THE IMAGE OF GOD

You have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge, according to the image of Him who created him. (Colossians 3:10)

Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar ordered a giant statue of gold to be built: 90 feet tall, 9 feet wide. It might have represented the king himself or it may have represented Nebuchadnezzar‘s patron God, Nabu. Since kings of the day ascribed divine status to themselves, the image – – whether of a king or the kings God – – represented the divine on earth. (Daniel 3: 1-8)

We find a similar scenario in the Genesis creation story: God created man in his own image (Genesis 1:26–27). The same word for image – – TZELEM – – is used both for God’s image (a spiritual image) and the image in Babylon “a physical image.” What was the purpose of God creating mankind in His image? Mankind was to represent God throughout God‘s kingdom, or creation. As Paul writes in Ephesians 4:24, Christians are a new creation “to be like God – – truly righteous and holy”

Though originally marred by sin, we have been re-created (born again) to reflect God‘s righteousness and holiness. When others see us, they are to see the character of our God.

================Taken from: Every Day with Jesus=============================

How much we fall short of presenting the image of God when we deal with others in our lives. It is very convicting to read what God created us for, and what we have become as a society.

I know in my own life, I fall short every day, of representing my Lord the way He would like for me to. We get so caught up in our own trials and tribulations of this life that we just fail to represent Christ in the way that He desires us to represent Him.

Last night at church we had a guest speaker brother John Lewis from the Ohio area. He was a good friend of my husband David and spoke so well of him last night in the service. I’m thankful that he can be remembered occasionally in churches for his work for the Lord.

Brother Lewises’ sermon title was “Keep wasting your time”. Seems like an odd title for a message but he explained it so clearly that what we do for God even though we might be made fun of by our relatives and friends and coworkers because we go to church three times a week - we witness to those that we meet and we try to bring others to church that we know do not know the Lord so that they can receive Christ. The point he made during the sermon was yes let’s keep wasting our time. They say we are wasting our time caring about things like that and they don’t know what’s going to happen in the future – – but we do. It was a blessing to me and I hope you will consider this in your life —

to make it a great part of your week each week to be on the lookout for those that do not know the Lord and to be aware of other Christians that are suffering or they are wrestling with sin, and perhaps you could be a blessing by being there for them.

I pray that you would consider this idea, and let God lead you to others that need to know him before it’s too late – – because we know what’s going to happen!

This horrific scene is telling the story of God punishing those in Noah’s day who had 120 years of warning and pleading from Noah to receive God and trust Him but they would not!!