Genesis 1:27 stated that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit created man in His own image. There are 17 other verses in Scripture which deal with man being made in the image of God. Though we are not all children of God, only believers are considered the children of God; every man, woman and child are created in His image!
Often when I am out speaking, I bring geodes with me to use as an illustration. I think most all of us at some point in life either forget who we are and how valuable we are, or we have been told differently by others so long that we start believing it. I know when I was young so many people from my own father to school teachers, students and even people from our church, who told me I was a loser, a nobody, and I would never amount to anything. I allowed those words I heard so often to define the next 33 years of my life. I believed them and became them.
Then we are continually bombarded by the world on a daily basis: TV, radio, social media, advertising billboards, signs, magazines... who tell us what we should look like, what we should wear, what to drink, to eat, what car to drive, what diet we should be on, etc. in order to equal up to what “society” deems as acceptable. If we don’t equal up to these “norms,” we are considered cast outs, low lives, scum bags, living in poverty, and many other terms. People are bullied, looked down upon, labeled, classified, and thrown out because of this. Clicks are made, and sub-cultures created.
Newsflash! This is one of the problems of not getting into and accepting God’s Word. Or, we just start putting what others think and say above what the Lord has said. Guess what? God’s Word trumps all!
God said you were created in His image! Not only that, He said many other things about you. That you were “fearfully and Wonderfully made; you are a Masterpiece; you are adopted by Him, you are Fellow heirs, an Ambassador, part of the Royal Priesthood, His special people... and the list goes on!
Yet we listen to people rather than what the Lord says. Like the geode, which is an ugly rock on the outside, but when broken open there are beautiful crystals on the inside, so with us. Many people may see the ugliness in us and in our hearts and focus on that, label us because of that, define us because of that; BUT GOD sees the things of the heart and does not look at the outer appearance. That broken geode has beautiful crystals inside, just like every single one of us are beautiful on the inside because we are created in the image of God!
Even many people in the Church do this. With the same mouths they use on Sunday morning to bless the Lord, they use outside of Church to curse the very people who God has placed His image in.
Refuse to be defined by others and listen to the one who loved you enough to not only create you in His own image, but who sent His own Son to die for you: to die for the ugliness other people focus in on. Jesus focuses on that ugliness too, but only because He is asking you to give it to Him. It’s the whole reason He came and died: to take your “stuff.” It’s Your choice! You want to keep that “stuff,” or do you wish to give it to Him? You can continue to be a slave to the world and to the people who want you to think, act, and be like them, or you can give it to Jesus and start living like the person He created you to be: special, unique, beautiful, special, a masterpiece! Give it to Him today and find who God created you to be. Jer. 33:3.
Last Update: Jun 08, 2017 7:48 am CDT
