Monday, September 05, 2005

SOJOURNERS’ CHURCH EXISTS TO GLORIFY GOD

SOJOURNERS’ CHURCH EXISTS
TO GLORIFY GOD

BY TRAINING SOJOURNERS TO LIVE
IN THE GREATNESS AND GOODNESS OF THE TRIUNE GOD

(We want to help each and all of us get really good at
living well with the real God who is really Glorious.)

Our church is a sojourners’ church. We are about pilgrims making progress. We study what is true so that we know what to do. Our commission is not to go. As sojourners, we are going. None of us stay the same. Our environment changes, our bodies change, our responsibilities change, our community changes. We are all, whether we are aware of it or not, celebrate it or not, sojourners.

Our great commission, then is not to go. It is to MAKE APPRENTICES, disciples, students by means of immersing them in Yahweh, the Name of the self-existent, covenant making God who is revealed as being Father, and Son and Holy Spirit. We are to train people how to live with saturated awareness of the reality of the Triune God by teaching them. What do we teach them? We teach them to obey the things that Jesus said to obey. We teach for a result: transformed lives.

We teach with great confidence, because we are not alone. Christ is with us through the entire process. We teach with faith (God will bring it about by His Word), Hope (we trust that He who began a good work in us, and our students, will bring it to completion), we teach with love. We most importantly teach with love. Because the very thing we are to be trained in is to love one another as Christ has loved us.

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
John 15:12

So, as we study the book of Romans, let us get good at being aware of the majesty and glory of the Triune God who has loved us with an everlasting, merciful and effectual love. In growing aware of our great and glorious savior, let us actively equip and encourage one another to be increasingly transformed into the character of Christ, for our good, but most importantly, for His glory.

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