By the grace of God, Montreal Immanuel Church is blessed with newcomer brothers continuously joining the Sunday service. This Sunday, another brother named Mathieu joined the Sunday service who received much grace during the service and later joined the Bible study.
The Sunday sermon emphasized on the image of God, taken from the scripture Genesis 1:27,28. The preacher Pastor Jefferson explicated the meaning of the image of God and the meaning of the existence of human lives.
The Bible teaches us clearly that God created us with His own image and because of this image every individual is valuable and precious. However, many people in this world today struggle to find their value of existence because of many wrong human standards that define human value. How should we discover the value of our life? Based on what scale should we measure our worth? The Bible teaches us that when we engrave and reveal the image of God, our value is revealed. So what is God’s image? God’s image is love.
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4: 8
Human heart innately desires to receive and give love, a nature that originates from God. God created us with his image of love and in order to respond to his love, He gave us freedom. Although God has all the power to make us love him, He instead gave us the free will to trust and love him. We have the choice because love without freedom is not a true love. Therefore God gave us the commandment of love in Genesis 1: 28.
“God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
What does it mean to be fruitful? We did not know the meaning of being fruitful but Jesus taught us in John 15: 5. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
So being fruitful is to remain in Jesus and being mature in love towards God’s love and desiring to know God and acknowledging him. The preacher exhorted the attendants to be the ones who seek the love of God with passion and live a meaningful life focusing on the desires of the spirit and do the work of God.
After the Sunday service, a joyful table fellowship time was held with meals prepared by members. Soon after Sunday Bible study was held on the subject of the Bible and God with the newcomer brother and the Church members. Please continue to pray for the growth of every Church members in faith and in love.