Basic Christian Fact #1: God loves you just as you are. Problems, mistakes, failures and all. Can’t fool God and there is no need to. This is His love. This is the Gospel. Because of Christ, you have been given the kingdom.
Basic Christian Fact #2: Because God loves you so much, He wants to change you from what you are to something better. Changed in what way? To become more and more like Him. As Paul put it in 2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory.” That’s God’s plan for your life, through all the circumstances and opportunities, by the power of His Word and His Spirit. To make you more and more like Him.
What does that look like? What is the character that God would work in us? Jesus. Quite simply, that we take on the character of Christ.
In our worship series this summer, “Transformed Into His Image,” we’re going to be focusing on the character attributes of God. Or, in other words, the character of Jesus. We will be blessed and comforted as we meditate on the wonderful Savior that we have, who is so merciful, loving, gracious (and so forth), to us and to all people. But we will also be challenged. These same character traits that give us joy, hope and peace are to be seen in our lives as well.
We are loved by Jesus; therefore we love others.
We have received mercy from Jesus; so we show mercy to others
We have been blessed by our Lord’s compassion; we show compassion to others.
These are the attributes of Jesus that we will focus on in July:
- July 6 – Gracious
- July 13 – Compassionate
- July 20 – Loving
- July 27 – Just
May the Lord bless our walk with Him this summer and transform us more and more into His image.
