1. The Trinitarian Nature of Spiritual Formation

2. Distorted, Dysfunctional Views of God
“What comes to mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you” (A.J.Tozer).
We have both conscious and unconscious images of God.
God as a distant, demanding parent.
God as a galactic drill instructor.
God as a cosmic monster.
God as an indulgent grandfather (CS Lewis).
So what’s God like?

3. John 14-17: the intricate, complex nature of God.
John 14:9-10 – “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?”
John 14:25 – “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you.”
God is 3, yet God is one =1.
God, then, is love.
Spiritual formation is intensely relational because of the intensely relational nature of God.
The ultimate goal of spiritual formation? Love for God and love for neighbor (Augustine, Confessions, Book I, 1, 2, 4-6).

4. “If you love me you will obey what I command” (John 14:15).
“This is my command: Love each other” (John 15:17).
We are God’s image-bearers (Gen. 1:26).
The problem? We are bent image-bearers (incurvatus in se; Augustine, Luther). We have gone bad. We have become corrupt (Athanasius).
Christ is the great image-bearer (Col. 1:15ff).
We have been invited into the Trinitarian fellowship, not by nature but by adoption (Cyril of Alexandria).

5. How do we get straightened out?
How are we straightened out, so that we become real human beings?
First, by entering into a relationship with Jesus through faith.
Then, by grace, through the power of the Spirit, by means of the very same practices that Jesus himself practiced, we are increasingly transformed into his image (Luke 5:15-16).
The more deeply we are formed into the image of Jesus, the more deeply we move into the wonder and beauty of the Trinity itself.
We have an unimaginable future ahead of us!