Trinity Fellowship FWB

Trinity Fellowship FWB "A church geared towards expressing the love of Christ within the body. Come see for yourself." Wednesday Night Bible Study at 6:20 p.m. Sunday Service 10:45 a.m.

07/29/2026

The Inner Temple
“Archaic,” “ancient,” “old,” whatever adjective we can use to get out from under the authority of the Old Testament, men have been willing to use. The reason for doing so is simple, old things break down we see them age and deteriorate. We find new improved ways of doing things, and since some of the examples of leverage and multiplication have been so advantageous to man, why wouldn't we abandon the old and proceed with the new? One farmer today can replace scores from a hundred years ago; one doctor by one procedure can keep hundreds alive that would have surely already found their place to the grave; one pilot can take a small multitude on adventures longer than they could have traveled in their lifetimes. But does the same rendering of advancement hold up when we compare man's thoughts against the wisdom of the Bible?
When we read through God's commands for the children of Israel, one of them seems laughable in our time period; that of worshiping graven images. In our culture, haven't we gotten, way, way beyond this sort of nonsense? Imagine with me the actions of one individual in a neighborhood where a man walks outside, cuts the limbs off the biggest tree in his yard and cuts a face into it. Then every morning goes outside to offer up burnt sacrifices in a firepit before this 20 foot tall, misshapen head. His neighbors would think him odd and avoid him. So when we read the Old Testament, we often think that those rules were for “way back then” and simply don't apply to us today.
Coming to Ezekiel 14:3 we find God isn't as dumb as we think He is. Some of the elders in Israel were coming to Ezekiel to confront him about his messages from the Lord. We find events like this often happening where the leadership doesn't like what is being said through a man. These prophets have a knack for being sore thumbs and bringing the ire of the people upon them. As these elders were about to speak God spoke to Ezekiel first, “Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts, and have put right before their faces the stumbling block of their iniquity.” Immediately from this verse we can see how well God sees and knows man's interior. It is not that man carves idols out of logs and trees, it is that man makes and sets up idols. They can be external or internal.
Here we shall just focus upon the internal idols. Anyone that has an idol on the outside is exposed, everyone knows their business, they can't hide it; but if you hide your idols on the inside of your heart, you often can get away with keeping them. These elders as they approached Ezekiel about religious matters thought they had their idols hidden, but a good reading of this passage of Scripture reveals that God sees the inside of the heart and any idol erected there. Here we are thinking the Old Testament is out of date, when in reality God is more modern than we.
God can see the idols of our hearts, the problem is, we often are slow to realize them. The idol of self love is a big one, the idol of accomplishment, the idol of correctness, the idol of intelligence, the idol of civility, the idol of discipline, the idol of attention, the idol of feelings, the idol of isolation, the idol of independence, etc... can all be hidden way down deep inside. Yet, though they might be hidden to the unwary God sees them with clarity.
It doesn't matter if they are invisible or not God wants them pulled down. The way He does this is by exposing them with His prophets. So the age of the Bible doesn't matter in the slightest: through it God is still laying bare the thoughts and intentions of mankind. It is easy to see why the elders didn't want Ezekiel poking around in their daily affairs because before this they could keep their idols hidden. In the same manner, if we would spend some time with Ezekiel, God would draw some of those idols out into the open where we can deal with them.

07/27/2026

Striving
There is hardly a drive in the world like the human one. Fish chase after insects perched on the water, lion's chase fleeing antelopes, but human's chase dreams. Elon Musk wants us in space, he wants mankind on other planets, he wants to replace all physical jobs with robots, and if we stop to ask why, the answer is designed motivation.
God has placed deep within us something beyond normal aspirations. There is the natural desire to eat, to make pleasure accessible, to find a spouse to run the gamut of life with, but if one digs deeper at peering into these matters there is an undercurrent that propels us faster down the current of accomplishment. This co-force, this tangent fuel, this invisible propelling, is the often undiagnosed search for glory. While we often do just focus upon just getting nourished, there are specific times where we focus on eating something special in a special place for the sake of honor. We might wish for a luxury sports car to scoot about in, but how is this unhitched from deeply wanting to be associated with it? Further, how often do we seek a spouse for the purpose of exalting ourselves farther in esteem than we would have ever gotten alone?
One of the prime desires of each human is to be glorified in some sense. We might put in extra effort at work to achieve praise; we give our neighbors gifts for the sake of improved relations; we even undertake hobbies and wardrobes by skill and expense, all for the additional tokens of spoken admiration. This drive to be known as good, or worthy, has been part of our inner motivations since we lost our status in the garden, and God is not unaware of these things.
The problem is how we chase after gaining this glory again. There are right ways for this pursuit, and very wrong ways. Thankfully God has mapped out the paths so there is no guesswork. The way of righteousness is not just a path of life it is also the path back to restored glory. Instead of just thinking about right and wrong, take time to think about outcomes and consequences, especially long term consequences, which is the focus upon glory that God wishes for us. God doesn't just want us to eventually be blessed, to one day have some merit again, God wants to restore to us an eternal character that always brings praise an admiration because it is a reflection of Himself.
Lamentations 2:1 clearly says that God “has cast from heaven to earth the glory of Israel,” which tremendously helps us to understand so much of God's plans for each person. Notice that God had given glory to Israel, that it was being taken away for punishment, that they were being informed about it, and all for what reason? So that it might be restored. God isn't just trying to get us to walk rightly, He is pursuing this with all of His resources, to get us to walk in a way that people will refer to us as children of God. If He is the most glorious being of all creation, what then should His kids be like?

07/27/2026

Hiding From The Bible
Sometimes we sit on our laurels and pass judgment on others from a superior perspective, and it is easy to do this with those who worship carved images. What sort of dummies carve symbols on a post of wood and spend time worshiping it? Nincompoops make large statues and bow before them. Thoughtless brains walk about with smoke and incense for animal shaped pieces of stone. In our age we are too educated to believe that some sort of spiritual power resides in these inanimate objects.
Let us say a craftsman spends hours upon hours creating a grotesque monster from molded plastic, and another then comes along and builds the machinery to make it move. Later, another gives this creature speakers so that it can make sounds, and adds lights to make it look unique. Then another builds a power source, and another gives it a precisely aligned sand bank, and another dabbles with giving it a routine, at what point do men stop, bow, and worship? An AI robot, is, and is becoming, a worshipable item.
But God says that “every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols,” Jeremiah 51:17. (NASB) Because of the robust nature of the way God speaks we know this means several things. First it absolutely is talking about the goldsmiths who were building idols for others to worship; and we must ponder this to understand the rest. Do we think that someone who spends their time making jewelry, who made gold into thread so it could be sewed into clothes, when asked to do something like plate or craft an idol from gold, do we think they did shoddy work? Absolutely not, rather this would have been one of their largest commissionings; and it would be an item that was seen with frequency. If done in excellent fashion it would carry and aura about it that would further enhance their guilding business. No these idols would have been show stoppers, hard to forget, and so well done, one could not only appreciate the excellent quality of these idols but stop to worship them if they so chose.
No matter how much time and effort they put into this venture, God said they would be put to shame by their idols. This is very easy to see because though some things are enough of a spectacle that they can overwhelm the senses of mankind, only one thing is so great that It can't be gotten used to. After an idol has been mentally digested and accepted it becomes old news, and the one dimensionality of its existence reveals how weak it is in all other areas. The exact same thing is noticed about idols built today, though mankind pours all of this extremely refined skill into one area, and spends time worshiping and adoring that area, its weaknesses are eventually going to show. When this begins to happen, the idol makers are going to be shamed for their inventions.
The Scripture does not stop there for it stated from the very beginning, that every idol maker, “every goldsmith” was going to be put to shame. So it will not just be those who craft something for others to worship, but will include those who craft things for themselves to worship. There have been public and private idols for a long time. Some are not crass enough to overtly brag about something they have done or accomplished, but behind focus-less eyes they gloat. They know by inwards comparison that they have done what few if any others could have, and prop up themselves in some sort of self worship. God said, every goldsmith will be put to shame, so no matter how great their accomplishment, no matter how self satisfied they are, this self obeisance will falter and come crashing down. Only one Lord is worth worshiping and His name is Jesus.

07/24/2026

Seeing The Invisible
One thing a soldier learns is not to just trust his senses. While he must react by what he sees, smells, or hears, a fantastic soldier looks for ways to amplify his perspective. If he is ground level, he might climb a roof or tree to gain sight. If buckling down for the night he might place trip wire alarms or listening devices far enough out that he can respond before someone springs upon him. And if well funded, he might add night vision or thermal scopes to his night shift gear; armed with such he can see the enemy long before they can see him.
In like manner soldiers of Christ need to rely more than upon just their physical senses. Our General and enemies are both invisible to the naked eye, and to coordinate properly with them, we must tap into larger skill sets and tools. If a Christian walks around only engaging in life by what their flesh points out to them, they are going to get bushwhacked. And on the flip side, while engaging the fight, if they can't see their General in the action they are going to encounter quite a few problems. Like how are they going to know what the assignment for the day is, if they don't know where the General is or what He is up to? How are the going to know when He is fighting for them, or they have strayed from being near Him? When they run into heavy fire, how are they going to know if they are being shielded by Him, or if they have wondered out into the open?
It is no mystery that we need to put on the spectacles of faith, and physically read the Bible so we can see clearly what is going on around us, but some are still stuck using their physical senses. One such instance transpires in John 12 where Jesus was doing miracles right in front of people, and yet they couldn't believe He was the Messiah. They couldn't figure out how instantaneously changing reality for the better made Jesus God of the universe. Verse 38 gives us clear understanding of why this was, Isaiah had carried the message of God to people, and if they believed it, they would be able to see. Specifically they could see the “arm of the Lord.”
Now this is very curious, because this is not speaking about Jesus' arms; what does it matter if Jesus had arms like ours? And we know that since God is actually a spirit, then God does not have actual arms, so then what is the arm of the Lord? Well it is metaphorical and is talking about the orchestration of life by God, but if one is not looking for the Conductor, all they are going to see is things moving about, and events happening, but they will never know the why or how. In the same verse we have implied instruction, if the Word of the Lord is reported to you, believe it. Upon believing you will receive the ability to see the things of God.

07/22/2026

A Place For Feeling
Where have our emotions gone? What has mankind done to ruin the feelings of the heart? Think back to childhood for a moment: one man recently said he remembers going to bed excited to be able to get up and live the next day. So much opportunity, so many new things to learn, so many new things to try, and the simple joy of living a day fully. That is correct; when we were kids life was exciting, thrilling, and our emotions nearly propelled us to engage the very next thing. Yet for many a reason those inwards surges of grandeur die off as we age. We can't just live by our emotions, or our life becomes a total wreck. We learn that people will do you wrong for the sake of exalting their emotions. The curse and death strike at us, and we feel pain as deeply as we felt joy, and so maybe we turn down the volume on sensitivity.
The Bible calls us back to feeling again. The first thing it asks us to do is feel the pain of regret, sorrow, ruin, and to confess of those sins. Upon a true confession of sin, and the asking of Jesus to become the ruler of our heart, one encounters restoration. If one will continue in the path then laid out, they can encounter the bolstering of righteousness, the joy of worship, the thrill of giving, the pleasure of helping others, etc...
The path is simple, but not easy. It is not easy because of sin, our dark minds, and lack of belief, but the path is tread-able. One thing we must do in this restoration journey is ingest the right thoughts, and one comes to us from chapter 8 verse 7 of the Song of Solomon. A single line here can awaken dead portions of our spirit. It reads like this, “Many waters can not quench love.” Now if one steps back to read the passage it is easy to see that this is a description of romantic love and maybe we wish to cast off such heightened glimpses because this is the game of hopeless romantics. Yet there are principles hidden deep in the undercurrent of this expression that call to our attention.
If we focus on what it is telling us, there are emotions to be had and enjoyed that are stronger than the deluges of life. The right emotions can stand under the most severe of circumstances, the right emotions can weather storms, the right emotions are so powerful that the volume of evil leveraged against them doesn't matter in the slightest. Further, we are told what that enduring emotion is, love. Now where as love between this couple was a supreme experience, what is the point of God making such Scripture for us to read? We can't be in that couples dynamic it is reserved for them, so why has God highlighted these dynamics? Because He desires such a beautiful and tremendous relationship with us: He wants to restore the fire of life!
This isn't going to be had without His assistance because He designed life, and it isn't going to be done without His desires because He is the sustainer of life. You may not have figured this out, and I am still trying to, but life is about Him. Once we engage life as if we are interacting with Him, for His pleasure, for His will, for His purpose, for His plan, we begin to dwell in the majesty of His love. Life is not a system of existence, where God is some disconnected portion of it, He is life. The partial reason for recording the Song of Solomon for our consumption is to call us into the deep waters of love. When we get to know God, we shall find the excellence of who He is. The entire book of the Song of Solomon is both lovers describing how perfect the other is. It is exaggerated, it is drenched in comparisons too grand, except for when it comes to describing God.
The problem in our life is that we don't know God well enough to love Him and everything about Him. But upon getting to know Him, we become more and more enraptured with His love and awesome goodness. If we got that relationship right, if we made it a priority to know God, to sit at His feet, to lean upon Him as we ate, to talk to Him in the night, we would be so full in the relationship that many waters would not quench our love.

07/21/2026

Speaking Up
Reading the Bible is not a pleasant thing, or we can at least say it is not always a pleasant thing. Sometimes it restores your soul, sometimes it gives you hope, and other times it strikes you in the gut. If it is a Sword that can separate soul and spirit, then we know that reading and acknowledging the truth within can at times be a very painful experience.
This is where it strikes me lately. I Samuel 28:18; Saul is desperate, the Lord won't speak to him, the prophets have no messages, and even his dreams are empty of spiritual input. Being this terribly low and desiring to know God's Word for himself, he seeks a medium to conjure up Samuel. Though Samuel is dead, and spiritism has been outlawed, this woman provides access to the underworld and Samuel is brought up to engage Saul. No, I am not as desperate as Saul to hear the word of the Lord, I do hear it, but my problem lines up with Saul's previous dilemma.
Samuel rebukes Saul for bringing him back and tells him nothing has changed, and then reminds Saul why he is damned. “You did not obey the Lord, and did not execute His fierce wrath on Amalek.” (NASB) Saul being king forgot who was actually in charge, and when he was told to destroy the Amalekites, he decided that it was okay to keep around the spoils of war and their king as a trophy. No, God hasn't stated for me to go destroy anyone, nor to execute His wrath upon anyone, but I can't help but seeing another parallel. When we see sin in someone's life, is that sight not granted by God? If He then prompts us to correct them, are we not supposed to be speaking for Him? Are we not in those moments the proxy for God?
What is interesting about this, is we, or I, can become like Saul, and not realize who is in charge. We can then by our human freedom choose to back off the implementation of what God proclaimed. In the interest of the other person's feelings, we might not want to hurt them. We can envision that God's Word might be insightful enough to truly cause them pain, and so we mute the message or don't speak at all. Worse, we might be only considering ourselves in the equation, and not really be focused on anything other than embarrassment, nor wanting to get into conflict.
The reason Saul's situation strikes me is because Saul was not just supposed to obey God, but in obeying God would have been carrying out the emotional content of God. In the case of Amalek, God wanted His fury poured out and gave Saul a command in line with this measure. When we are assigned commands from God, we probably just consider the command or the prompting of God in isolation, and never really concern ourselves with what God thinks about the situation, or what He desires emotionally in the situation.
If He says to help someone, maybe that is to express His mercy. If He says to forgive someone, maybe that is to express His patience. If He says to go greet someone, maybe that is to express His warmth and His love. And if He tells us to rebukes someone for sin, though we are to be loving, maybe this is to display His hurt or anger towards their disobedience. While we only look at the prompting of the Spirit, we surely do not realize the full implications of the responsibility placed upon us. In this passage of Scripture we see that God relayed the command, but didn't tell Saul the totality of what He was carrying out; that was to be discovered later. In same fashion, God might tell us what to do, but we have no idea of what all He is issuing the command for.
So this leaves you and I with a dilemma, if He tells us to do something, are we going to carry it our, or are we willing to face the consequences for things unknown? This passage of Scripture makes it very clear that when God asks for our obedience we just need to fully submit and allow God to deal with the outcomes. By brushing God off, we risk turning God against us, and Saul is a fantastic example of why we shouldn't go that route.

07/20/2026

King Solomon's Geyser
There is something about the morning dew on the grass that will make you come alive, if you dip your feet in and walk through it. Refreshing, cool, connecting you to God's green earth, what great moments. Streams offer the same; a little bubbling brook on a fiery hot day; come sit and rest here. If needed you can walk about in it to cool down, you can rinse your hands, you can take a sip. And what doesn't get better with more? If a dew is nice, and a stream is good, why not buy a house on the edge of the river where you can step out daily and fill your soul with its beauty.
Money offers the same sort of fulfillment. When you are in waiting room sitting with a friend, and the doctors appointment is hours delayed, a few dollars can gain some refreshing snacks. If you have had a terribly busy day, where your schedule has been totally annihilated, a couple of larger bills can really do the trick to procure a fast food dinner. In like manner, by some planning, if one will take their stream of income and dam it up, by next year, maybe you can take another vacation. But Solomon tells us very clearly, watch out for the false promise.
Money is a very clever and unique instrument, because it is delayed possibility. Because of its somewhat universal nature, you can trade it for this or that. It can be used for needs or desires, and if one has paid attention in the least bit, if put to work, money can gain money. By latching on to this last point some of us learn that there are differing ways money can gain more money. There is the slow and sure route of a savings account. There is the possibility of a side business where resources can be poured into projects that pay out larger than the original sum. We even find money instruments of varying types and values, increasing in risk, that can bring about walloping premiums, but Solomon warned “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money.” (Ecclesiastes 5:10, NASB)
Why would Solomon want to douse the potential of money so? If one has learned that dollars can make more dollars, and all of those dollars can have children too, have they not discovered the secret of life? Since money can buy desires or needs, we simply just need to take what we have, and then concentrate on making it perform, and the outcome will be that our stream of resources will completely take care of everything. Yet Solomon tells us that money can't fill us up; don't let it become our heart's aim and focus. What did he know that we don't.
If money is future potential, then that means it isn't actually “doing good” now. Take for instance a couple of grand that one uses on investing the rest of their life. If they find a way to make that grow obviously they are going to say to themselves, this is good. Instead of a few grand, now I have ten. Since they were good at that, let us now say that they reinvest that one year for a fifty percent increase, is that not good also? Calculating out a bit farther one sees the potential of adding a zero to their nest egg, so instead of spending any, they accustom themselves to living as if they didn't have the sum. After a couple of decades of living in this fashion, they realize that their discipline, frugality, and wisdom, have made them rise above their peers. Math confirms it.
If this person begins to self assess, they might come to realize that they are pretty elite in their standing, and by applying themselves a bit more can rise in community stature. There is hardly a way to look at their own track record and not proclaim, “I am really good at this” and not like themselves for it. Why would they not favor the tool that got them there?
At some point in the game they even begin to realize that just as money saved can bring in more, that donations given can bring in favor, which brings in connections, for even better revenue. Not only this, because of how much status they have acclaimed friends and associates begin to idolize them. The entire process can become self focused, and leaves God on the sidelines. Since He is not there to fill up the emptiness of the soul, self congratulations, math, and esteem of others are tossed into the growing void. Since money has become the focus of our love, it takes more and more of it to slightly even satisfy. Every single dollar becomes a workhorse to attain more, and eventually one finds themselves at the end of life, with the first thousand that they made, still untouched in an account. Though it had the power to do them good, or someone else some good, it never did. Thus Solomon's wisdom.

07/18/2026

Hit Or Miss Faith
There is a level of confidence that you still have yet to experience; there is a security that you have not yet known. So many people believe that they walk about in Jesus but they walk around uncertain; not concerning of their salvation, but uncertain about life. It is here that the cracks in the foundation begin to show, where we can see that the mortar of things was not mixed well. How many times will someone assure themselves theologically that everything is in order, but then it still doesn't feel in order?
At first the walk of right living is anything but appealing. First mentions of righteousness and holiness leave a bitter taste in the mouth of flesh driven creatures. We gag on these thoughts, and our bodies wretch at the thoughts of doing only that which is religiously good. Yet at the same time, something in our spirit longs to arise from the stench that we wallow in, and the endless consequences of how we have been living is too painful for our hearts to not consider changing course. Anyone being honest with themselves knows the war and the contrast between, right and wrong, dark and light, and desiring to do good, and desiring to do evil.
For whatever reason, God places under our hand the ability, by His strength, to get up and do what is good. Never mind how it feels. Right here as we think upon it, your mind will rage, it will say, the path of Christ is too hard, the demands are too much, the sacrifice is too painful, but the flesh is prone to grand exaggerations. Not that doing right is not a sacrifice, but it is guaranteed that the flesh is lying to you about how “hard” it will be to go and live rightly. Every single time you take the step towards right living, you will be reminded of Christ's statement, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
But here is where things get exciting, that is if you like investing for the long term. Currently, you have been living in a half state, half doing what was right, and half not caring. This has direct results, what it means is that you are pretty certain things are going to turn out all right, but so many times the difficulties are immense. There is a misstep here, a collapse there, an outbreak here, trouble over there: the end will be good, but is the journey really worth it? Now consider using the power of Christ to do what was right, and just focus on that. What would that journey be like? Good news it is described for us in Proverbs 2:7,8, “....He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice, and He preserves the way of His godly ones.”
You see, after you begin to proactively live for the Lord He comes into your life with strong aid, very strong indeed. It isn't you are a Christian and one day you will make it to heaven, no, your life now becomes a solidified instrument in His hands. An instrument useful and one that is not going to fail. Obviously we still live in a broken world, around sinful people, with the devils of hell trying to assail us, but if God is your shield you are impervious to harm. Do you currently feel impervious? If not, it is because you have not been walking simple step by simple step in the right path. For if you do, God is the shield to such a person.
So many think, God is allowing this to happen to me, He didn't stop that, He could have prevented this, and to a degree that is correct, but what is more the case is that they have not been walking in the path of the Lord. When one does, He is a shield to the heart, and though those things might be happening, yet it doesn't happen to the spirit. This doesn't mean we don't have emotions, but once God is guarding your heart, you will see how weak man or Satan is in attempting to destroy it. Notice the verse further says God guards the paths of justice, this means He is presently active in those matters. This is a double edge sword, if we haven't been walking rightly, then He is active in making sure we encounter consequences for being irresponsible; yet at the same time, when we walk rightly He is presently active to make sure our steps are solid. This gives one unshakable confidence.
If you want to see God work, if you want to feel Him active in your life, if you want to know how good He is, then walk in right things. The rest of the verse says He preserves the way of His godly ones. When is the last time you have had God preplanning, preparing, sustaining, guiding, and walking with you down a path? You want that sort of confidence, then chase after the right things He has already lain out for you to do.

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