I’m pretty sure the end of the age is near. I’m not certain how long we can continue to pretend that everything is OK. The world is a mess. My country is a mess. My State is a mess. My city is a mess covered in lane merges and closures, orange traffic cones and various pieces of construction equipment. My city is also riddled with commercial vacancies. But that is not what I would like to discuss. I would like to discuss Genesis 1:26-27.
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over [a]all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
I think what we, (starting off with “I”, because I have to speak to me first), have forgotten is that we are made in God’s own image. The foundation of western civilization as we know it hinges on this concept. I treat others well because all others are created in the image of the God I claim to believe in. We are all made in his image, so God is not a white man, and he is also feminine as well as masculine – granted the Jesus I claim to believe in referred to God as his father, and as such, we see many fatherly traits in God’s character.
Why is this important? Because if people are evolved from a cosmic accident, what value do they hold? They’re all just bacteria growing in a petri dish that happened to grow legs one day. The only value evolution would grant them is based on survival of the fittest. Might makes right and so on. We have our form of government to protect the rights of the individual because the individual is made in the image of God and granted by said God certain inalienable rights. These rights come from above, they are not a gift of the state. My belief in God allows me to treat all people with a certain respect, because of what God says about them in Genesis chapter 1:26-27. Even if they treat me badly, they are made in the image of God. Jesus hung out with betrayer and follower alike. Jesus proclaimed the good news to a group of people who cheered him at the beginning of the week and then yelled “crucify him” at the end of the same week.
Being made in the image of God does not mean being cast in God’s character. For proper image, I need to have the power that comes from God. God’s power is available to people through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told us the spirit would come, and the spirit has come to us all as of Acts 2. In John 16:7-11, Jesus is speaking to his disciples and telling them, (dom paraphrased), “It’s better that he (Jesus) go away so that the Holy Spirit will come”, and further that “when he comes he will bring conviction which hopefully will lead to repentance because the world is already judged”. Many times I forget that the world has been judged, and Jesus is the judgement, he is also the ransom for the judgement, so that no one has an excuse – we could all have a relationship with God if we accept the gift – but if we keep trying to earn it, we will never deserve a relationship with God.
I do not deserve a relationship with my creator, in fact, I deserve to be left to my own devices. God’s forgiveness is not conditional on my behavior, because if it were, then I could brag about earning it or deserving it. God’s forgiveness is more conditional on God’s behavior. He pronounced the judgement based on actions that took place outside His expressed will (Don’t eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil), and in the disobedience came the consequences to all of creation : death and entropy. Some have argued “If God is all-powerful why couldn’t he changed the outcome and started over?” I don’t know why God is allowing this all to play out. He did start over with Noah and his kids. But unfortunately, part of the consequences were still in play from Adam & Eve.
All of those discussions essentially dodge the point. Here is the point. God is, was and is to come. Jesus testified to that – and Jesus rose from the dead. God created us in His image. God loves us and made a way for us to hang out with him. We get to choose to hang out or not. He doesn’t make us do it. Jesus was not who I was looking for when I was out God-shopping in my 20’s. In fact, he was last on the list. The Bible was also last on the list. Jesus is the God who showed up for me. I would have accepted anyone/anything else. But I followed a 12 step programs guidelines – my God had to be Loving, Caring and Greater than myself… Jesus introduced himself to me in 1992 and my life has never been the same. It’s funny, Jesus never insisted I go to church, instead we hung out especially on Saturday. My relationship was in a pure state but then some christians told me that “Christians go to church”. In some ways, it was like eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for me. The end result was a whole lot of church hurt and baggage. After messing around for a decade, I moved on to a different church.
Then came the extreme growth of getting serious about my faith. I started really reading the Bible cover to cover every 3 months, it was the only book I read for 10 years besides a few technical manuals for work. Then I noticed something, the Holy Spirit was all over the Bible – as in mentioned all over the Bible. In the old testament, the Holy Spirit (or the Spirit of God) would come upon people. In the new testament, the Holy Spirit would come into people. Soon, I began to have experiences I can only describe as the Holy Spirit manifesting in my life. Strange encounters with people, perfect timing encounters, answered prayers, just radical stuff compared to most of my church life up to that point. But I blew it. I put some people up on a stand in my life and said in my heart that they were “doing it right” and that I should be like them. What I love about God is that sometimes when I plead with him, he answers my questions very directly in language I can understand. I didn’t know I blew it, I just knew I felt wrong and different, and hurt and I didn’t know why – so I asked God and he told me directly in my spirit and mind “you remember when you said those people were doing it right, and that you should be like them?” and I answered him “Yes, I remember” then God said “that’s when you blew it” (only he said it a little different, in language that got my attention).
I relate to the demoniac of Mark 5 and Luke 8 starting in Luke 8:26, because Jesus goes way out of his way to set that non-jewish dude free from a legion of demons. Afterwards, the man, having been restored to his right mind, wants to go and follow Jesus, but Jesus doesn’t let him, instead he charges him to “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you”. Isn’t that a picture of step 12? Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to addicts and to practice these principals in all of our affairs. Jesus didn’t command the guy to go to Jerusalem and study for eight years and return with a doctorate in theology – instead He commanded the man to go and tell others about what Jesus did. It’s not lost on me that the man was a gentile (a non-jew) and that I am also a gentile. That once demon possessed man changed the world. It is said that the churches of the decapolis (ten cities) owe their existence to that man that Jesus set free and sent back.
Wow, what a long winded post… If you are saved, it’s time to return to your first love. If you have no idea what I’m on about, I get it – but maybe it’s time to pretend there is a God and that God cares for you personally, and ask said God to reveal itself to you in a way that you will understand. The time is short. A whole lot has been written in the Bible about the times we are living in today, and I have some bad news: it gets much worse. But there is a relationship that will continue forever, and that is a relationship with Jesus Christ. He will never leave or forsake you. Shalom & Maranatha!
