So a little update on support… I’m at $2,371.00 it’s about 1/8th of what i have to raise to go on the trip… praise the Lord for getting me this far… it’s pretty amazing to see people give as much as they have… I leave for my first training camp Friday morning. I am thrilled to get away from all distractions and spend 10 days in Georgia away from the phone, the internet, and people i know… I really need some time to soak in Jesus… It’s so easy to get distracted from pursuing Him…
Tonight was an amazing evening spent with the Lord (what night isn’t amazing when you are communing with God?) After i got home from work, my mom gave me a devotional called Tabletalk and told me to read the first 3 articles in it. She had mentioned that they were really good articles so i was excited to head up to my room and start digging into them. I kinda just skipped over the first article and dug straight into the second one. It was all on treating people with dignity and respect. It’s underlying message was that we should treat everyone with dignity and respect b/c all of them were created in the image of God…
Image of God… what does that mean? I’ve heard it all my life, but honestly have never truly grasped the concept… so i started in Gen 1:26-27 to begin my search in understanding what exactly is meant by the phrase “created in the image of God”…
I’ll tell you what i concluded and then at the end i will include my notes i took while studying… Originally we were all created in the image of God… what does that mean? We and only human beings are able to have a will, have intellect, have emotion, and be able to reason… also originally man (Adam) was created good, and without sin. These characteristics are known as the communicable attributes… We originally shared these things with the Lord. But because of man’s sin (adams sin) we have destored the original image of God that he bestowed upon us. hence why we are constantly being reminded of in scripture to bare the image of Christ, and to strive to conform to the image of Christ. So in short you get something like this
Image of Christ= Being like Christ…
here are my notes from my study…..
CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD
-GEN. 1:26-27
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.”
THIS IS WHAT DEFINES MANS UNIQUE RELATION WITH GOD
-ONLY MANKIND WAS MADE IN GOD’S IMAGE, NOT THE ANIMALS, OR ANY OTHER LIVING THING…
-MAN IS ABLE TO HAVE GOD’S COMMUNICABLE (ABLE TO COMMUNICATE TO OTHERS/ABLE TO SHARE WITH MAN) ATTRIBUTES
IN THIS RATIONAL LIFE:
MAN CAN REASON
MAN HAS INTELLECT
MAN HAS A WILL
MAN HAS EMOTION
IN THE MORAL SENSE:
MAN WAS GOOD
MAN WAS SINLESS
GEN 9:6- MAN SHOULD NOT KILL MAN BECAUSE HE IS MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD
ROMANS 8:29- MAN SHOULD STRIVE TO CONFORM TO THE IMAGE OF CHRIST (MAN WOULD BE MADE LIKE CHRIST)… THIS IS A CHRISTIANS GOAL… PHIL 3:14 TO BECOME LIKE CHRIST!!!
COL 3:10- HERE WHEN PUTTING ON THE NEW MAN, THE GOAL OF COURSE IS TO BECOME MORE LIKE CHRIST
JAMES 3:9- ALL MEN WERE CREATED IN THE SIMILITUDE (LIKENESS) GOD (THE IMAGE OF GOD)
GEN 9:6- I DON’T UNDERSTAND THIS VERSE
PS 100:3- WE ARE THE SHEEP OF HIS PASTURE… THE BEST WAY I CAN UNDERSTAND THIS IS THAT A SHEPHERD WANTS HIS SHEEP TO CONFORM TO WHAT HE SAYS… LIKEWISE GOD WANTS US TO CONFORM TO HIS SON BECAUSE WE WERE MADE IN HIS IMAGE.
