Guests:
Crystal Frank, Tim Funk, Blake Widmer
Show notes:
- We need to look to the Bible for how to be godly men & women, not our culture.
- Two teams looking at this: one team of brothers and one team of sisters.
- Additional communications planned.
- Teams contain brothers & sisters from various ages, cultural contexts, urban/rural, & linguistic environments.
- 5 stages to be investigated (1-what it means to be human? 2-how do we represent the image of God? 3-what does it mean to be created male & female? 4-living as godly men & women. 5-interactions with evangelism & discipleship)
- Being human is more than physical; also includes thoughts, soul, spirit.
- Be careful not to elevate one aspect of humanity above another.
- There is a part of us that is of the earth and a part of us that is of God.
- Benefit of study: Our God-given body is good.
- Implications of viewing human as whole, both body & soul: God wanting to dwell with us is an embodied reality in the incarnation.
- What happens if we separate body & soul or elevate one above another? We struggle with self-worth instead of seeing ourself as a tabernacle; we struggle to resolve the tension we feel when we think of ourselves as only body or soul (we don't need to feel bad that we have a body); we might say 'my body doesn't really matter that much', when actually it is very valuable, especially knowing that Jesus will return with a body; we may tend to minimize the body when the body dies, when the reality is that our body will be resurrected.
- Other important discoveries of this study: humanity is one (male & female) - this is significant especially for those that struggle with their identity, value and worth.
- This study should lead us to worship God.
- Plans for additional studies and podcasts on this topic.
