New Creation Year: Imaging God

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When I think about Imaging God...

I find myself caught in a quandary, simply because I am not sure what I take out and what I want to add-in. There is a challenge in being really honest about how you fill the space, how you fill the time, how you show the image of God. It is a competition of decisions between desires (dreams) and dependents.

In my experience, there are always people around who like to “evaluate” my decisions regarding how I am imaging God. They don’t use those words. That is okay, sometimes. I usually know when my decisions are going to create chaos in my own life and I know I am not made to be an image of Chaos. I am not as skilled at predicting when my decisions will create chaos in the lives of others around me and that is something I am working on too.

What I decide to put on my newly ordered shelves of life have the power to create good in my own life, and when done well, that good will spill over into the lives of others. That is the purpose of being an image.

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Embrace your jars’ fragility (that’s French)

Paul has just finished explaining to us how we are like a fragile clay jar that is filled with this wondrous treasure. Think about that. When you believe, you are filled with this treasure that is a great benefit to yourself and to your world. Paul has given us a framework of how to order that treasure. Our purpose is to use that framework: trouble is handled each day through faith and that results in glory.

He makes a statement that our bodies our dying, our spirits are renewed each day.

He makes a statement that our present troubles are small and will produce a glory that will last forever.

When he is done in 2 Corinthians 4, he simply moves on to talk about our current bodies and new bodies in heaven. Makes perfect sense…if you are Paul! Paul has assumed we are thinking like he is about being an image of God. Remember, 2 Corinthians 4 has a structure that follows the narrative of Genesis 1. In that narrative, we are told that we are the image of God. We need to have that thought in mind as we read.

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Filling-in this new order is Imaging God

Here is the battle: We are stuck with this old body, in a world that is not cooperative, with humans that bring chaos.

Our minds are not programmed to embrace this idea of becoming an Image of God. It is a battle.

When we look back on what Jesus did, we see an example of how an Image of God lives among people.

Taken seriously, this makes it really frustrating because we constantly fail to follow through on this.

Let’s dive into 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 and see what we can learn.

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1 For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. 2 We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. 3 For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies.

It becomes tiring to try and keep up with the trouble: day: faith: glory process

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4 While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us.

Groan and sigh. Not exactly the Image of God. And while sometimes we feel like we want to go home, that is not the answer.

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Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life.

New bodies: Think of this like you are beginning to Image God. Imaging is following Jesus. When we process through the ordered framework, Glory will begin to spill out.

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5 God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit. 6 So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord.

This is what we are made for and what we are designed for. The Holy Spirit is in us to make this possible. Only God can take chaos and turn it into Glory, into Beauty.

Item on the shelf: Confidence

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7 For we live by believing and not by seeing.

Item on the shelf: Believing

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8 Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him.

Here is something interesting…our location does not change our status as being the Image of God. Did you catch that?

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10 For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.

What we do here matters, more than you may ever know.

You get the sense the entire section is trying to persuade us to leave the old ways that are tied to the old body by embracing the reality of a new body that results in a new way of living. And that new way might look something like this:

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Chaos: be ready for it and make room for it, but don’t seek it out. Try to avoid looking for it, don’t create it for others and help others through it. Remember, only God was able to speak light into the darkness. This is something he does. Invite God into your troubles, challenges, habits and chaos. This is where you let your soul cry out with loud wailing, asking for help. The Psalms are full of this kind of poetry where people just pour out their heart and soul before God.

Days: Time is the connecting point between our troubles and our faith. This concept is so lost on western Christians, at least in my opinion. We think we can order chaos out of our life by filling our time with tasks. (((DEVELOP))) Prayer, praise, study, work, relationships, responsibilities, etc.

Faith: This is the belief system you develop, hopefully based on scriptures, that causes you to see your life through a Holy lens. This is the area that will inform your emotions when your emotions, thoughts and desires are running a muck.

Glory: Acknowledge God for what has happened with gratitude or thanksgiving.

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Know Christ: this is a key step, you are well served to jump into the gospels and just read. Watch what Jesus does. He is the image of God.