Refuge Church DNA Part 3: Renewal
Together we draw closer to the Lord, we receive His healing, and we grow to be more like Jesus. We respond to His goodness and Glory through worship, the study of His Word, and intentional living in relationship with Him.
Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.
Psalm 25:4-5 (NIV)
Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.
Psalm 25:4-5 (NIV)
Today's post will highlight and expound upon our second vision point: renewal.
This dynamic points to the reality that we are all in need of renewal. Constantly. Thankfully, Jesus Christ is in the renewal business. He is constantly renewing His people day by day more and more into His image. The Apostle Paul points to this reality in the New Testament book of Romans. In the first few verses of chapter 12 of that book, Paul points out that transformation is the result of the renewal that is given to us by God.
The question that remains for us is this: How can we participate in this renewal Christ offers?
At Refuge Church we encourage followers of Christ to pursue spiritual disciplines like prayer and the regular reading of God's Word, the Bible. These are some of the tools that God uses to renew us and recreate us more and more into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ.
But there are two key things that we must keep in mind when we pursue this kind of intentional living:
First, these things in and of themselves do not save us or bring us into a relationship with God. That relationship with God is established firmly and exclusively by faith in Jesus through the grace that God displayed to us in giving us His Son.
Second, we do these things out of worship and response to the great love that God has shown to us and in an effort to participate in that renewal that He so graciously offers us. We don't pursue this kind of life to score "religiosity" points on some ethereal scoreboard in the sky. We live this kind of life to place ourselves before God who showers grace on us to change us.
In the book of Revelation at the end of the New Testament, Jesus gives us a glimpse of what this renewal process will look like when it is brought to completion. Read and be encouraged by these words from Revelation 21:3-5 that speak directly to this idea of renewal.
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
THAT is the kind of renewal that we at Refuge Church long to experience!
This dynamic points to the reality that we are all in need of renewal. Constantly. Thankfully, Jesus Christ is in the renewal business. He is constantly renewing His people day by day more and more into His image. The Apostle Paul points to this reality in the New Testament book of Romans. In the first few verses of chapter 12 of that book, Paul points out that transformation is the result of the renewal that is given to us by God.
The question that remains for us is this: How can we participate in this renewal Christ offers?
At Refuge Church we encourage followers of Christ to pursue spiritual disciplines like prayer and the regular reading of God's Word, the Bible. These are some of the tools that God uses to renew us and recreate us more and more into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ.
But there are two key things that we must keep in mind when we pursue this kind of intentional living:
First, these things in and of themselves do not save us or bring us into a relationship with God. That relationship with God is established firmly and exclusively by faith in Jesus through the grace that God displayed to us in giving us His Son.
Second, we do these things out of worship and response to the great love that God has shown to us and in an effort to participate in that renewal that He so graciously offers us. We don't pursue this kind of life to score "religiosity" points on some ethereal scoreboard in the sky. We live this kind of life to place ourselves before God who showers grace on us to change us.
In the book of Revelation at the end of the New Testament, Jesus gives us a glimpse of what this renewal process will look like when it is brought to completion. Read and be encouraged by these words from Revelation 21:3-5 that speak directly to this idea of renewal.
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
THAT is the kind of renewal that we at Refuge Church long to experience!
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