Warren opens this section called PURPOSE #3 You Were Created to Become Like Christ with Chapter 22: Created to Become like Christ teaching that God created us in His image. We are called to shine His image and light into the world. We are similar to God in that we are spiritual, intellectual and relational beings. All people are born with a moral conscious. Christ was sent to restore our image of God and to remind us of why and how we were created. Christ is our connection to God. He is our standard of how we try to grow closer toward becoming more like God. Understanding that we will never reach this destination does not mean that we don 't aspire toward that path. Character development, not personality alteration, is God 's ultimate goal
Knowing Christ 's character traits help us chose correctly. By looking at the fruits of the spirit as the 9 qualities that we all should show to be like Christ, helps us make the right choices in life. God develops and ripens these fruits by allowing us to experience temptations where we are faced with either growing more loving, patient, full of joy, grace, knowledge, self-control, etc, or by growing in the opposite direction. Life is a choice and God uses circumstances to teach us what He needs us to learn. Joy is based on our relationship to God and is not to be equated with happiness which is based on circumstances. The fruits of the spirit are developed in us as we become closer to Christ. Chaos and Peace, lies and truth, irritation and patience, are all opposites and signs we are either growing closer or further from our Master’s desire for us. Satan is predictable, he wishes to trip us up and use our weaknesses. First, he uses a specific pattern to do this in our lives, and one needs to be able to recognize it. He finds a desire inside of us, he suggest with a thought that we should pursue it, it starts in the mind and moves into the heart. Satan then will try to get us to doubt God’s word and plan for us. Next, Satan will lie to us to get us to believe that it will be okay and tries to convince us that there is no real consequence. Lastly, the temptation leads us into disobedience and traps us in the sin. To overcome temptation one needs to refuse to become intimidated in the first place. Understanding that we will never outgrow temptation helps us learn it is a process to become strong against Satan. Temptation from Satan is actually to be seen as a compliment because it is a sign that Satan hates those who are followers of Christ, is fearful of those trying to make a difference for Christ, and is
Why hast Thou come now to hinder us? For Thou hast come to hinder us, and Thou knowest that... We are working not with Thee but with him [Satan]... We took from him what Thou didst reject with scorn, that last gift he offered Thee, showing Thee all the kingdoms of the earth. We took from him Rome and the sword of Caesar, and proclaimed ourselves sole rulers of the earth... We shall triumph and shall be Caesars, and then we shall plan the universal happiness of
Satan aspires to rise above God in power, yet his ambition makes him unable to recognize the impossibility of such desires. Satan’s lofty position as God’s second-in-command raises his ambition: “lifted up so high/ I sdeined subjection, and thought one step higher/ Would set me highest” (Milton 4.49-51). The angel’s ambition drives his hope for absolute power and convinces him that he could fulfill such grandiose desires. However, God is unequalled in supremacy and can never be defeated; his absolute dominance renders Satan’s hopes futile. The angel will never be able to challenge God’s power, let alone defeat the omnipotent. Still, Satan is overly ambitious and thus blind to the impossibility of defeating God. Satan’s ambition parallels to the monster’s desperation for love in Shelley’s Frankenstein. As the monster observes the daily lives of the cottagers, he develops an ardent longing to enjoy the love and sympathy of mankind. He knows his desires are impossible to fulfill, but his desperation drives him to feign ignorance: “I persuaded myself that when they should become acquainted with my admiration of their virtues they would compassionate me and overlook my personal deformity” (Shelley
"I cannot forgive Descartes. In all his philosophy he would have been quite willing to dispense with God. But he had to make Him give a fillip to set the world in motion; beyond this, he has no further need of God."
We were designed for one purpose, to honor and love our creator (Matthew 6:24). When we look at ourselves, and others we find that we each have individual humanistic characteristics. Each with different thoughts of how we perceive God and what we think he wants from us. By using our talents and gifts wisely and just we are giving praise back to our creator (1 Timothy 6:17).
John 1: 1-18 focuses on how God is present in the world. John sees himself as a messenger for the word, which he can spread the good news about God’s creation. He knows he is not the messiah; however, he has goals of pointing people in the proper direction. At the beginning of the Book of John, there is a great amount of darkness that is over the world. People are stuck in the darkness, until they listen to word and follow the light of God. John tells the audience that true light is coming and will pour into their lives. Within the first few verses John shows that through God we can achieve great things. He shows brokenness in this
Satan frequently characterizes “the tyranny of heaven” and employs negative diction in his depictions of both heaven and God (I.124). His negative portrayals of God and his kingdom highlight his utter dissatisfaction with being subservient to God and, from that, his desire for autonomy. In the exposition of the text, Satan’s emotions toward God make themselves apparent when Satan “throws his baleful eyes / That witnessed huge affliction and dismay / Mixed with obdúrate pride and steadfast hate” (I.56-58). Satan reveals himself to be furious with his continued subjugation to God as well as his inability to truly revenge himself against his subsequent punishment. According to Satan, God’s dissimulation of his power tempted Satan and others to rise
My family taught me about Jesus at a young age, so I always knew I wanted to have a close relationship with him. Knowing that God is going to have my back no matter what was the best feeling to me. He will never leave a person or turn his back on them. The fact that the Bible guides people is one of the amazing things to me because one scripture can change a person whole life. My discourse community teaches a person about faith, love, and everything a person will ever need in life. Jesus encourages people, and supports people when they fail. Being a Christian motivates me and gives me a meaning of life. Being saved is easy, but the hard part is following his guidelines. He knows people are going to make a lot of mistakes in life, but the fact that he doesn’t judge them is amazing. Accepting Christ means a person has escaped that judgment and therefore they will have external life. Being a part of this discourse community has brought me to a new place in life, and for that I am
...hat share my faith and together worship Jesus. I believe that by being in fellowship with other believers I will have a strong opportunity to pursue and fulfill God’s purpose in my life, whether it is a daily or lifetime calling.
“First, there is the call to be a Christian. Second, for each individual there is a specific call—a defining purpose or mission, a reason for being. Every individual is called of God to respond through service in the world. Third, there is the call that we face each day in response to the multiple demands on our lives—our immediate duties and responsibilities” (Smith, ...
They are called to become like him through His grace and not by their own righteousness as Paul indicates in Romans, “And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.” (Romans 11:6). The clear difference is that one must desire to follow the law in humility. Knowing that without God, he is powerless and is vulnerable to falling away. As Paul states in 1 Corinthians despite being made free by Christ, he has chosen to become a slave to all including his own body lest he himself be disqualified (1 Corinthians
God and the Bible’s teachings are used as a framework to find meaning in life and purpose of human presence. Purpose resides in every human’s potential to strive for peace, seek equality, nurture relationships and the environment to achieve harmony with the earth (Valk, 2012). “Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior and my hope is in you all day long” (Ps 25:5). The Holy Spirit, known as God’s active force and His power in action (Lk 1:35), is used as a guide by Christians to ascertain and determine what is right. “We choose to act based on good thinking, scripture and prayer, and the Holy Spirit helps us discern the right alternatives” (Shelly & Miller, 2006, p. 89). In seeing others as the image of God, choosing what is right from wrong is influenced by beliefs cultural background and respect for one another. In this religious culture, the tendency to do wrong is seen as sinfulness. However, it is the admission of sin that leads Christians to Jesus Christ to find and experience God’s forgiveness (Shelly & Miller, 2006). The recognition of sin and eventual redemption strengthens the relationship with God which directs a life of service to humanity (Shelly & Miller,
The final temptation, as the book describes, “is probably the most unsubtle and yet most alluring of the three” (pg. 44). Satan attempts to tempt Jesus into rivaling God. Satan tells Jesus to worship him and he will give him all things on the earth and under his control. This was a huge temptation for Jesus, because it meant a way to bypass the cross. It was a way for Jesus to gain complete sovereignty that he is promised after the cross, but he could get it before having to die on the cross. This would ultimately deny everything that God had for Jesus. It would go against every plan or purpose. Jesus could have missed all the suffering he was about to face. He would not have had to submit to the Father daily, he would not have had to die for us, he would not have had to suffer for 3 years thinking about his death that was too come. Jesus could have avoided all the suffering by simply bowing to Satan. Satan’s ultimate goal was to tempt Jesus away from what God had for him. Satan was trying to manipulate God and manipulate how Jesus viewed God. Jesus would receive all these things that Satan was “offering” to him and much more if he remained obedient to his Father, which he
To understand Christianity, it is necessary to understand who Saul was and what his career on earth consisted of. Aside from Jesus Christ, Saul has been the most important figure in the history of religion, and has influenced every believer to this day. His career was more a calling, or was considered to be more of a life style because it was his passion and it was what he loved doing. Jesus was not the founder of Christianity as we know it today. Most of the New Testament doesn't even concern the historical Jesus while the main influence is the Apostle Paul and through the church he founded at Ephesus a Greek convert named John. Saul never met Jesus in the flesh, he only claimed some strange vision and proceeded to paganism the teachings of Jesus (who preached an enlightened form of Judaism), until he created Pauline Christianity. Because there are no known writings from Jesus, the actual Apostles, or anyone that actually knew Him in the flesh (other then perhaps James), most of what He taught is lost forever, other than perhaps the disputed Gnostic Gospels.
Our main goal is to present everyone fully mature in Christ. (Col. 1:28) we warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. (1 Th. 5:14-15) We pray for them (Jam. 5:13-16) and help them to recognize and repent for their sins. (Matt.
As Christians, we try to think that since we are saved we are living a life like Christ but, we are missing the key points of living. In the book, “The Spirit of the Disciplines” author, Dallas Willard emphasizes the spiritual disciplines of our lives and to live like Jesus did. He mentions how the people of the world are missing the disciplines that are set for them in their lives. In Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in his own image.” We are the people of the Lord and must do works to please our God it is a way to show our gratitude for all he has done for us. We are placed on this earth to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Based off religion, we are negatively defined as sinners and broken people while science