Luke 15:11-32
The grace, mercy, and forgiveness that God gives us is limitless, He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to reconcile humanity to Him and bring salvation to the world. Jesus often taught with parables during His life and ministry here on earth, and one of the most well known of these parables is now known as “The Prodigal Son”, this parable illustrates the incredible grace and awesome power of God. Please read Luke chapter 15:11-32 this week- This story is symbolic of our relationship with our Heavenly Father, who forgives us when we repent and welcomes us back into His loving embrace no matter how bad we mess up, this week at Imago Dei we are starting a series on the parables Jesus, please come enjoy the worship, fellowship, and learning with your Imago Dei family-much love-
SELF-CONTROL!!
But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.
1 Thessalonians 5:8 NIV
Self-control is absurdly difficult for most people, and it is also vital to the walk of a Christ follower. Cultivating self-control in ourselves is our attempt to overcome a fundamental aspect of our own nature; it is a struggle that can lead to MAJOR frustration. We naturally want to give into our every desire, indulging our every desire is SO much easier, and we all know that sin is pleasurable, sin is fun, but only for a season!! We have to prepare ourselves to do battle everyday, because if we have poor self-control our walk with Christ is going to be constantly plagued by setbacks. Flee from temptation!! Tap into the strength that God can give you!! Surround yourself with other believers who are in the trenches with you, crack open the Scripture, pray!! Much Love Imago Dei, think about self-control this week!!
Kindness & Gentleness
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances, you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Colossians 3:12-13
This week we want to focus on kindness and gentleness. For many people kindness comes natural, its thier nature. For others gentleness comes easily, but if you are like me, trying to be kind and gentle in my relationships is a STRUGGLE, because it is not in our nature. We have to prepare ourselves everyday to overcome our own nature and practice kindess towards our brothers and sisters in Christ, to be gentle with each other and edify each other by showing kindess and gentleness towards one another. Think about your relationships and how you treat others, are you showing kindness? Are you being gentle?
Search me, O Lord, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; And see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way of the everlasting. Psalms 139: 23-24
Take some time each day to pray this prayer and contemplate this scripture, you will be amazed how productive it is to ask God to help you know your own heart and know your own soul. The Holy Spirit gives us insight and clarity we could never receive from anyone or anything else in life. LOVE IMAGO DEI FAMILY
Hey Imago Dei Family
What is the difference between believing and following? Please share your thoughts!!!
Something we all battle….
“A malicious man disguises himself with his lips, but in his heart he harbors deceit. Though his speech is charming, do not believe him, for seven abominations fill his heart. His malice may be concealed by deception, but his wickedness will be exposed before the assembly.”
Proverbs 26:24-26 NIV
Everyone has to deal with malice and deceit in life, both in themselves, and in other people. We should be on guard to put out the fire of malice in our hearts, and to speak the truth always without compromise. We can use “…charming speech…” to conceal the deceit or malice in us, to try and hide what wickedness we all have in our hearts, but eventually, our “…wickedness will be exposed before the whole assembly.”
Come to Imago Dei this Sunday night at 6:30 so we can worship together, learn together, and have fellowship with each other, we always have an awesome time living life together, because we are a city within a city, and we dont judge and condemn each other, we love and edify each other, all are welcome————–Much Love ID family!!!
Sarcasm
“Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and out it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again, saying, saying “Hail, the king of the Jews!” And they struck him on the face.” John 19:1-3
This week at Imago Dei we are talking about sarcasm, not humorous sarcasm between friends and family in love, but about the actual nature of true sarcasm, dangerous, mocking, and destructive, evil.
Much Love I.D. family
Imago Dei communique
“Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.”
1st Peter 3:8
LOVE
Exhortation to meekness and unity
“If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being in one spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
Phillipians 2:1-4
IMAGO DEI IS A FAMILY
“Grace to you and peace from God the Father and Our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to Whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” Galatians 1:3-5
So Imago Dei family: “Grace and peace from God the Father and Our Lord Jesus Christ…”
Grace and peace, salvation and deliverance, all through the sacrifice of Christ and through the will of God the Father. How can we not give God all the glory?
The Love of Christ and us
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger of the sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any power, neither height nor depth, anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:35-39
“The truth will set you free”
“The truth will set you free” has become a sort of cultural cliché used by people all the time, but this phrase has been detached from its actual meaning and from Who first spoke these words. John, an apostle of Christ, records the events after Jesus had been teaching to the Pharisees: “To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32 If we hold to Christ’s teaching, if we live them out, and we believe in Him, THEN we will know the truth and THEN we will be set free. The Truth will set you free; Christ is the Truth.
MUCH LOVE IMAGO DEI FAMILY
What will God give me?
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26
LOVE + TRUTH = TRANSFORMATION
much love imago dei
Did you know….
Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath for us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness on the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 1st John 4:15 KJV
In case you haven’t thought about it today, GOD LOVES YOU
IMAGO DEI: LOVE ONE ANOTHER
Verse of the Week
“Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God-for God is love. God showed how much He loved us by sending His only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him. This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, surely we ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and His love has been brought to full expression through us.” 1st John 4:7-11
imago dei——-LOVE EACH OTHER————–
Think before you……….
St. James wrote “…but no one can tame the tongue. It is an uncontrollable evil, full of deadly poison. Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it breaks out into curses against those who have been made in the image of God. And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right!” James 3:8-10
What are you communicating with your words? If you could take a step back and objectively analyze how you speak, what you are saying, what would you discover about yourself? Think about the way that you speak to your family, your friends, your husband or wife, boyfriend or girlfriend, people you go to school with, people you work with, complete strangers, what do you see going on? Are your words tools for expressing love and compassion, expressing a desire to edify and help the people around you, or are they weapons? When someone insults you, do you insult them back? When someone offends you, do you seek to offend them in return? Do you join in gossip; indulge in the luxury of a common target to attack, mocking and criticizing habitually and without mercy. Everyone knows the power of language from their own life experience, the power of the spoken word: it can cause deep and lifelong emotional pain, both in you and other people, it can destroy relationships in a moment with ease, and it can leave you with lifelong regrets. Take some time this week and read through and think on James 3:1-12, reflect on our ability to use the tongue to unleash a “…uncontrollable evil…” a “…deadly poison…” from within ourselves. Consider the paradox of praising Our Lord and Father, and then turning around and cursing and attacking His children, who He made in His image, each with an immortal and divine soul. Bring your thoughts to bear on your memories of significant things you have said to people and that have been said to you, words said both good and bad that have stayed with you, and see what effect it has had on your life. St. James warns us writing, “…the tongue is a small thing, but what enormous damage it can do. A tiny spark can set a great forest on fire.” In order to change the way we speak, we need to change the way we think, we must be vigilant, we must intellectually and spiritually measure the virtue of our speech, to temper our words with love, to consider the impact of our words on others, and to always and without fail, speak the truth.
Seriously, read the third chapter of James….he lays down the WORD….see you Sunday..
LOVE ONE ANOTHER
Thought of the Week
Last Sunday night was powerful; last Sunday night a commitment was made, a commitment to be on guard against problems that can so often afflict the communion of saints, a commitment to an insurgency of LOVE. James challenged us with some questions during his sermon, he asked, “What is the church? Why do people who are not Christ followers not want to be a part of the church?” We all have relationships with people who see Christianity as rife with hypocrisy and bigotry, or perhaps as a social club for the judgmental and condemning, a political movement, a meeting of “holier than thou” types who think they are better than everyone else, and understandably, they do not want to be a part of that, and neither do Christ followers.
These problems are subtle, they can creep in slowly, and they work against the Church from the inside. But what is the Church? WHO is the Church is what we want people to ask; the Church is the communion of all Christ followers all over the world, past, present, and to come. YOU ARE THE CHURCH, – and for who each of us are as individuals, and who each of us are collectively, we look to Christ, He is the standard by which we live, He is the reason for the Church. So how do we combat these problems? We look to Christ. We replace bigotry with love and compassion, hypocrisy with heartfelt sincerity, condemnation with the words of Christ “Judge not, that ye be not judged”, we edify each other and help each other, because we know that we are all sinners and that none of us deserve the love and mercy that God has for us. We want to focus on BEING the Church; we want to keep Imago Dei moving forward and avoid these traps, keep it vibrant, and stay focused on Who this communion all about, Jesus…
LOVE ONE ANOTHER
Thought of the week “Know thy Self”
Thought of the week: “KNOW THY SELF”
I think one of the most important questions we will ever have to answer in our lives was raised last Sunday night… “Who am I?” When we look in the mirror who do we see? Do we like, dislike, love, hate or even care about what stands in the reflection? When we search our hearts, do we like what we find? Does an image of hope appear before us or do we struggle to find joy? Plato said “Know thy self” over 2000 years ago and modern research today says that the two most important questions a man or woman will ever have to answer is “Who am I?” and “Who am I not?.” With such a crucial life shaping question, I am so excited that here at Imago Dei we have began the Journey of discovering “IDENTITY”. What makes us who we are and what tries to shape us into things we were never meant to be? My hope is that we can continue to be real as we look in the mirror this week defining our identities.
LOVE + TRUTH = TRANSFORMATION :: The Imago Dei Movement has begun!!! — Neil
Thought of the Week….. “CHANGE”
The mere thought of the word evokes anxiety in the hearts of most. At first thought, why wouldn’t it? we become accustomed to doing things a certain way. We embrace stability, comfort, predictability, cultural customs, “the norm”, “its the way we’ve always done it”, “Its what i am used to”. At second thought though, what if nothing changed? What if everything we ever knew was all we ever would know? What if there were no one to say “This isn’t right” or “things could be so much better”. Would there be a democracy? Would there be labor laws? Would your comfortable daily routine be as comfortable as it is if there were not someone at some point that felt change was in order? For better or worse change is needed. If a change is for the worse, at least now you know and can go right back to what was. If it is for the better……. Change starts with our imagination and dreams. Imagine the possibilities and go for it!
Imago Dei Identity
The name Imago Dei in Latin means “Image of God”
What this means for you and I, is that we have been created in God perfect image. Some of you may know that this means he created you in your mothers womb. That he has left his finger print of character (more…)