Choice, Calling, and Imaging God
The opportunity we uniquely have to image God is a paradoxical combination of what we choose and what is handed to us by the world around us.
The opportunity we uniquely have to image God is a paradoxical combination of what we choose and what is handed to us by the world around us.
We will have times in our life when God sends us to our own private Gethsemane and like Jesus, we cry out, “God, could there be any other way?” I
The issue is that the world is starting to speak a different sociological language than the church, leaving the church to feel outdated.
Both the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness are working to pattern our lives after their rule.
This is the way the triune God works redemption into our lives: cycle-by-cycle bringing us through growth in Relationship-Identity-Destiny, each time adding another layer.
What should we be telling someone when God is moving upon them to move them to salvation?
As we learn to walk with the Holy Spirit in the Destiny Journey, our life becomes an adventure!
We are invited into a life where we are made of the same stuff as Jesus, and we live united with him. He is in us now, and we are in him as well.
We don’t need to try and turn to our relationships or performance in the world to belong and have a safe home, we can get that in God’s love
Our relational walk with the three-in-one God results in a three-in-one journey.
I would suggest we are hitting the limits of what we can handle as a nation without displaying moments of significant regression.
What does this all mean for knowing God? Well, it means that to some degree, we have three distinct relationships with the one God.
Relationship without doctrine is worth infinitely more than doctrine without relationship.
I think one of the things that is important to keep in mind is that the Bible is what was inspired and gifted to us by the Holy Spirit, not theology.
When it comes down to it, God is more invested in writing than any of us are.
This is the kind of collective action I’m talking about; something new that
happens with all of us that transcends the way God is working with any one of us.
If we don’t understand God’s design in diversity, how do we know our efforts in this area are actually redemptive?
If the rest of the world operates by decentralized structures facilitated by technology-assisted connections, the church will need to find its way into that space as well if it wants to remain relevant and effective.
The technology that has become ubiquitous in our 21st-century lives is distinct
in that it merges with our daily lives to the extent that it is never very far from our minds.
What is more helpful than trying to flex our faith muscles is to circle back to where our belonging lies.
The church needs to be tracking with what God is doing in the entire world and how that is going to affect our ability to pursue the great commission.