Growing In Christ's Image

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Called for a Purpose: Growing In Christ’s Image Tom Deviney 1.

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“Then, son, what are you going on to?” Bishop Earl G. Hunt

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Called for a Purpose: Growing In Christ’s Image Tom Deviney 3.

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Romans 12:1-2 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God - what is good and acceptable and perfect. 4.

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Metamorphosis 1. the process of transformation from an immature form to an adult form in two or more distinct stages 2. a change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one, by natural or supernatural means Oxford Dictionary Online 5.

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6. caterpillar to butterfly

6. caterpillar to butterfly

Acts 9:1-2 Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 7.

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Acts 9:19-28 For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” All who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name? 8. Acts 9 slide 1/5

8. Acts 9 slide 1/5

And has he not come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?” Saul became increasingly more powerful and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Messiah. 9. Acts 9 slide 2/5

9. Acts 9 slide 2/5

After some time had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night so that they might kill him; but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket. 10. Acts 9 slide 3/5

10. Acts 9 slide 3/5

When he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples; and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.

11. Acts 9 slide 4/5

11. Acts 9 slide 4/5

But Barnabas took him, brought him to the apostles, and described for them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken boldly in the name of Jesus. So he went in and out among them in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. 12. Acts 9 slide 5/5

12. Acts 9 slide 5/5

Called for a Purpose: Growing In Christ’s Image Tom Deviney 13.

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“Yet, the same people who deny original sin, who feel that people are not that bad, are also adamant the nobody is perfect, that no one is capable of living a life free of willful sin. So, which is it? Are we capable of avoiding sin, or incapable of avoiding sin? The operating view of too many people is something like, “People aren’t all that bad, but they are also incapable of being all that good.” What a depressing (and inaccurate) view of human nature and the possibility of life in Christ!” Kevin Watson The Class Meeting p. 4 14.

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By salvation I mean, not barely (according to the vulgar notion) deliverance from hell, or going to heaven, but a present deliverance from sin, a restoration of the soul to its primitive health … the renewal of our souls after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness, in justice, mercy, and truth. John Wesley, Farther Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion 15.

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Called for a Purpose: Growing In Christ’s Image Tom Deviney 16.

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Christian Perfection is NOT: Christian infallibility Superiority Immunity from life’s problems Instantaneous “faith accompli” 17.

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“But what is perfection?....Here it means perfect love. It is love excluding sin; love filling the heart, taking up the whole capacity of the soul.” John Wesley, The Scripture Way of Salvation 18.

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Philippians 3:12-16 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. 19. Philippians 1/2

19. Philippians 1/2

Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you. Only let us hold fast to what we have attained. 20. Philippians 2/2

20. Philippians 2/2

“God is continually breathing, as it were, upon his soul, and his soul is breathing unto God. Grace is descending into his heart and prayer and praise ascending to heaven. And by this intercourse between God and man, this fellowship with the Father and the Son, as by a kind of spiritual respiration, the life of God in the soul is sustained; and the child of God grows up till he comes to ‘full measure of the stature of Christ.’” John Wesley, The New Birth 21.

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“God calls Bethany to be a community participating in God’s mission of love, transforming us and the world.”

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God’s love transforming us. God’s love transforming the world.

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24. 2020_09_27 Laura vid

24. 2020_09_27 Laura vid

“The Christian life, or as Paul will describe it to the Colossians, “the life hid with Christ in God,” is not difficult. It is impossible. Maybe this is our biggest problem. We think it is difficult and because of this we resolve to try harder. When we come up short again and again we consider it too difficult and settle back into a life of easy believism, cheap grace and self-satisfied, mediocre compromised existence. 25.

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The Christian life is not difficult. This would be to evaluate it on our terms. The Christian life is impossible. It does not require more effort on a human level. It requires the movement to an eternal level of living. Jesus’ invitation to us is not meant to elicit more resolve but deeper surrender.” J.D. Walt, Seedbed Daily Text 26.

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Called for a Purpose: Growing In Christ’s Image Tom Deviney 27.

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“What are you going on to?”

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Romans 12:1-2 The Message Bible So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 29.

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Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. 30.

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Called for a Purpose: Growing In Christ’s Image Tom Deviney 31.