journey right now with some books I am reading. I just finished a very hard to read book, hard in that it is emotionally hard, but easy to read otherwise, titled "The Shack" by William P. Young. And I am also reading "The Great Dance" by C. Baxter Kruger.

Both are a very insightful understanding of the Trinity in a way I have never understood it. Very much down to earth, taking God from a way off being that sits majestically on a throne in a galaxy far far away, to a being that is here with us through the Triunal aspect of Father, Son and spirit. We think of a Lord of the Rings type of Gandolph figure, or a Santa Clause, or a thunderous being that is ready to strike at our every misdeed.

God is none of the above. He is very much in our lives and very much in our creation. When Jesus became human, he stayed that way. He ascended to the right hand of the Father as a flesh man. The second Adam. Fully man and fully God.

We tend to take our physical everyday things we do and treat them as unimportant in our spiritual lives. We go to a church and suddenly become different within it's walls. As described in this book, it could wipe a smile off a possum. Do we take Jesus out with us when we go fishing, or work our jobs or play baseball? Is Jesus playing along beside us? Is Jesus kicking back with us? Or is he present only in church and prayer circles where "two or more are gathered together"?

How relevant is Father, Son and Holy spirit in our everyday boring and predictable lives? How does he relate to us in living out our naturist lives?

I am still reading and still learning. Been on this track since I moved here to Virginia. I will be going to a conference in Richmond in a few weeks where Baxter Kruger will be there to speak. I hope to meet him. Maybe I'll ask him about how we can teach this in our naturist world. See what he says.

Boyd Allen

I have been listening to the Bible for the second year. We are just starting Deut.

The thing that struck me about your post is that, because we, as Christians on this earth, seem to have a vision of a "far away" God. The Israelites had the presence of God in their midst.

Manifestations of God were found in the cloud or fire, depending on if it is day or night. They even had the ark which was the "dwelling place" of God. We need to remember that God is that close to us as well.

That post got me to thinking, Boyd, that a lot of folks seem to think God can't be present with them, or us, when we're naked--yet even before I discovered myself as a naturist, my favorite time and place to pray or meditate was in the bathtub. "Naked before God" is something we Christian naturists understand very well; yet, as I discovered recently talking to a relatively new non-naturist Christian on the street, it is "foolishness" to too many textiled Christians. But if we can't meet God in our daily lives, where can we meet Him?

Sometimes I think that Christians need to do more out-of-the-church-box thinking.

"Sometimes I think that Christians need to do more out-of-the-church-box thinking."

Well said Jochanaan, and not just in regards to nudity.

I was watching a topic on another forum for a couple of weeks where they was debating the house church today. There were actually people that said that if you didn't go to the church building regularly then you couldn't be saved, the fact that they were going to a house church of just a handful was irrelevent. The thought was you wasn't fellowshiping with the brothern if there was just a handful, but you were when there are great numbers. I have difficulty accepting that thought process. Because in reality, people tend to be more open and are more willing to really disguss the meat of God in the small group setting where when in large numbers it's little more than serface relationships and milk at every serving.

Daniel

I remember the time when I was going through my first divorce. I would be sitting in a bar, drunk, but I 'knew' God was still there. I don't exactly know how I knew. I just knew. It's like I could feel it. Even though times have been rough since my daughters wreck 2 1/2 years ago I know that He is still here. Not because I feel it but because He promised He would never leave me nor forsake me.

Jerry

Jerry, I can understand that. I somehow knew God was with me when I had my "carnal moments" in life. And I guess thats what makes hell. We are in God's presence and God is with us, yet we live our lives as if God is not, yet there He is, standing there, right with us, day and night.

Annoying ain't it??

Yet comforting. My wife and I discussed our childhood when we felt that presence of God, even though we really didn't know who or what He was. I think children understand and feels God's presence a lot better than adults do. Maybe that is why Jesus said to become like little children.

I was going over that book again this morning, (The Great Dance) and I was comparing in my mind a party that we are invited to.

We are invited to a party by a friend, but when we get there, we find that we don't know anyone there! Yet the host and hostess invites us in as if they know us, even though they don't. Why would the host and hostess treat us like friends and family and a party invitee if they don't know us? It's because of our friend. Our friend invites us, so we are automatically welcomed. We are not a party crasher, or as Jesus put it, coming in through a window.

Because of Jesus, the son, we are welcomed to the Big Party that the Father and Holy Spirit (Host and Hostess for an earthly term) is throwing for humanity. All of humanity is invited and is welcomed because of Jesus Christ. We just got to let them know it, pass out the invitation that everyone is welcomed.

But when we arrived at the party, we sit like wallflowers refusing to take part in it. We refuse to enjoy the food, the fellowship, the love. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit is sharing their love for one another with humanity, yet we sit there, creating our own little world and party off to one side. We are still at the party, but are miserable, because we refuse to participate and understand. We make rules, don't dance, don't drink, don't eat the good food, don't loosen our tie. We are in hell of our own making.

That is what the story of the Prodigal son is about. The son represents the world and the Father represents God who is watching and waiting. The worldly and foolish son didn't even have time to confess his sin, the Father saw him coming and ran and threw himself around the son, demanding the best for him from his servants. But the son who followed the rules, worked side by side with the father, was annoyed and angered when he found out a party was going on inside without his consent! The "good" son, (Christians) went to church every week, served as deacon, gave to the poor and tithed and gave generously. He worked the field and did his evangelistic thing, yet felt jaded when he found out his "worldly brother" was having a party by the Father and the whole household!

Join the party! God is having a great time, the son is inviting the world and we are there right now! So lets enjoy the presence of God in our lives right now! And may our fellow Christians enjoy the party too, in spite of the sinful people they see walking up being wrapped by the Father with the cloak of the holy spirit in his perfect love.

Boyd