We are people who have had an encounter with Jesus. He changed everything! He became our life, our mission, our cause, our means-to-an-end, the sum of all things! We have abandoned our life of self, having found that only His life gives real meaning, fulfillment, peace, and joy!
A life centered on ‘self’ leads to struggle, either doing too much or too little. Trying, striving, and fighting to be better, yet dreadfully failing, over and over, again and again! We never seem to get it right, seeking comfort and peace, accomplishment and meaning in all the wrong places to end up empty again at the end. Exhausting our intellect, driving our will, forcing our habits, to end up with more questions than answers, more failures than solutions.
Jesus is the best way to live life! His values, mindsets, habits, lifestyle, and focus is the best example of the perfect life! When we are the most like Him, we become the perfect spouse, parent, employer, and employee. When we live through His wisdom, life began to have meaning and purpose. He is the solution to every problem. His life will save you! We have nothing to give this world but JESUS! He is our pearl of great price. He is the ultimate treasure one can find. He is our connection to God; He is the door, the access, the entrance, the method, the religion, the steps, and the means to make peace with God finally. He forgave us our sins and wrongs. He healed the wounds of a life of destruction and failure. He nourished us back to a pure, innocent childhood. Discovering His life was our creational purpose since the beginning.
Being Christlike is not possible without being part of a family and body of believers. Children learn and discover, and grow up into adulthood by being part of a family. Likewise, you need a Christ-centered family of parents, grant parents and brothers and sisters to cultivate and nurture the Christ that is within you into full stature. No one person has the fullness of Christ. But together Christ is revealed through and among a body of followers who have made Jesus Christ Lord in their lives.
The benefits of Christlikeness are clearly best exemplified when a whole community of people lives according to His standard of rightness. (See 45 values)
None of us have it all together, but together we have it all. Michael Wood
Together we discover and grow up in Him. Embracing all the variety of gifts and functions in the body of Christ, we grow and mature together into people who are filled with the Spirit and Life of Christ!
When Jesus Christ appeared to me in an open vision (my eyes were open) on the fifth of November 1997, He spoke to me about His Church. Within a few seconds He downloaded a wealth of understanding into my spirit man that would normally have taken hours to explain. It was as if my intelligence had been raised to another plane. Things were so simple; even that which I have struggled to understand about the church for many years – even growing up in a parsonage and being in the ministry for most of my life! I became so elated that I cried out: “If these things are so, Lord Jesus, then the church is your genius at work!” God’s genius: The geniality of God on display to the world through the church. The manifold wisdom of God manifested in the earth through the Church. Ephesians 3:10-12 (Apostle Andre Pelser)