IMAGE OF GOD

IMAGE of GOD,    “WORTH CONSIDERING’    5/3/19   (Across my desk this morning.  Another beautiful morning,  Temp. 77, Humidity 76%  clear, blue and beautiful.  Our Property backs up to thousand’s of acres of forest jungle still in an Hawaiian Kingdom Trust. 

Today’s Scripture
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  (Ephesians 2:10, NIV)

Created for Greatness
It’s easy to go through life thinking that we’re average; we’re ordinary. “There’s nothing special about me. I’m just one of the six billion people on earth.” No, when God created you in His image, He put a part of Himself in you. You could say that you have the DNA of Almighty God. You are destined to do great things, destined to leave your mark on this generation. The truth is, there is nothing average about you; but too many times, we don’t realize who we are. We focus on our weaknesses or what we don’t have. We focus on the mistakes we’ve made or the family from which we’ve come. We end up settling for mediocrity when we were created for greatness!

If you’re going to break out of average, you need to remind yourself every day, “I have the DNA of the Most High God. Greatness is in my genes. I come from a bloodline of champions.” If you’ll have the attitude of a champion, you’ll live the life of a champion and boldly embrace the blessings He has in store for you!

A Prayer for Today
“Father, thank You for preparing me to do the good works You have prepared. I am not average. I am not ordinary. I am created for greatness, and I belong to Almighty God. Thank You for Your faithfulness in Jesus’ name! Amen.”  
My Thoughts:
Actually, yes and no…   Adam was a Son of God as also Jesus is a Son of God.   But due to the pride and disobedience of Adam he lost out on that GOD potential and died.   And then we were all born in the image of fallen Adam and born disconnected.  We find this in 1 Cor. 15:22 and originally Adam was made a living soul but died, verse 45.  But the 2nd Adam (Christ Jesus) came as a quickening spirit.   He (Christ Jesus) came to give us the way to gain back that original vision of GOD and to be made in HIS Image and Likeness.  So we have this potential but the process is straight and narrow and few there be that find it.  And as GOD never changes HIS mind that potential is still in each one of us so that who-so-ever will may come and drink of the water of life freely,  Rev.22:17. 

But the WAY from where we are to being like CHRIST JESUS will take your total commitment,  Amplified Bible:  John 12:24-26….^{………..24,}    I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains [just one grain; it never becomes more but lives] by itself alone. But if it dies, it produces many others and yields a rich harvest.  ²⁵ Anyone who loves his life loses it, but anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. [Whoever has no love for, no concern for, no regard for his life here on earth, but despises it, preserves his life forever and ever.]²⁶ If anyone serves Me, he must continue to follow Me [^[a]to cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying] and wherever I am, there will My servant be also. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.

And Jesus prayed for us to be successful:  John 17:20-26…²⁰ Neither for these alone do I pray [it is not for their sake only that I make this request], but also for all those who will ever come to believe in (trust in, cling to, rely on) Me through their word and teaching,²¹e. That they all may be one, [just] as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent M^{e  22} I have given to them the glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one [even] as We are one:²³ I in them and You in Me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united, that the world may know and [definitely] recognize that You sent Me and that You have loved them [even] as You have loved Me.²⁴ Father, I desire that they also whom You have entrusted to Me [as Your gift to Me] may be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory, which You have given Me [Your love gift to Me]; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.²⁵ O just and righteous Father, although the world has not known You and has failed to recognize You and has never acknowledged You, I have known You [continually]; and these men understand and know that You have sent Me.²⁶ I have made Your Name known to them and revealed Your character and Your very ^[a]Self, and I will continue to make [You] known, that the love which You have bestowed upon Me may be in them [felt in their hearts] and that I [Myself] may be in them.

Jude gives us a quick look at what happen to souls if they reject the love and the grace of GOD in HIS loving restoration attempt:   Jude 11-16….¹¹ Woe to them! For they have run riotously in the way of Cain, and have abandoned themselves for the sake of gain [it offers them, following] the error of Balaam, and have perished in rebellion [like that] of Korah!  ¹² These are hidden reefs (elements of danger) in your love feasts, where they boldly feast sumptuously [carousing together in your midst], without scruples providing for themselves [alone]. They are clouds without water, swept along by the winds; trees, without fruit at the late autumn gathering time—twice (doubly) dead, [lifeless and] plucked up by the roots;  ¹³ Wild waves of the sea, flinging up the foam of their own shame and disgrace; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of eternal darkness has been reserved forever.¹⁴ It was of these people, moreover, that Enoch in the seventh [generation] from Adam prophesied when he said, Behold, the Lord comes with His myriads of holy ones (ten thousands of His saints)  ¹⁵ To execute judgment upon all and to convict all the impious (unholy ones) of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed [in such an] ungodly [way], and of all the severe (abusive, jarring) things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.  ¹⁶ These are inveterate murmurers (grumblers) who complain [of their lot in life], going after their own desires [controlled by their passions]; their talk is boastful and arrogant, [and they claim to] admire men’s persons and pay people flattering compliments to gain advantage.

Most of the divisions in Christianity are teaching what makes their particular division sustainable. And it makes the real depth of the Truth of God is hard to find today,  it is so well watered down and sugar coated to make it more palatable as to hardly be effective at all.   Often  we understand more Truth that we are effectively using,  this is normal.  It take time for the heart to learn what the head is learning.  We may have tried many time to make Jesus LORD in our heads prior to making HIM LORD in our hearts and really beginning to be on the road to sanctification and ultimate salvation.  It truly is a walk of Heart faith.  And Heart faith comes by ingesting the WORD OF GOD in the HEART,  not just the head of understanding.  Heart Faith changes life actions,  head faith does not.  Heart faith brings maturity and reproduction in kind.  Head faith changes very little.  Faith without works is dead, being alone.  James 2:17.

Yours, in HIS great love and wonderful grace and mercy,   Ken<><    www.Trinity-Aloha.org   (Bible Fellowship this evening at 6 w/pot blessing at 85-4554 Mamalahoa Hwy.   Capt. Cook, HI 96704….   ken@trinity-aloha.org)