and His purpose is...?

So, tonight was pretty much awesome.....hung out with some pretty *rad* ladies......yes, indeed.....awesome! Had a great conversation with two "Rays" of sunshine, Nicki Rae and Taylor Rae.....pretty awesome people! That was our small group out of the Middle School study....

So we talked about honoring parents.......why should we honor our parents? Why should we honor God? What's God's purpose in all of this?

I discovered something pretty amazing as I read one verse....after thinking how some people, including myself, see themselves as not too bad of people....don't have much of an attitude, never killed anybody, never done anything "especially" bad... just about the average Christian...ain't that good enough?

But what's cool, and this is the verse I was talking about, is that God didn't just call us to be average, but to live by a Higher Standard. That doesn't mean He's just laid out a bunch of more "difficult" rules to follow, that's not it at all! Ephesians 5:1-2 says:

"Be immitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us."

so....we are to be "immitators of God".....is it so He can look at our behavior and when we don't act how He would he'll check us off some bad points? I don't think so.....'cause what else did this verse say? "As dearly loved children".....that's so cool to think about! It goes on...."live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us"....so this whole "Authority" and "be immators of God" thing isn't just about following rules to be better people, it's about loving our Father because He first loved us....in fact, he had so much love for us that he "gave Himself up for us".....It's not about Him making us miserable with a bunch of rules to follow, it's about Him loving us while we were still sinners, and about us responding with that same love, and yearning for more. It's about asking God to make us act like Him, think like Him and love like Him. And when we don't? He loves us anyways...pretty cool, huh?

So, how can we better be immators of God, and as dearly loved children live a life of love? Something to think about......