God is nonstop love, beauty and glory!

As the Father and Son behold the infinite beauty and glory of the other they experience infinite, overflowing joy, and delight in, by, and through the Spirit. 

Each is the very heart and center of the others affections. We could say each is the unceasing, passionate "heartbeat" and central ¹focus of the other. The proverbial apple of each others eye, if you will.

By beholding and loving the other and experiencing love and delight in that beholding, each member of our ⁶three person God participates in and experiences their ⁶greatest joy and glory (worth, significance, etc). 

They are passionately moved to extol or glorify the other and lazer focused on doing so. 

They have always delighted in each other from all eternity past and will continue for all eternity future with or without us.

Joy, love, and delight are the fruit of their beholding the infinite glory and beauty of the other. 

Experiencing infinite delight, joy and significance in beholding each other drives all their actions. Bringing greater joy and significance (glory) to the other (among and within the Father, Son, in, by, and through the Spirit first, but also ⁹overflowing to us as His image bearers) is their primary aim. This is what moves God to do everything He - they - do. 

To behold the perfection of the other evokes infinite admiration, joy, delight, and love for the other in, by, and through the Spirit. 

So what does any of this have to do with us?

God calling us to love Him and our neighbor is simply an extention and reflection of what God is like i.e. this is who God is and He calls us to be like Him. 

God is ⁸full because he already is - and has - perfect joy and infinite worth (glory) within Himself as the most significant (glorious) being of all. From Him everything else came and depends on for existance. 

Actually He is not just full but ⁹overflowing. And this is because of the perfectly magnificent beauty, majesty and glory of each person within the Godhead. 

The Spirit is God, manifested by and in passionate love (breath) between the Father and Son. This is who God is. He is infinite, passionate love i.e. He is Spirit. 

The Spirit is the life (energy) and wind (power) of God and also the very breath of God. Without breath, God - like us - no longer functions. To breathe is to live and to live we must breathe. So it is with God.

The Spirit is central and vital to who God is. The Spirits role is unique from the Father and Sons role and vital to the relationship between them as well as emanating from and manifested by that relationship.

This means each person within the Godhead is continuously giving and receiving perfect love from the other who is equally perfect in beauty and love yet also unique in function. 

Each loves perfectly and evokes in the other perfect love and delight because of their unique and perfect beauty and glory. They are all God together, not separately. For God to be God, they all must be together in a perfect union of beauty, harmony, and delight. 

The Father and Son are a union, community, and fellowship of nonstop love and motion in, by, and through the Spirit. An infinite and perpetual self sustained love ⁷generator, if you will, that never stops "running" because of their infinite beauty and worth. This has always been from all eternity past long before creation. 

Creation is an outward manifestation of who God is as infinite and perpetual love/Spirit. God does not need creation. Creation exists only because God exists as the God of love. If there were no God, there would be no love. Nothing else would be.

God is the "I AM" i.e. the self existent One who has no beginning or end. He depends on no one or any created thing because He has and delights in Himself as Father and Son in, by, and through the Spirit. Everything and everyone else comes from Him, exists by Him and points back to him.

For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.

To Him be the glory forever! Amen

Because of this, God's love is other oriented and focused, not self focused. First between the  Father, Son, and Spirit but also out to others who are like him i.e. In his image. In short God is not selfish - as a community of 3, with each focused on the infinite beauty and glory of the other - but is full and overflowing. 

Our 3 person God is continuously engaged in giving, receiving and overflowing in love within the community of Father and Son, in, by and through the Spirit. God has never been alone (or lonely) from all eternity past, nor will He ever be. He is not moved to get or take but only to give because He already is all glorious, always full and overflowing with love from and for another. 

When a husband beholds the beauty (glory) of his wife and partakes of it and a wife partakes of and experiences the strength (glory) of her husband it evokes within each a delight for the other. A delight so great that their Union is like another person. They are no longer two separate individuals but a new and distinct union of love. 

So it is with God who, unlike us, is perfectly beautiful, all glorious, infinitely strong, and continuously overflowing in love.

In God all theses qualities is perfection - nothing can be added to or taken away from God for Him to be all that He is. 

All of this is without end i.e. we can never reach the full height, breadth or depth of our experience of the infinite God...ever. 

Throughout eternity we will increasingly experience and participate in more of our infinite God. 

In light of who God is, He must be and is the center of all things. He is the most glorious, lovely, valuable, worthy and significant of all beings and things. 

Without God their would be no beauty, no delight, no joy, no love, no creation, no us... in short no life i.e. there would be no-thing. 

Everything else that is - other than God - is because of God. Nothing would be if He were not. 

The very existence of everything else is solely because of this dynamic, vibrant, nonstop overflowing God of love as Father and Son in, by and through the Spirit. 

This is why He is always calling us to glorify Him. It's not because He needs us, but because we need Him in order to participate in all He created us to be and experience i.e. we are created to experience Him in the fullness of His beauty-glory. We are designed to find our greatest glory and joy in experiencing His. 

His calling us to glorify Him is the most loving thing He can do for us - as well as the most honoring thing we can do for him. 

Our praises of him throughout eternity will be the spontaneous response to beholding him in all his majesty and glory. Just like the praises of the Father for the Son and the Son for the Father in, by, and through the Spirit. 

Life without God:

To live in order to take or get (vs give) is static - and stagnant. It centers on and ends with those who ²seek to operate this way. It is like the dead end on a one way street that ends with me (or anyone who operates without God's love moving them to love others). There is no flow through of traffic because the street does not connect to any others. It is a dead end.

To use another analogy it is like the Dead Sea in Israel. There is no life in it because its isolated with nothing flowing out. The opposite of the Sea of Galilee which is full of life with a source and exit for that life to come and go.

Like the Sea of Galilee, God's life is also dynamic, not static - because of the infinite beauty of the persons within the Godhead. Each is infinitely beautiful and glorious; each captures and delights the heart of the other and is captivated by the others infinite value and beauty. 

This results in love always flowing back and forth between, within, and among our Triune God - out to the other and continually received (reflected) back in admiration and delight. The infinite worth and glorious beauty of God is what drives and moves God Himself and everything else as a result.

God is life and love because he is the infinitely beautiful and glorious community of Father, Son and Spirit.

What happens when you add us to this divine mix or dance of love and delight? The love and delight only increases (multiplies), not diminishes i.e. love flows among  the Father and Son, in, by, and through the Spirit then out to us and back and forth between a greater number of others (who are in His image and as close to being like God as possible without actually being Him i.e. we are like Him in giving and receiving love but unlike Him, in that He is the Source of love and we are not i.e. we are the recipients and conduits of love not the cause).

We have the ³capacity to enter into this dance of divine love because we, ⁴like Christ, are like God himself... in His image. As His image bearers we are valuable and infinitely valued because we can display God (who is of greatest worth) in a way nothing else can (except Christ Himself, who alone did and does honor His Father perfectly above all others). 

Our capacity to bring Him - who is infinitely valuable - to others makes us valuable. In Christ we become the ⁵focus of Gods infinite affection in addition to the love between the Father, Son, and Spirit.

Does bringing or adding more to this divine dance "thin out" God's love? No, it increases, expands or multiplies it just like the love of parents can expand, increase, and multiply with each additional child. But unlike earthly parents God is the infinite source of life, love, and all created things. 

And our love for each child is unique because of the uniqueness of that child and how they each can uniquely reflect back to the parents love and overflow that love and their image out to others in a way the others can't.

The more children there are, the more facets of God's glory and affections are displayed, experienced, and enjoyed.

 

What is the beatific vision? Click here to find out more.

For more on the self sufficiency (aseity) of God click here. 

For more on the Christ being the only begotten of the Father click here. 

For more on how God is relationship click here.  

For more on whether God is dependent or independent click here. 

For more on the life, love and Spirit of God click here.  
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¹this is the model we build a Godly marriage on. Marriage best works as God designed it to, when each is focused on the other vs on themselves... with God as the central and primary focus (vs the only focus) and the source of love to and for each.

²Which is all of us until our disconnection from God - the source of life and love - is repaired and we are fully restored.

³I say capacity because to enter into this Union we first must be restored to God through Christ due to our rebellious and ongoing distrust and alienation between us and God, created by that distrust. 

This alienation must be resolved, and removed so we can be fully restored and reconnected to the Source of life and love. Once it is and we are reconciled and restored, we become the full and perfectly qualified recipients of God's unobstructed perfect love as we were designed to be. 

As we come to embrace and rest in His perfect nonstop love, we are increasingly able to partake of that love in the same way the Father, Son, and Spirit do. This goes to the next level when we are glorified with God in ever increasing glory for all eternity.

There is legally no longer any obstruction between us and God if we are "in Christ." It is gone forever. So much so that the very Spirit of God in all his holiness and infinite love now indwells us i.e. We are the temple of God and He now lives in us as perfectly restored and clean vessels. Without Christ legally purifying us He could and would not be restored and reconnected. 

However, practically - on our side of the union - a weak connection still exists because of our lack of perfect trust in the Father. Because of Christ we have perfect access to all God is but we must "plug in" by faith. Distrust is like a bad connection in a wire causing it to regularly short circuit and hinder the power from flowing freely and consistently through it to its intended end. But this is a separate matter. For more on this click here.

⁴The Father "begot" the Son from all eternity past, not at a point in time (like us) hence He is the "only begotten" Son. For a discussion of this click here.

⁵That infinite affection moves God to do whatever will best draw us closer to him, so we might experience more of Him and participate in more of His love. 

This often includes tests and trials, pain and suffering...but not always or forever. All pain is temporary if we are plugged back into God through Christ. 

When we gain from the pain what we need to (i.e. a greater humility and dependence on God), we rise above that pain. The circumstances causing our pain is often still present but it's sting is removed because we receive it as it truly is - i.e. from the loving hand of God for our ¹⁰increasing union practically for our highest good and His greatest glory. Similar to the pain we experience in a workout. It hurts at the time but we know the outcome is good.  To use a familiar expression, "no pain no gain." 

To say God is love is to say God is dynamic passion or affections for another resulting in an outward focus and loving action toward others. As the Father beholds the glory and beauty of Son and the Son beholds the glory and beauty of the Father, their delight, joy and passion for each other manifests as the Spirit. The Spirit of love, joy, and delight between the Father and the Son is God for God is love and He is Spirit.

In the original Hebrew Spirit means breath (movement of air or wind) among other things i.e. the passionate and affectionate breathing of God for another who is infinitely glorious and beautiful.

Spirit (Greek)
Πνεῦμα (Pneuma)
Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular
Strong's 4151: Wind, breath, spirit.

The value of the Father, Son and Spirit is so immense and they're delight in the other is so great it moves them to bring joy to each other. 

⁶We could say that love and delight is so real and intense it tangibly manifests as the Holy Spirit - i.e. the holy passion of God - as the 3rd person of the Trinity. We could argue this is in fact the over all manifestion of God who is both love and is Spirit. The very Spirit - passion/life - that binds the Triune God together.

⁷an analogy comparing God to a finite inanimate object - a generator - only gives a tiny sliver of truth, at best, in describing the infinitely overflowing God of perfect beauty, love, delight, and action. Clearly God is infinitely greater than anything created. Even more so of something mechanical. He is the cause and Creator of everything that is not God. He must be greater for without him nothing else would exist.

⁸our fullness, love, and fruitfulness as His children and bearers of His image is the overflow of beholding and participating in the beauty and glory of God in the same way He beholds and participates in the beauty and glory between and among the Father and Son in, by, and through the Spirit.

⁹This resulted (and results) in an overflow of love and glory to others like Him, as well as to all the rest of creation.

¹⁰ vs legally, which is not changing but completed. Because of the work of Christ - and it being credited to us as a gift - we are seen by God as perfectly righteous. While at the same time we are becoming more righteous practically in our daily conduct i.e. Our righteousness legally is complete while our righteousness practically is incomplete, ongoing and increasing. Practical righteousness will not be completed but continue until we are fully glorified in eternity.

Does cryptocurrency have value?

Cryptocurrencies are a very hot topic these days, in great part because of many stories we may have heard about early Bitcoin owners becoming multimillionaires. Some are ¹kicking themselves for hearing about Bitcoin but not "getting in on it." Therefore they are looking for the next big crypto coin to "²cash in" on. 

But also due to out of control government spending and the instability of the finacial system i.e. our money.

Yet some are trying to tamp down the "hysteria" saying cryptocurrencies are smoke and mirrors and they have no intrinsic value i.e. it's just another "tulip mania" craze (a common example and analogy used).

So which is it? A great opportunity, a hedge against inflation, an alternative to a fake money system, a hyped-up scam, or maybe even a CIA/bankster honey pot?

The argument is often made that since Bitcoin (or other cryptocurrencies) hold no physical assets, they also have no intrinsic value. This assumes only tangible assets have value. 

However, many things have value that are not physical/tangible.

Intellectual property would be a classic example. Why do folks pay consultants? Because they offer information (knowledge) that can help them do business more effectively, efficiently, and easily thereby enabling their business to become more profitable with the same effort. Is this not valuable? Apparently, some think so since business consultants make a very good living. As the saying goes in business, time is money. Consultants can run upwards of hundreds and in some cases even thousands of dollars an hour e.g. Tony Robbins. Why? They bring value to you or your business, yet no "tangible asset" is involved. Or maybe we should consider the consultant, with their knowledge and expertise, the tangle asset.

A computer app such as Microsoft's Word is nothing more than digital information programmed in such a way that it enables you to write and edit whatever you need to electronically. No more need for Whiteout or endless crumpled papers in the waste basket. This saves time as well as cost of materials.

Microsoft also paid billions of dollars for Skype - a direct messaging platform. Why!? Neither of these are physical/tangible products but ideas applied in the digital arena that offer very significant functional value to the users. 

 

You might even argue a digital program (app) is a tangible asset in the sense that it exists and has valuble benefits when used as designed, like electricity itself. No one would argue electricity doesn't have an effect or value even though it's not tangible/material in the way we normally think. 

The bottom line is anything that allows us to function more efficiently, effectively, securely, and profitability is valuable whether it's a "tangible" i.e. a physical asset, or not. 

To say it simply we value anything that saves us time and money. The better it does, the more we value it. 

So here are some questions to consider regarding this digital technology called cryptocurrency. 

Is there value in offering folks a way to do business transactions privately and securely thereby preventing detection and theft? If there wasn't we wouldn't have safes or banks (physical/tangible assets) to store our money in, would we? They are called "safes" for a reason. Just because it is a "digital safe" doesn't make it less of a safe storage of value. 

This is also why we don't like to carry around large amounts of cash and also why there are security features for credit cards. Privacy and security are important - i.e. these features have real value - because they help us keep the hard-earned fruit of our efforts safe. Both of these are an inherent part of cryptocurrency. 

Is it valuable to have a system where everyone is able to see and verify the amount (though not necessarily the parties doing the transaction) so if anyone tries to make a fraudulent transaction (e.g. "write a bad check") it's detected and rejected by the system/technology itself i.e. no need to trust the sender or have a central "overlord" to verify things if the funds can be 100% verified (unlike an overextended credit card or bad check) by the technology itself before you send your goods or provide services? 

Who we are doing business with may be important but often only to determine if we can trust the funds are there and the payment will be good. If there is a foolproof way of knowing the funds are good, who we are doing business with doesn't really matter as far as the validity of the transaction is concerned.

Aren't we finding ourselves increasingly leery of trusting strangers? The fact is you can't do business without trust. In fact, to have any mutually beneficial relationship, both parties must be trusted or we simply won't transact with them. No trust, no business or relationship.

So what if you have a way to pay for goods and services where you didn't have to trust the one offering the funds because the nature of the transfer had features built-in assuring it was exactly the amount you were told and the funds were 100% good i.e. you knew you were getting exactly the amount you asked for or were offered when you were offered it? With cryptocurrency, the technology verifies the availability of the funds and the amount of the transaction. It is built into the coin itself (it is the nature and backbone of blockchain technology) and doesn't require the trust of the party sending it or a central party confirming its validity such as a bank. It simply needs to be sent.

Is it valuable to enable folks to be able to trust that a transaction is legit without having to take our time, energy, and financial resources to do so because we know with absolute certainty the funds are "good" no matter who they are coming from i.e. we know the "check will clear" so to speak, allowing us to utilize the funds quickly which results in being able to use our time elsewhere resulting in greater? Who hasn't lost money, credibility, trust, or customers due to a delayed transfer of funds?

Is it valuable to enable transactions to occur with minimum to no fees (most crypto transactions are strictly peer-to-peer, without using an exchange (exchanges are used to buy and sell, not necessarily transfer funds? Most transaction fees are very low allowing us to do our financial transactions at a much lower cost per transaction than with traditional institutions such as banks? You can do a transfer of literally millions of dollars from one crypto wallet to another often for less than $5 within only a few minutes, sometimes as quick as a couple of minutes. Ever had to wait for days, much less minutes, waiting for "funds to clear" with an ACH transfer or wire? Zelle is great, but you can only send under 2k at a time.  

If you can reduce your cost of a transaction by cutting out the middleman and go directly to the party you are doing business with i.e. peer to peer (because you no longer need the "middle man" due to the inherent built-in verification of the digital transaction) is that valuable? Banks, brokers, and exchanges are merely middlemen who get a piece of the action i.e. money moving from one party to another, and can take days to do so.  If you can move the money directly to the intended party, no middlemen are needed. 

Is it valuable to be able to do a transaction almost instantly with anyone in the world who accepts cryptocurrency? Especially for the one receiving the funds.

What about all the "unbanked" around the world, particularly those in 3rd world countries. Even they have cell phones. As long as you have a "smartphone" you can do all your financial transactions through your wallet installed on your phone. (Wallets are free to install). You can send or receive funds from anyone else, anywhere in the world who has cell service and a wallet on their phone. No bank is necessary because you in effect are the bank sending money to another bank i.e. another phone with a wallet app installed. 

People want privacy, security, protection, ease of use, and the most cost-effective and quickest way of doing transactions. These are all very valuable to all of us. What best provides these things will have the greatest value. True cryptocurrency (not CBDC) does all of these and more. 

If you probe a bit you will find those who scream the loudest about the lack of value of cryptocurrency are those who stand to lose the most, not unlike those who criticized the combustible engine (such as horse-pulled buggy makers) or the internet (the news business and phone companies). No one has newspapers delivered anymore. Magazines are also going by the wayside. Who uses landlines anymore? You can talk to anyone anywhere in the world for a reasonable monthly fee (or a free connection at a Starbucks or the like) through an internet connection. 

Who would be the ones who have the most to lose with cryptocurrencies? Banks, Brokers, Wall Street, and any middleman whose livelihood is tied to traditional financial services. But the biggest losers may be the Central Bank (the Federal Reserve system in the US) and the governments that depend on the collection of revenues through the traditional money system. I don't give tax advice. However, any system that could possibly allow people to bypass taxes poses a real threat to the system and the powers that be. Using government-controlled transactions via fiat currency feeds the beast of the central banking system. If you've ever tried to take food from a hungry dog with a huge appetite (and lots of puppies to feed) you'll get the idea. 

The fact that cryptocurrencies are still relatively new (only around 4% are involved with or use crypto in some way as of this article. However, with a 500% + increase in usage in 2022 (and 27% on average) it is clear that more and more people are finding cryptocurrency has real value, especially on the most remote areas without any banking available at all. 

How many would have liked to have invested in the printing press, the automobile, and the light bulb before their actual value was fully recognized? Can I see a show of hands?

What is fiat currency and what is its value?

While many express concern over what backs crypto's value few ask what assets back the US Dollar.

The US dollar is a fiat (money by law or decree) currency, which means it is not required to be backed by any physical commodity or asset, but rather by the faith and confidence of its users (we could legitimately call this a "con" - confidence - game). The value of the US dollar is not pegged to any specific asset or commodity (though it was tied to silver at one time up until 1971).

  

Now it is actually an IOU i.e. a "bill" which is a debt instrument and "we the people" and our labor are the pledged collateral. You could say by using their "legal tender" we are slaves on a federal plantation. 

The US dollar is widely held and accepted as a means of exchange, store of value, and unit of account among governments, institutions, and individuals around the world, and yet, it is backed by less than nothing... it is a "Federal Reserve Note" - written across the top of every piece of paper "money" - which is not federal and has no reserves but is a "note"

i.e. a debt instrument.  

Once you understand how our current paper money system works and why crypto has actual intrinsic (if not tangible) value, I predict you will be jumping on the crypto train yourself if you aren't already on board.

For a discussion on what exactly is currency click here.

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¹I was actually given 1/10 of a bitcoin when it was around a dollar per coin just to open up a virtual wallet. I had forgotten about it until years later when Bitcoin jumped past $60000 a coin. During that time my computer crashed and I lost the password to my wallet. So somewhere in cyberspace is a wallet (with the missing key to open it) worth 1/10 of a bitcoin at whatever the price currently is.

²This mindset of cashing in on a coin is why so many people lose their shirts. That is not a strategy it is more like gambling. But that's a separate topic for another article.

 

³another argument against crypto is it won't work without electricity, which is true but the actual data - "physical bits of information" - remains intact (just like the letters and words on a page) whether you have the power to view or transfer it or not. Once you have electricity you are back in action. Plus no one seriously thinks electricity will go away long term. Even if we had a major EMT event, solar (and other alternatives) could have us back up and running in time. If we ever had a total electricity blackout we'd have far greater issues than not being able to use cryptocurrency. 

We run on electricity - brain signals for example. The point is, electricity is all around us and we will always find a way to harness it without the system being the gatekeeper.

 

Possibly the most significant and maybe least understood feature of all cryptocurrencies is they are limited i.e. there is a fixed number of coins issued and no more. If not, it is not true crypto but only a digital alternative look alike, such as the government-proposed CBDC i.e. central bank digital currency (personally I wouldn't touch their digital currency if my life depended on it. And if you don't look into how to acquire and use true crypto, it may). 

One of the key principles of economics is supply and demand. If there are a set number of coins, as they become more scarce and their value becomes more and more recognized, they are used more and more and the price will go up because demand will go up, so you never have to be concerned over a coin being devalued through the creation of new coins. This is the opposite of our smoke and mirrors paper money (and the proposed CBDC) that can be fractionalized into oblivion. This drives the value down eventually to nothing as more "dollars" are printed. This will also be the case with a centralized and controlled "fed coin" or fed digital currency that is now being floated about. The simple solution is don't use their crap. To say it simply, true cryptocurrencies eliminate inflation (and often do the opposite i.e. go up in value). So-called inflation is actually the devaluation of paper money by increasing the supply - i.e. printing more - so it takes more of it to acquire the same goods and services over time.