Becoming Perfect

On the journey that we are on, being transformed back into the image of God, there is another aspect that we can mention: In the first place, mankind ran away from God and away from relationship with Him; away from good behaviour and away from stable life. Now we are in a place where no one really trusts anyone and it can be pretty hard to know what to do; even when you are in a relationship with the Maker of the universe.

We were free, in the beginning, to leave God and we are free now to return to Him. Freewill was given to us in the start and we still have it now; we can do whatever we want!

That is an amazing and rather serious aspect to this world. It is ours to manage, ours to explore, ours to repair and ours to cover with loving, honest relationships.

We give our lives to God and He is always with us, will always help and will never let us go. We are also still free to seek things out, get things wrong, to cause havoc if we are not careful and to return towards the perfection that we talked about yesterday.

This world requires a lot of mending and that mending is going on inside our hearts and minds; that is the only place that counts. That mending needs us to harness the immense powers of compassion, empathy, understanding, patience, forgiveness etc…

So, on this return journey how do we tell good from bad. How do we know the way to go on this road to perfection.

Well, John said this:

“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”
1John4:16 (NIV)

• God is Love – and we are to become like Him.

And Paul said this:

“If I…… do not have love, I gain nothing.

• Love is patient
• Love is kind
• It does not envy
• It does not boast
• It is not proud
• It does not dsihonour others
• It is not self-seeking
• It is not easily angered
• It keeps no records of wrongs
• It does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth
• It always protects
• Always trusts
• Always hopes
• Always perseveres
• Love never fails”

1Cor13:3-8 (NIV)

• Those are the characteristics of God’s personality.

We need to seek out those attributes with our hearts and minds and learn to love them. We should do our best to exhibit them whether or not we feel like it at the time.

Also, we must never forget that God is always here and will always help us; he will never let us down and never let us go.

This point is a very important: He has not made us robots. He will help us on our transformation and will make sure that we get there no matter what but He has not made us robots. That is a massive gift and also so important. We are not robots; so let us take hold of our freewill, let God help us to harness it and then drive it in the right direction. No matter what.

We have a world to rebuild; and we have God on our side.

What’s stopping us.

Become Perfect

After yesterday’s post, I think that it is relevant to share some more on this subject. Let’s go a bit deeper.

Moses said this:

“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
Gen1:27 (NIV)

• We were made in the image of God and He is flawless.

But then Moses also said this:

“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”
Gen3:6 (NIV)

• We took wisdom and ran off with it.

You know the story: we got wisdom and look what we have done with it; we have gone astray. We were created to be perfect and to live perfect lives and actually what else makes sense. No one would truly want to do things that lead them to destruction but we have got so confused. We have made a proper mess of this world and we really need to find the road that leads back to God.

So, listen to Paul:

“And we all, ….are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
2Cor3:18 (NIV)

• We can be transformed.

And again:

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.”
Col1:15 (NIV)

• Transformed back into the image of God.

God, the Spirit who made this earth and walked on it as Jesus, created us to be perfect and that is exactly what He will return us to: Perfection.

What I am saying is this:

Life is not just about doing ‘perfect’ things but it is about becoming renewed people who will, by their nature, do good. It is about God returning us to the balance that existed at the start, before we made all this mess.

For us, perfection is about balanced relationships and when you have billions of people in your family you can image how quickly and how far things get out of control if the children don’t listen to their Father.

You might say: we could never live perfect lives, not with all our mixed motives and emotional baggage, not without some serious help, that would be impossible. Then God would say: ‘Finally you are getting it – your perfect relationship was designed to work with Me at the centre. I created this place for you to live in, with Me and I will guide you.’ You can’t get more Serious help than that.

We can’t live a pure life without God’s help and we were never meant to. We took wisdom from God and just look where we are now. It is time to give control back to Him. Let’s all get onto this journey to a balanced life, lived in relationship with and obedience to God; you can’t argue with that. We need someone to show us how to behave and who would you choose? I choose Him.

God will take whoever wants to go, no charge, all expenses paid. We just have to be committed to changing into good people – again, who can argue with that.

So, we give our lives to Him. We pray, read His Word, follow Him and get on with living.

The rest, as they say, is future.

And it never ends.

Perfection

What is perfection?
This thing that we mention
This mode that we talk of
This ancient convention

It sits in our minds and assesses our actions
It looks at what’s out there and causes reactions
We want it, we crave it
Yet our senses are marred, can we trust our perceptions?

What is it……..?
Something exquisite
Or something of myth
That we never will visit

Or Maybe a path you can follow – a worthy direction
Or choices you make through some careful selection
Or is it chance
The hope of some future election

Or… are they all aspects of this purest condition
This mindset beyond a pure human rendition
But something above us
The state that explains the creator’s decision

Something outside us but in us in seed
Something in flowers as well as in weeds
Something in process
The nature of the only one worthy to bleed