Our Image of God

Who is the Lord? - December 1st, 2018

It’s damp and cool this morning. Rain has been falling for the last hour or so and you can tell it had soaked the ground because of the sound of droplets striking the surface of the earth splatter rather than simply rapidly being absorbed into the ground.

My focus is shifted to the creation of all things and the one who created, and I immediately have an image of the creator.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. John 1:1-3 (CSB)

Then my mind wandered among the many images we have captured in our minds about who God is and the roles that he holds in our minds eye.

I flip to a song most of us hear or learned as children regarding God, and today I realize just how simple that song was. Simple but beautiful as well. “He’s got the whole world in His hands”, was and is a simple song acknowledging the power of God. As a boy, I remember thinking that if God is that big to have us nestled in his hands, he was a huge guy!

Sadly, as we grow up, we seem to try to place the ‘Big Guy’ in smaller and smaller boxes for our own purposes. The images we conjure up of God fitting into our plans and desires are used by our flesh to contort our understanding of God.

The thing we come to understand fairly quickly if we are considering the ways in which God presents himself to us in scripture and yes, even in our lives, is that the Lord God’s image is not static. That image that we had when singing ‘He’s got the whole world in His hand’ is only one of many projections of God that are valid and in keeping with His Word.

He demands reverence and respect and has shown Himself to be larger than life because He is life itself and all things living have their lives to his credit.

Then we consider this passage opening the book of John and in the first three verses we see Jesus is being portrayed as ‘The Word’ and Creator. God in human flesh, Jesus. All God, all man, and yet in this person of Jesus we see numerous images of God ranging from the innocent child lying in a manger with Mary and Joseph standing by obviously in awe of what God had done to show himself in their form, to the one who had defeated sin and death and was returning to his Father in heaven triumphantly through the clouds.

Then she gave birth to her firstborn Son, and she wrapped him tightly in cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. Luke 2:7 (CSB)

…and…

He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

After he had said this, he was taken up as they were watching, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going, they were gazing into heaven, and suddenly two men in white clothes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you have seen him going into heaven.” Acts 1:7-11 (CSB)

In the short 33 years he spent with us, other images of…

Compassionate Healer:

When he went ashore, he saw a large crowd, had compassion on them, and healed their sick. Matthew 14:14 (CSB)

Superior to Demons:

When evening came, they brought to him many who were demon-possessed. He drove out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. Matthew 8:16 (CSB)

Comforter:

He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 2 Corinthians 1:4 (CSB)

Savior:

And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son as the world’s Savior. 1 John 4:14 (CSB)

We can find many more illustrations of who God in the flesh was during the time Jesus was here among us; his mastery of nature, full awareness of who he was, a brother, son, the Lamb of God, our atonement, and on and on.

We haven’t even hardly touched on the references to God the Father who sent Jesus to us. Or the Holy Spirit and his role in our lives.

I’m going to cut this short today. I would like to have you set some time aside, study the scripture and seek out more images of just who God is. If you just search out two passages for God the Father, two for Jesus the Son, and two for the Holy Spirit, realizing that they all are true images of who God is, I believe that you will have put yourself in a special position for worshiping God, who is more than worthy of our love and devotion. Just look and see who he is, and you’ll know.

Blessings, kip…