The Glory of God is Man Fully Alive

The following dialog is a discussion that the staff had during a lecture in Florida. I remember sitting out on the dock that morning with ten to twelve other staff. It was hot. It was humid. I was so excited to be there and yet I had no idea what to expect. As we began discussing the quote "The glory of God is man fully alive," I felt very challenged. Honestly, discussions like this are a commodity at home. I've maybe delved this deep with other believers five or six times before. I came from that conversation extremely contemplative. I came from that conversation challenged to work toward creating such an environment within Albuquerque with Navigators or simply other believers in general. I experienced one of the truest forms of fellowship (as true as this world can be as it is still tainted by sin) that morning and it was wonderful. It was wonderful to be challenged by the Body. Thank you Lord for such an experience. May Your gospel by my motivation in all that I do.

Glory of God is man fully alive:

Anna: Man fully alive is man fully dead to self.

Micah: Was God not glorified before man was created? God seems dependent on man.

Dayne: God is glorified through his sacrifice that made man alive. So glory still originates with God. No dependence on man.

Anna: Before the Fall was man fully alive?

Justin: What does it mean to be fully alive in a Fallen World?

Hannah: Dell's definition of life was something about pouring out and receiving in.

Jared: Fully alive is Christ and those in heaven. No hint of death. Christ was the only person fully alive.

Anna: Do we experience moments of being fully alive? Glimpses of heaven?

Dayne: we aren't fully alive until heaven when sanctification is complete.

Justin: When does the fully alive process begin? Salvation. So there must be some fruit now.

Sarah: One sounds like a byproduct and one sounds like a manifestation. The act of glorifying becomes glory.

Ian: Glory is in how God perceives us, which is different before and after the Fall. He treats us differently.

Jared: God's glory is independent of man.

Dayne: We aren't adding glory. God is glorified through us.

Justin: But we are told to glorify God.

Jared: But God isn't dependent on man.

Micah: We live to manifest God's glory. We can't add to it.

Lizzie: We glorify God, but God gave us the ability to do that.

Micah: The pagan doesn't intentional glorify God.

Ian: But the pagan at least creates opposed to a stupid Christian that doesn't do anything.

Micah: A Christian composer writes to glorify God.

Justin: Man's fully alive is the radiance of God's glory. And God is glorified in man fully alive.

Dayne: The harlot in Hosea pursued God's blessing a partfrom God. The more knowledge we have of God, the less
tempted we are to playthe harlot. The less tempted we are by the world.

Sarah: God needs rational creatures to contemplate his glory.

Justin: Can God glorify something beside himself in order to receive more glory?

Ian: The nature of glory is that you can't shine it on yourself.

Sarah: The Bible talks about how we will be glorified. The'weight of glory.'

Anna: Let's put this in the context of parent and child...

Justin: Could it be that the most glorifying thing God coulddo is to glorify another?

Dayne: God glorified himself by redeeming something outsideof himself.

Justin: What do you think of when thinking of man fully alive?

Bethany: Living how God intended? That's too easy.

Hannah: The concept is easy. When we have joy in God's work that is a big part of being fully alive.

Lizzie: With the atheist, his art is alive but spiritually dead. To be alive is to be alive in all faculties.

Micah: The exercise of everything that it means to be human.Relationships. Mind .Talent.

Dayne: Man fully reflecting the image of God.

Justin: Is man fully alive a process or an end goal?

Dayne: Is the process the product?

Justin: The journey is the goal.

Micah: The glory of God is man becoming like God. God's greatest glory is many fully alive.

Sarah: Or is God's greatest glory Himself?

Lizzie: 1 Corinthians 11:7

Just as a man takes delight in his wife so the Lord takes glory in the church.

Justin: Our very being is the glory of God.

Every action God does is glorious.

Sarah: We have to get away from the idea that glory is quantitative. It isn't in math.

Justin: Just as Sarah wants to get away from glory as quantitative, also get away from it being competitive. He doesn't lose glory by giving it to us.

Jared: You can't add anything to infinity.

Ian: Infinity isn't a number, but a concept.

Lizzie. What is our glory doing if we aren't adding to anything?

We're the vehicle, not the source.

Bethany: Then why would He create us if he didn't need us?

Hannah: We give Him pleasure.

Sarah: A painter manifests his talent in art. But he doesn't gain talent or glory. God desires creative expression.

We are the creation. The artist still has the glory; we simply manifest it.

Justin: The glory isn't an addition from the outside. Still flowing from the author.

Micah: So God glorifies himself by working in us.

Jared: Do you need the painting to bring glory to the painter?

Sarah: A child is covered in mud and looks nothing like the parent. Glory is sanctification; having God remove the mud of
sin.

Then that parent gets to watch the child grow.

Justin: We not only give glory to God but we are the glory of God.

Micah: Interesting that the parent is the one to clean the child..

Sarah was so sweet to take all these notes so that this conversation could be shared among the staff. I took some notes and have added them (italicized) where I think they probably were said.