As a communication of three persons, God is a relational being.

He originates a personal relationship with us, and our high and holy calling is to respond to his loving initiatives. By loving God completely, we discover who and whose we are as we come to see ourselves as God sees us. In this way, we become secure enough to become others-centered rather than self-centered, and this enables us to become givers rather than grabbers Since God is a relational being, we who are created in His image are also called to right relationships, first with Him then with each other. There is an infinite and personal God who loves us. He loves us in a way that despite the rebellion and sin of humanity against Him, yet He came to earth and paid the ultimate price in order to break the barrier in order to create a way for Himself to have a personal relationship with which He created. He wants us to grow in an intimate relationship with Him. This is the purpose for which we were created — to know, love, enjoy and honor the triune Lord of all creation. We are at once the grandeur and degradation of the created order; we bear the image of God, but we are ensnared in trespasses and sins. And yet He has designed to seek intimacy with the people on this puny planet and has given them great dignity and destiny.

As wonderful as our dominion over nature will be, our true cause of rejoicing should be the fact that if we place our trust in Jesus Christ, our name are recorded in Heaven. We know these things only because of the Scriptures: It is revealed through the Scriptures that God has a limitless love that can overcome our guilt and transform us into new creatures in Christ. We learn that God’s loyal love for us is causeless. In response, we love God completely. Loving God completely involves our whole personality — our intellect, emotion, and will.

Because of this, we should be loving ourselves correctly. To love ourselves correctly is to see ourselves the way God sees us. We do this by a process of exploration of the Scriptures with a view of our new identity in Christ. Only when we define ourselves by the truths of the Word rather than the thinking of the world can we discover our deepest identity. It is through the biblical doctrine of grace that we are humbled and learn that it is not about what we do but who we are in Christ and because of our new identity in Christ we should reflect Christ through our actions. This leads to the process of loving others completely.

The closer our walk with God, the more we are empowered to manifest our love for him through acts of love and service to others. When we understand that Christ resources are our resources, we can become our secure enough to serve other people without expecting reciprocity. Loving Christ more than people increases our capacity to love, serve, forgive and give ourselves away for people. The more we love God, the more we will express His transcendent love in other-centered deeds of kindness and goodness.

My mind is honestly completely blown.

I have fallen more in love with my Creator. The fact that someone can put the love of God into words blows my mind as well. It fascinates me just how loved I am and it hurts me that there are people in this world who willingly refuse that love and there are people who have no idea about it. It makes me more passionate about what God has called me to do. I have also become more passionate about my belief that Christianity is bigger than one person. If you really think about it; it is almost unbiblical to be just one person. Think about the Trinity: It literally is three beings working together as one, therefore being one God, and if we are ultimately meant to be like Christ, we cannot be like Christ without being like the Trinity. We must work together to become one because we are made in the direct image of the Trinity; therefore, we have the attributes of God. Christianity therefore is community.

I believe community is ultimately one body, and if Christianity by its own nature is community, then it is safe to say that Christianity is one body. Just as the body has different parts that have specially designed purposes, so does the Christian life. Each individual has something to offer to further toward the vision; to become more like Christ and therefore spreading the love of Christ, being an example to lead others to Him. This is part of the beauty of Christianity and I honestly think I could go on for ten pages just on my view of the Christian life but for now I will just leave it here, the Christian life is unity. I think Boa was missing something; however, he kept explaining that we must see our “new identity in Christ” but never explained exactly what that meant or what it looked like or maybe I was not fully understanding what he meant.

To me, this is an understanding of our purpose of excellence. To be excellent to me is to understand that I was made in the image of God and in that I am capable of the abilities that God possesses. However, because I am not God and have been born into a sin nature, I cannot use those abilities to the perfect standard that God can. But I am called to use those abilities despite my imperfection resulting in excellence. The realization of this idea and actually putting it into practice (being into doing). Understanding excellence is a powerful thing and putting it into practice is an empowering thing. This idea of excellence makes us realize our purpose, it makes us see our worth and what great lengths we can go to serve God.