Biblical Foundations

In His life, Christ - fully God and fully human - lives as the truly Human One - the “Image”; through His death, Christ shatters the power of the darkness and evil that hold us; in His resurrection, He ushers in New Creation; in His ascension reigns at the right hand of the Father and in the fullness of time will unite all things in heaven and on earth (Eph 1). In Christ, we who "image" God flourish - reconnected to the triune God, recreated, bound to one another as a “living stones'' in a new temple with Christ as the cornerstone.  When we engage our thoughts and emotions upward, we turn to the reigning Christ that shatters the pain and darkness that surrounds us, and we flourish. Reconnected to the triune God, we walk in the steps of our Savior and live authentically before Him as we process our pain, longings and suffering.  Recreated in Christ, we are sent out into the world to fulfill the purpose for which we were designed, walking in the steps of our Savior (Ephesians 2, 1 Pet 2, John 20:21, Philippians). 

 In the Psalms, as mirrors of our soul, we are invited to engage the triune God with our worship and our suffering. To cry out, to pour out, to remember, to know God accurately if not fully and to be fully known. To trust and find refuge and be held.  To grieve, to lament and question boldly.  To beseech, to plead and to petition. To sort through our thoughts and emotions and find a path to wholeness.  To go beyond ourselves in a priestly vocation and hold the thanksgiving, the prayers and the pain of the world before God in lament and worship.

We were dead  - ‘walking’ in darkness, trespasses and sin, following the course of the world and the prince who ‘ruled’ it – trapped in out of control passions and desires – children of wrath, sons of disobedience … ‘in Adam’, separated from God. But God, the unbalanced God who is rich in mercy, love and compassion for the dead, made us alive and we are now ‘in Christ’ – by faith joined to the image – absorbed into it – defined by it. Now, ‘in Christ’, we are His workmanship - created anew in Christ, set apart from what we used to be and brought near to the Father, forgiven, redeemed and lavished with grace - blessed. Further, we are built together into the household of God, a living temple – a dwelling place for God, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets - with Christ as the cornerstone. Sealed with and empowered by the Spirit, rooted and grounded in love – growing in wisdom, strengthened by His power, we slowly learn to walk differently. We walk as our new self that is created after the likeness of God. Using our gifts to build up the body of Christ, we start to live in humility, gentleness and unity. We begin to relate to one another differently, speak differently, work differently, and process anger differently. We imitate God to the world around us. We walk as children of light, wisely in this world – because it’s a war out there. We submit to and depend on one another, never forgetting that our strength is in our dependence on the Lord.

As children of God, we grow in stewarding our lavish gifts from the Father .. to slow down, to listen and consider .. to reflect the Father – and our faith becomes actions not mere words .. actions from which life flows .. and in the ‘doing’ we are blessed. And we grow in wisdom - which is itself a gift. We ask for it, and we walk in it and grow adept at sorting out desire, judgment (which turns to discernment), actions and relationships. As it weaves through our lives we begin to interact with both the gifts and the giver well .. our lives take on a new cadence of patience, fellowship, steadfastness, faith, love of neighbor, peacemaking, justice, rescue, mercy, prayer, confession and repentance. We begin to reflect the giver  .. and we find joy.