Quotes from Timothy Lane

Jesus is not manufacturing a new idea for human relationships or the church. His prayer reflects what God's design has always been.

God will dwell in community with his people so that they can know community with one another

The perfect, eternal love relationship between Father, Son, and Spirit was ripped apart to allow us to be restored to God and reconciled to one another.

What does all this biblical and experiential data tell us? That you cannot talk about human beings made in God's image without talking about relationships. Yet it is often the first thing we overlook. Only when human beings live in community do we fully reflect the likeness

Because of the coexistence of sin and grace, we all shift between denying and affirming our humanity.

The Bible reminds us that God wants—and deserves—to be the defining center of both these things. When I live out of a biblical sense of who I am (identity) and rest in who God is (worship), I will be able to build a healthy relationship with you. These are not abstract theological concepts. We're talking about the content and character of our hearts.

John Calvin said, "For errors can never be uprooted from human hearts until a true knowledge of God is planted therein." 5

The circle of human community is only healthy when it exists within the larger circle of community with God.

In God's plan, this quest for personal identity is meant to drive us back to him as Creator so that we find our meaning and purpose in him.

Who you tell yourself you are has a very powerful impact on the way you deal with the big and small issues of daily life. In the same way, where you find your identity will have everything to do with how you respond to the hard work of relationships with others. Either I get my identity vertically, out of my sense of who God is and worship who he has made me in Christ, or I will seek to get my identity horizontally, out of my circumstances, relationships, and successes.

Christ brings the assets. We bring the liabilities. Yet Christ still joins himself to us!

Although most of us have affirmed that God is the Creator of all things, it is quite easy to worship him as Creator on Sunday and curse his work during the week. We do this when we are dissatisfied with the way God has made the people we relate to every day. When we fail to worship God as Creator in our relationships, we try to ascend to his throne and do all we can to recreate others in our own image. This always leads to frustration and failure.