With the New Year starting, I thought it is always worth taking the time to cast a vision of where we are heading. The heartbeat of this study is to understand and pursue our original God-given purpose in life – and that is to glorify God and enjoy Him! We are to be a reflection of our Lord and in order for us to really do that well it is worth taking the time to examine just who God is and all of His attributes. I believe the Lord desires for His people to know ALL of who He is not just a few attributes that we are personally drawn to.

So where are we going? Well we are going to start at the beginning! We begin with Genesis 1:26 where God said ‘Let us make man in our image. In the image of God he made us.” We are first and foremost created to reflect who God is and His glory. Sin entered that picture and that reflection has become distorted in us. We fell out of the position of even being able to be in God’s presence because of our sin so how could we even reflect more of His glory in our fallen state.

But that is why God sent His one and only Son Jesus Christ to die and make atonement for our sins and allow us once again to be in a position to reflect God’s glory.  Now we are on this journey of sanctification.  Sanctification means becoming more and more free from sin and becoming more and more like Christ.  And our walk with the Lord is about becoming more and more like Christ. As we grow in godliness and as we reflect more of who God is in our lives, then we are actually becoming more and more as God originally intended us to be. And the overflow of being more like Christ is that we will naturally do more and more of the good works He has set out for us to do. Purpose will come out of pursuing godliness, and godliness will come out of us pursuing Christ.

Godliness by definition is becoming like Christ. There is a story about a little boy who wants to be like his big brother. He wants to follow in his footsteps and wants to do what he does. He sets out trying to follow him through the deep snow, only to fall down and get up again over and over.  He tries to climb the fence as his older brother does but doesn’t jump it near as well.  But he is determined and after awhile, this little boy may not be exactly as his older brother but sure enough you can see the resemblance and the same mannerisms as the one he is following. And that is an analogy for us following Jesus. The essence of it all is that it requires us to keep our eyes on Jesus, the one we want to follow.

That’s why we study the Word of God. We study the Bible to keep our eyes on Christ, to know who our Lord is with certainty, to know the truth (because the truth will set us free), and to interact with the Lord.
Scripture says in Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edge sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  In the gospel of John, Jesus is referred to as the Word. When we are in the Word of God, we are interacting with the Lord. And when we encounter Him, we will reflect His glory. Moses encountered God and reflected the glory of God because he spent time with Him. That is my prayer and heartbeat for this study. As we study the Word, we encounter the Lord in our lives through His word and that interaction results in us being transformed into the likeness of Christ and reflecting the glory of God.