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Spiritual Direction

“What is the goal of the Christian life?” To be saved and go to heaven? To live the “Golden Rule”? To serve and obey God? To go to church, read the Bible, and pray? While few would board a commercial flight without knowing the destination, many will spend years in a church attending services, volunteering, teaching, and tithing without knowing the goal of their faith. Jesus invites us to a transforming friendship—to fully become who we were created to be in his image. This relationship that transforms human hearts is the one great hope for our 21st-century world.

Exploring

Understanding Jesus’ ministry begins with the book of Genesis. Let’s connect some dots:

CREATION. God creates people in his image, whole and balanced.

FALL. Sin mars perfection, distorting the image we were created in.

CROSS. Jesus’ death and resurrection atone for sin. But there’s more.

RESTORATION. Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus works to restore our original design, the imago Dei (image of God) we were created in. The Apostle Paul explores this journey.

Making our home in Jesus and him in us is to live a life transfused with Christ. And this sets in motion a process of being conformed to his image for the sake of others.

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.[1]