You can't know God by yourself

We are still deep in the midst of this belief that our spirituality, our knowing God, is something we do by ourselves. It is our ongoing enlightenment hangover. We have our quiet times and read our Bibles and go to church (where we often sit by ourselves), we listen to Christian music in our cars, alone. We do all of this and we wonder why we do not feel closer to God.

The Bible teaches that we bare the image of God. This is our vocation. It is what we were made to do. To show each other what God is like through how we live and love. The Bible also teaches that that image, in us, is broken. At Restoration our vision is to see the image of God restored.

If God is Triune, one being with three person's, then to bare his image means we do it in relationship. When he created man and woman in this image, it was a relational image. He did not create man in his image and then woman in his image, he created them together in his image.

The implications are huge! If we are going to be restored to the image of God it can only happen in relationships. The over-emphasis on individual spiritual growth is, ironically, keeping us from growing.

In October we will launch ten transformational communities. They will be experiments in how to encourage one another to grow spiritually. They will focus on practices that open us up to the transformational grace of God. If you go to Restoration, of if you are looking for relationships that will really help you grow, I hope you will join one. We need each other to bare the image!

Also, this will be our topic this Saturday night at Restoration. I hope to see you there.