We thought you would like to know how life could be better...

Search for life we thought you would like to know how life could be better... Search for Life is a ten week course, designed by the Careforce Lifekeys team to help men and women come to a better understanding of themselves and how to live life well. The course provides a confidential and safe environment to explore what it means to be made in God’s image, and what life might look like if we lived according to that image. We all need to feel valued, accepted and a sense of belonging; we are created for relationship. Search for Life will help you uncover the truth about what God thinks about you and how incredibly valuable and significant you are in His eyes. Booking a place: If you are interested in attending this course please collect a form from the foyer and return it to the office address.These programmes were written and produced by Careforce Lifekeys. The courses are being run by trained facilitators from Christian City Church Cheltenham.

Pastor Ali's Tweets

from:ali_bates - Twitter Search

Ali says: Offering for victim of Rosehill gas explosion on Sunday, pass the word along @c3chelt #fb

Ali says: Life in all its fullness is ours forever, live it large: Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. http://t.co/Qr3Ch9x6

Ali says: Be happy!: For the despondent, every day brings trouble; for the happy heart, life is a continual feast. http://t.co/L4rrdcqq

Ali says: RT @adlegge: Exciting News, Philippha Hanna will be joined by Peter Nevland at the concert on sat 26th of May.

Ali says: Feed your soul well today: A wise person is hungry for knowledge, while the fool feeds on trash. http://t.co/oYjZgbug

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Pastor Ali's latest blog

Honouring Others

When Paul has his Damascus Road experience in Acts chapter 9 and falls to the ground the question the Lord asks him is ‘why are you persecuting ME?’ Of course Paul isn’t persecuting Jesus directly, it is the church he is after. However, Jesus identifies with his church so strongly that it is one and the same thing. Which got me thinking about how we treat the church and its members. Do we really treat the church and those who make up the church as though they were Jesus? Probably not. It is all too easy to complain and criticise, and, lets face it, there is plenty to be critical about in the church, but Jesus honours her by identifying so completely with her.

In his letter to the Philippian church Paul instructed them to ‘honour others above themselves’. Why should we honour one another?

In Genesis 1 God made humanity in his image and positioned them, male and female to reign over the earth. Humanity was to bear the father’s image, reflecting back to God his likeness. Submitted to God, reigning in his name and demonstrating who he was to one another as they lived in unity and humility with one another. There was honour in carrying the image. But then sin arrived and with it came the alienation between God and humanity, and within humanity itself. It brought with it division, status, and hierarchy on the basis of gender, race, wealth, education, birthright. The unity and the image were broken; the honour was tarnished.

Christ came to reconcile us back to God and also to one another, as Paul reminds us in Galatians; ‘ There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus’. God’s son came voluntarily to win back the carriers of the image; we are honoured in the most profound way by the death of the perfect image bearer. When Paul calls us to submit to one another it is to the image of the Father in one another that we submit, we recognise that image in esteeming another as being of more value than ourselves.

We are not called to submit to that which is wrong or evil, and not in the image or character of God. We are not called to submit in a way that dishonours the image we carry – we were made equal in his sight. That was the original plan. But, we are called to honour one another and to honour the body of Christ. Oh, and by the way, the ‘one another’ includes the whole of humanity.

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