{{2011_02_18_t1.jpg}} {{2011_02_18_t2.jpg}} {{2011_02_18_t3.jpg}} [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/de/doku.php/jn_de_2011_02_18|Deutsche Version]] [[Start|| Wiki Start]] [[topics_collection_iii|| Topics Collection iii ]] ======Faith Journey 14 - Longing for Dedication ...====== Friday, Feb 18, 2011. We have talked about basic questions of the meaning of life in our last session and also touched the topic of dedication. {{2011_02_18.jpg }} **Where do we give ourselves? ...** The bible explains our longing to dedicate ourselves with the creation story. 'God created man in his image.' ... we read in Genesis 1, 27. A human is made in the image of the eternal God, he is made to live in community with God. It is this community which ultimately gives meaning to us. True community is strongly linked to dedication! Where do we give ourselves? We want to spend some time to discover what goals we have, and what goals our friends and the people around us live. Humans can be dedicated to many different goals. They will find some meaning in such dedication, since God has created us in a way such that we experience meaning when we dedicate ourselve. But only when we loose our heart in God, we will find real peace! Only the dedication to God brings a human to the place for which he or she is made - created! Only dedication to the creator will bring complete fullfilment! Martin Luther once said: Where the human puts his heart, that is his God! We can rephrase that into a question: Where do I loose myself? What is more important to me than other things? What is touching my deepest feelings? What is my God? {{ 2011_02_18_2.jpg}} **Conscious and well-grounded dedication ...** A human can only dedicate himselves to something in a conscious and well-founded way, what he got to know, what he knows well, what his heart longs for. On our journey of faith one key point is to get to know God! If God is the one who can only give real peace, if only our dedication to God will completely satisfy our longing, then it is very important to get to know God! Only if we know God, we know whom we are approaching, whom we are giving our heart, to whom we are dedicating ourselves! Only when we get to know God, conscious and well-founded dedication is possible! Only when we get to know God, our faith and dedication has a fundament on which we can build! Only then it is reasonable faith! Only then we will be able to deal with challenges. In the next part of our journey we will discuss, how we can get to know God better. What are the things which you have dedicated yourself so far in your life? [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/en/doku.php/topics_collection_iii|... more texts]]