What is it going to take to get us to apprehend God's purpose for our life?
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Give our life to Him...What is it going to take to get us to apprehend God's purpose for our life?
What is it going to take to get us to apprehend God's purpose for our life?
It's really not complicated. The scriptures tell us repeatedly.What is it going to take to get us to apprehend God's purpose for our life?
It's really not complicated. The scriptures tell us repeatedly.
Our purpose in life is to be just like Jesus, to be God-like.
"You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Mat 5:48 RSV)
"... be conformed to the image of his Son" (RO 8:29b RSV)
"... be filled with all the fullness of God." (Eph 3:19b RSV)
"... attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph 4:13 RSV)
"Therefore be imitators of God,..." (Eph 5:1a RSV)
"...become partakers of the divine nature." (2 Peter 1:4c RSV)
iakov the fool
It is an awesome challenge. And if we don't even try (" 'cause I believe and that's all I gotta do") we won't even come near to that goal of being conformed to the image of Christ per Rom 8:29.Jim,
That's an awesome challenge and responsibility. Only God himself can help us in our pursuit of these purposes.
Oz
It is an awesome challenge. And if we don't even try (" 'cause I believe and that's all I gotta do") we won't even come near to that goal of being conformed to the image of Christ per Rom 8:29.
jim
ANything would help!How much assistance do you consider that we as Christians need from mentors/disciplers (even in our older age) to help us become conformed to the image of Christ?
You must be one of those human being things!growing in the faith is a challenge to me and I need a mentor.
ANything would help!
What I see is an absence of mentor/disciplers.
The standard seems to be to get them in to the church, entertain them so they'll stay and teach them to give 10% of their income as if they were still under the law of Moses and the pastor was a Levite.
When discipleship is talked about, it's usually in the context of a "discipleship class." Discipleship isn't about lectures and education; it's about training. When we train a soldier, we don't give him a class on how a rifle works and show him a diagram about how to load it, aim it, and pull the trigger and then send him into combat. They get hands on, practical training so that they becomes experts in the arts of soldiering.
We tend to make Christian gnostics by filling their heads with our denominational Bible-stuffing and then encourage them to come in, sit down, write a check, and, if possible, invite a neighbor every few years.
The dead faith gospel (faith without works) supports that kind of churchianity.
My experience is that many church leaders don't want their people to get too full of the Holy Spirit and on fire for God because they might go out and start a bible study or a church that didn't bring $$$ into the pastor's 'storehouse.'
You must be one of those human being things!
Jesus mentored 12 and it is very likely that each of the 12 mentored another 10. That's how a yeshiva was organized; rabbi - inner circle - outer circle - followers.
jim
It has become very apparent to me that such efforts are generally ignored by the "clergy" and that we just need to do what we see needs to be done.The only reason I'm the discipler is not because the church has disciplers waiting to disciple new Christians, but because he came to me and asked,
It has become very apparent to me that such efforts are generally ignored by the "clergy" and that we just need to do what we see needs to be done.
Here in Las Vegas, we have a small group of new members who drive 1.5 to 2 hours to get to church and would like to have some kind of a Bible study for them. The clergy aren't interested. So I volunteered to make the 3-hoour round trip once a week. The pastor was surprised but not very enthusiastic. ( sigh )
jim
What is it going to take to get us to apprehend God's purpose for our life?