Mankind has always struggled with the big questions: Why are we here? What is life all about? The search for answers has led in many directions, not all of them helpful. In this age, we are inundated with information, but this flood of knowledge has not necessarily produced wisdom. We find answers to the really important questions as elusive as ever.
It really is all about relationship! This is the open secret, hidden in plain sight all along.
Purchase paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Designed-Relationship-Learning-Love-God/dp/0989016609
Purchase digital: http://www.amazon.com/Designed-Relationship-Learning-Love-ebook/dp/B00DJZW286
An Invitation by T.J. MacLeslie
The Bible teaches that behind everything that exists is an eternal, divine Community. God is, by definition, always relating. God is not a force, but a unity of persons. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are each persons with emotions, will, intellect, etc. Together, They are the one true God.
This relational God chose to create us and to reveal Himself to us. This revelation of Himself actually started before the creation of the first human. He showed forth His power and wisdom in creation before there was a single person outside His Trinitarian Self to appreciate it. Before the foundation of the world, God is, and God is community. Our God is One and Three; the One true God of the Bible is not a singularity but a plurality. This is the mystery of the Tri-unity, the Trinity.
This Trinitarian Being created humans in Their image. When They created the first human, They invited us into fellowship with Them. As creatures made in the image of God, humans also are inherently relational because we were made to relate to God. Our capacities are best expressed in and through relationships. We were designed with eternal relationship in mind. We were imbued with an incredible capacity for love and unbroken relationship with God and one another. Scripture speaks of our time living and working in relationship with God and one another in paradise. We were given freedom to explore the world that points to Him – to walk and talk with Him in the paradise of His creation. Unfortunately, we spoiled paradise. Ever since, we live in a world of compounding unintended consequences. We were made for perfect, never-ending relationships; but we live in a broken world – a world where death destroys even the strongest of human relationships.
We were designed with the capacity for community, but we are born into a damaged world – a world where we experience isolation and separateness from birth. Many of us have been neglected by those who should have nurtured, preyed upon by those who should have protected. No matter what our family background, we have all experienced this brokenness, although not necessarily to the same degree. Through these and other experiences, we become isolated from one another. In extreme cases, we lose the ability to connect with others at all. Even the less wounded of us have been damaged in some way. We have all had our relational capacity stunted. We are broken, but not beyond repair. There is hope!
Today, even right now, the invitation is before us!
T.J. MacLeslie has been involved in a variety of Christian ministries since 1990, including pastoring, church planting, leadership development, prayer, and spiritual formation. He currently lives in the UK with his wife and two children where he leads a team focused on prayer and spiritual formation. You'll often find him walking the fields with his dog, reading a book, or enjoying a warm cup of coffee.
Visit the author online at http://www.about.me/tj_macleslie and his publisher at www.ParvaimPress.com.
Enter for your chance to win a paperback copy or digital version of Designed for Relationship!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
No comments:
Post a Comment