We are God-bottles.

Today in a bible study, along with a few other members of Christian Students on Campus, I shared about God's purpose. We had a demo with water bottles to make the message more clear. :)

The bible shows us that... God's eternal purpose is to have a group of people created in His image and likeness to be filled with Him as life to express Him and represent Him. For the sake of keeping this post as short as possible, I am not typing out the verses, just referencing them.

God is like the perfect water bottle. We are like the empty water bottle, made in His image (Gen. 1:26).

Genesis 2:9 says man was placed in front of two trees - the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of life, which represents God Himself. By eating of the tree of life man would have fulfilled God's purpose. But that didn't happen. Instead, man disobeyed God, ate from the wrong tree, and became a sinner. (I glued dirt all over the bottle. Sticky business.)

Two crucial aspects as to how this vessel^ is not fulfilling its purpose - it is dirty (a sinner) and doesn't contain the right element (God's life). Despite the two problems, God continued to carry out His plan by sending His Son to die on the cross for us (Heb. 9:22), so our sins would be forgiven, washed away (Jn. 3:16, Acts 3:19).

Praise God, we are justified when we repent and turn to God (Acts 3:19)! However, God doesn't want us to stop there. Man is back to his original state, in front of the two trees. Man needs to be filled. 1 Corinthians 15:45 tells us Christ became a life-giving Spirit. As the Spirit, God can now fill us with Himself (Jn. 20:22).

By being continuously filled with more of God's life each day, we can express Him. Yay!

How does God dispense His life? With our cooperation. By our reading of His Word (Col. 3:16), and by our fellowshipping and spiritual building up with other believers (2 Tim. 2:22, 1 Pet. 2:9). 

Let me know if you'd like a more in-depth explanation or have any questions. :)