Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. ² And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. – Ephesians 5:1-2

In the beginning, God created us in His image.  Like a mirror, we were created to reflect God’s glory to the world around us.  Unfortunately, sin entered the world and our reflection became distorted.  Our mirrors became bent and broken.

The story doesn’t stop there though.  Jesus entered our world and imaged the Father perfectly.  He reflected God’s glory to the world perfectly.  Everything he did showed us a perfect image of who the Father is.  Jesus said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”[i] Jesus imaged the Father.

We are called to image Jesus in the same way that Jesus imaged God the Father.  As disciples we are being conformed into the image of Jesus.[ii] Bruce Ware describes our imaging this way:

Created and finite representations (images of God) of God’s own nature, that in relationship with Him and each other, they might be His representatives (imaging God) in carrying out responsibilities He was given to them.  In this sense, we are images of God in order to image God and His purposes in the ordering of our lives and carrying out of our God-given responsibilities.[iii]

In the next three weeks we will focus on three distinct areas in our lives in which we are called to image God.  We are called to worship Jesus with all of our lives, live in gospel-centered community, and be on mission in the world around us.  For now we will simply focus on the thought of imaging God.

Now that our identity is in Jesus, our lives are called to be a reflection of Jesus.  Our mirrors are being repaired so we can image Jesus in everything we do, think, feel, and say.  This is only possible because of the relationship that we now have with Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit as we are continually purified into the image of Jesus.

As a disciple of Jesus, it is our goal that every aspect of our life would reflect God’s glory.  Our families should reflect God’s glory.  Our finances should reflect God’s glory.  Our relationships should reflect God’s glory.  Our jobs should reflect God’s glory.  Spend this week focusing on how you are called to be an image-bearer of God.

[ii] Romans 8:29

[iii] Wayne Grudem, Biblical Foundations for Manhood and Womanhood (Crossway Books, 2002), 79.

So where does our journey begin?  Jesus.  It all starts with Jesus.  He is the creator of all things.  He is ruler over everything.  He holds everything together by His power.  He came to earth; humbly born of a teenage virgin girl in a dirty barn in the Middle East over 2,000 years ago.  He lived a perfect life by the power of the Holy Spirit.   He was betrayed by one of His closest pupils.  He was beaten to a bloody pulp and died a brutal death on a wooden cross for our sins.

It is in the work of Jesus on the cross that our relationship with God the Father is reconciled. Because of the sin of our father Adam, we were separated from God.  In our sin, we ran as far away from God as possible.  Before Jesus, we were viewed as sick-wicked-evil-despicable-depraved-sinful people.  God the Father was ready to pour His wrath out on us.

But God, in His grace, came after us.  He pulled us out of our sin and placed us in Christ Jesus.  For those whom God has called to Himself we are now viewed “in Christ.”  We are now “holy and blameless and above reproach before him.”[i] God the Father no longer sees us.  Instead he sees his Son Jesus Christ.

This happens in what Martin Luther called the great exchange.  On the cross, Jesus took our sin upon himself, and in exchange he gave us his righteousness.  The Apostle Paul puts it this way in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”[ii] In Jesus, our sin has been exchanged for His righteousness.

But it’s not just about the removal of our sins; everything we do as Christians is “in Christ.”  We are sanctified in Christ.[iii] We serve in Christ.[iv] We are redeemed in Christ.[v] We are made alive in Christ.[vi] We are no longer condemned in Christ.[vii] We are one body of believers in Christ.[viii] We are a new creation in Christ.[ix] We are reconciled to God in Christ.[x] We have freedom in Christ.[xi] We are spiritually blessed in Christ.[xii] We are created for good works in Christ.[xiii] We are encouraged in Christ.[xiv] We become mature in Christ.[xv] We are strengthened by grace in Christ.[xvi] Even our physical death is in Christ[xvii] (and this is just the short list).

If you have put your faith in Him, you are now in Christ.  We no longer have our old sinful identity.  We have His!  We have received His righteousness as our own.   We now have a loving relationship with God the Father by the blood of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Spend this week focusing on your new identity in Christ Jesus.

[ii] (ESV)

[iii] 1 Corinthians 1:2

[iv] Romans 16:3, 9

[v] Romans 3:24

[vi] Romans 6:11, 1 Corinthians 15:22

[vii] Romans 8:11

[viii] Romans 12:5

[ix] 2 Corinthians 5:17

[x] 2 Corinthians 5:19

[xi] Galatians 2:4

[xii] Ephesians 1:3

[xiii] Ephesians 2:10

[xiv] Philippians 2:1

[xv] Colossians 1:28

[xvi] 2 Timothy 2:1

[xvii] 1 Corinthians 15:18, 1 Thessalonians 4:16

Hello,

With only a few days away from running in my first triathlon, I wanted to share some words of encouragement and wisdom with my fellow athletes out there.  I didn’t grow up a very athletic person.  I’m not that coordinated, and I’m not that strong.

I tried playing basketball, but I was to aggressive.  I would generally only get to play for five minutes before I would foul out.  I tried playing football, but I wasn’t big enough, strong enough, fast enough, or aggressive enough to be any good (it didn’t help that the coach wanted me to play center at 6′ and 135 lbs).  There was really only one sport I was good at…track.

It doesn’t take a lot of strength or skill to run.  So I did really well.  I wasn’t fast, so I ran longer distance events.  I wasn’t the best, but I always placed.  I ran on the varsity track team at my school starting in eighth grade until I graduated. (we were a small division school).  I loved pushing my body to it’s limit and then some.  I loved competing.  It’s this history of competition that starts to bring up some long lost feelings inside of me.

Some of my feelings are good and some are bad.  I think sports can bring out the best and the worst in people (and sometimes at the same time).  I know from experience that sports and competition can bring out a laundry list of sins in people…pride, selfishness, arrogance, timidity, course language, unrighteous anger, belittlement, ect.

I have seen people pray before a game and in the same breath speak crude and prideful words against the other team. I have been an arrogant winner and a sore loser.  I have been poor sport.  I have cheated.  I have belittled and demeaned other athletes and teammates.

But I have also seen athletes become even more Christ-like through competition and sports.  I’ve seen teamwork and unity abound.  I’ve seen men with great talent and heart walk humbly in a knowledge of Who gave them their gifts.  I have seen men suffer well in harsh anti-christian environments.  I have seen men point to Jesus as their true prize and not some medal or ribbon.

It is with this in mind that I write this letter.  I am determined that sports and competition will not bring me down.  I am determined to not seek glory for myself.  But I pray that my competing will be done in a way that brings glory to Jesus. I am determined that it is more important to finish the race with integrity proclaiming the good news of Jesus than to win and dishonor his name (not like I have a chance of winning).  I am determined that Jesus is my ultimate prize.  The reason I compete is to draw closer to Jesus and humbly point others to Him.

Whether I win or lose, I am determined to “run the good race.”  I hope you are determined too.

To the glory of God,

Greg Qualls

This is just a short rant I had to get out of my system.  I don’t know if this happens to you, but it seems to happen pretty frequently to me.  The people change, but the conversation seems to stay about the same.

Them: Hey can I talk to you.

Me: Sure.

Them: God has really been convicting me lately of _________ sin in my life.

Me: Ok.

Them:  I’m telling you this because I’ve seen you do the same thing to me.

Me: um…..

I’m just a little confused, when did the fact that God is convicting you of your deep sinful character flaw, give you the right to nit pick my flaws.  I kind of remember Jesus talking about taking the log out of your own eye….not leave the log in your eye, pick up a sniper rifle, and start shooting everyone with specks in their eyes.   It just doesn’t make sense.

So here’s my recomendation.  The next time God convicts you of something, stop! Don’t start looking around to see if anyone else has the same sin. Don’t start thinking about how you’ve been hurt by others in the same way.  Don’t start calling every Tom, Dick and Sally.  Instead, put the gun down and go to Jesus.  Let him take the log out of your eye and give it some time to heal (logs in your eyes tend to cause a lot of damage). Otherwise you might end up shooting some close friends….

photo by: JasonRogers

If you’re like me, you have trouble spending time with God (I don’t like to use the words quiet time…it makes me feel like I’m five and in a “time out”). I’ve written in the past on some tips and tricks that I use to do this daily. But just like in a marriage relationship, sometimes you just need to spend more than a few minutes with your spouse. You need to spend the whole day. I call this spending time with God hardcore style.

I learned this concept from Doug Fields a few years ago. He talked about one of his youth saying that they “take God on a date.” Now taking God on a date is a little creepy for me, but I liked the concept. The idea is to just spend some extended time with God and nobody else.

To do this, I normally take an afternoon and spend the entire time reading scripture, praying, walking, reading some more, praying some more, and walking some more. The idea is to have a large chunk of time that is devoted to nothing but growing closer to God. This isn’t time to study your Bible and parse Greek verbs…this is time to just be with your Creator, Savior, and Sustainer.

The following are 26 quick tips that can help you with your hardcore time with God.

1. Get out of your house. There are to many distractions there. To many things to play with.
2. Get away from people.
3. Go to a park or go hiking. Go be in His creation.
4. Wear comfortable clothing.
5. Turn off everything…phone, pager, radio, ipod, laptop, ect. If it has an on/off, make it off.
6. Look for God in everything and then give Him the glory.
7. Take your Bible (ESV ), a pen, and something to write on.
8. Anytime you think about something that you need to do when you get home, write it down and forget about it. This will allow you to focus on your time with God. (this is a good practice in general)
9. Take a list of prayer requests and things/people you want to pray for.
10. Have an agenda/time line.
11. Don’t have an agenda/time line.
12. Pray, pray, pray
13. Take a snack and some cash.
14. Take some water.
15. Tell one person where you are going to be in case of emergencies (your wife goes into labor). This helps to keep your thoughts from being overtaken.
16. Read through a whole book of the Bible several times.
17. Read through a passage of scripture several times.
18. Read all the gospels in one sitting (it can be done in an afternoon).
19. Fast
20. Eat
21. Just walk and talk to God as if He was walking right next to you.
22. Take a short nap (it’s better to sleep for 20 minutes than to fight it for 3 hrs).
23. Write out your prayers to God.
24. Pray for God to reveal sin in your life that is keeping you from Him.
25. Take some time to sit and listen to God.
26. Be diligent to focus on God and your relationship.

Well I hope that helps. I’m off to go spend some hardcore time with God. Leave me a comment, with any tips that you might have for spending hardcore time with God.

photo by: meyshanworld

The following post is from my friend Sandra Bauman. Sandra and I met at City on a Hill a while back. Sandra is the type of person that you can become instant friends with, but one of the things I like to talk to her about the most is how her Jewish heritage her current relationship with Jesus. The following is an email that she recently sent out to all her friends. I hope you enjoy.

[Ash Wednesday] got me thinking — and got the Holy Spirit reminding me — about something that struck me this fall, which I fully intended to implement….but didn’t….

Every so often I miss a bit of the liturgy, the Hebrew prayers, and the traditions of my Jewish upbringing. So, this past Yom Kippur – (the Jewish “Day of Atonement” – the one day of the year a Jew has the potential to be forgiven everything one did last year and hopefully be written in God’s “book” to live another year) – I went to Adat Yeshua.

At one point in the Yom Kippur service the congregation confesses together out loud a litany of sins. The list was intriguing because I could identify something I had done in practically every line. My natural tendency, at the end of a day (or week, or month…or never), is to look back and not be able to specifically identify anything I would call “sin.” This list of sins totally blows that out of the water.

My intention after that YK service was to type the list up handily and go over it every evening before going to sleep. Needless to say, that didn’t happen. But now that I’ve confessed that please feel free to hold me accountable – ask me about it!

I also offer it to you (at the bottom) as a potential tool to use (and share) as we, individually and as a family, enter into this Lent season with the charge Dave and Donovan offered: to truly agree with God about our sin and need for Him, and allow Him to work an amazing transformation within us.

I love you and look forward to the adventures this challenge will bring!

Sandra

Confession*

The sin we committed in your sight forcibly or willingly
And the sin we committed against you by acting callously

The sin we committed in your sight unintentionally
And the sin we committed against you by idle talk

The sin we committed in your sight by lustful behavior
And the sin we committed against you publicly or privately

The sin we committed in your sight knowlingly and deceptively
And the sin we committed against you by offensive speech

The sin we committed in your sight by lewd association
And the sin we committed against you by insincere confession

The sin we committed by contempt for parents or teachers
And the sin we committed against you willfully or by mistake

The sin we committed in your sight by violence
And the sin we committed against you by defaming your name

The sin we committed in your sight by unclean lips
And for the sin we committed against you by foolish talk

The sin we committed in your sight by evil impulse
And the sin we committed against you wittingly or unwittingly

The sin we committed in your sight by fraud and falsehood
And the sin we committed against you by bribery

The sin we committed in your sight by scoffing
And the sin we committed against you by slander

The sin we committed in your sight in dealings with men
And the sin we committed against you in eating and drinking

The sin we committed in your sight by usury and interest
And the sin we committed against you by a lofty bearing

The sin we committed in your sight by our manner of speech
And the sin we committed against you by wanton glances

The sin we committed in your sight by haughty airs
And the sin we committed against you by scornful defiance

The sin we committed in your sight by casting off responsibility
And the sin we committed against you in passing judgment

The sin we committed in your sight by plotting against men
And the sin we committed against you by sordid selfishness

The sin we committed in your sight by levity of mind
And the sin we committed against you by being obstinate

The sin we committed in your sight by running to do evil
And the sin we committed against you by talebearing

The sin we committed in your sight by swearing falsely
And the sin we committed against you by groundless hatred

The sin we committed in your sight by breach of trust
And the sin we committed against you by a confused heart

*(Paraphrased from the High Holiday Prayer Book, Copyright 1951 by Hebrew Publishing Company, New York, and 1979 by Philip Birnbaum)