God's Dream
God Is Passionately Committed
:: If you had to answer, in a single word, what God’s dream for humanity is, what would you say? A thorough survey of God’s relationship with humanity throughout the Bible leads to one, undeniable, emphatic theme: God’s dream for humanity (His radical, unswerving, passionate, loving pursuit throughout time and space) is for us to experience: community.
:: Community finds its essence and definition deep within the being of the triune God. God is a community of three Persons in one Being: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the pinnacle of the creation story, God offers His supreme gift: Himself. God creates us in His image. He creates us to be one with Him and one another.
::Tragically, our sin shatters God’s dream and design. Oneness is displaced by pride, isolation, self-dependency, and brokenness of heart. Sin breaks our communion with God and each other. We have lost the oneness we were created to enjoy.
:: If God were a quitter, the story might have ended at this point. But God is no quitter. God is a merciful, compassionate, lover of souls. So, out of the wreckage of shattered community, God chooses to call, redeem, and restore the community of oneness He dreams about.
:: God begins with Abraham, Moses, and the Prophets—but ultimately, God’s dream prevails when He comes to humanity in person. In Jesus, God establishes an unshakable, unbreakable, unconquerable foundation for new and eternal community: the Church.
:: At the center of history, over the rubble of failed human efforts to find soul-satisfaction with God and one another, stands the gracious invitation of the cross. The vertical beam signifies the invitation to reconciliation and peace with God—the horizontal beam signifies the invitation to reconciliation and peace with one another.
:: God’s purpose in Christ is to create a new humanity, reconciling the world to God through the cross. It is a message of peace to those of us who are far away from God—for through Christ we now have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, we are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2:15-20).
:: Sure, we all have bad experiences with Christians, and we can all name ways the church has set a poor example for Jesus. But at some point, we come to the realization that people who participate in church are just as broken, troubled, mixed up, hypocritical, and insecure as everybody else. The difference is this: Christians are trying to take off their masks, admit their sin and need of forgiveness, receive the transforming love of God in Christ, and trust the ministry of the Holy Spirit to lead, redeem, and empower their lives.
:: If Jesus is who He says He is and does what He says He does, then you can be a part of God’s dream too…