Here are some important and really helpful posts for parents:
18 Things I Will Not Regret Doing With My Children – Tim Challies
Parents, Require Obedience of Your Children – John Piper (DG)
Is Your Child a Christian? – Brian Croft (GC)
How to Guard Sabbath for Your Children – Jen Wilkin (GC)
Who am I? God made us in his image. God made us to reflect him. Like the moon reflects the light of the sun, so we are to reflect the glory of God. But then came the Fall. Adam and Eve sinned. And we all became distorted image-bearers.
We seek to reflect not God, but ourselves. We try to cover up the reflection of God as we seek to be our own gods. We live for ourselves. Learning, relationships, work, and rest become all about me. And I will determine right and wrong for myself apart from God – just like the devil tempted Eve so many years ago. We all do what is right in our own eyes. We were made to reflect God’s glory, but we all fall short as we seek to be our own gods. The reflection of God within us has become distorted, twisted, covered.
Not only do we seek to be our own gods, but we follow after other gods – idols. This is inevitable, because if I don’t find my identity in God as his image-bearer, I will have to look elsewhere for meaning, purpose, significance. Since I can’t find it in myself (I make a lousy god), I’ll chase after created things to give me meaning, an identity. And so people seek their identity in all kinds of places. Some look for their identity in their career, their job, their business. Others find their identity in their busyness (I must be significant if I am this busy!). Some seek their identity in their successes. Others identify themselves with their failures, or their suffering. For some, their identity is found in what others think, or in a relationship – a spouse, a child, a friend. Many look for their identity in things – all the stuff they own. Others seek their identity in their looks, their health, their sexuality, or their good behavior. Yet none of these idols can give us the significance we crave, the identity we seek.
So here are some important questions for us:
Also in this series:
Who am I? God made us in his image, after his likeness. God made us like him to think, to love, to work, to rest, to live morally upright. But then came the Fall. Adam and Eve sinned. And we all became distorted image-bearers. The likeness became distorted.
We are not like God as he made us to be. We have become distorted image-bearers. Tomorrow, we will explore this further before considering God’s incredible plan of rescue.
Also in this series:
Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
Five Facts About Loving God – Jason DeRouchie (Desiring God)
With an echo of the call to love God with all, Moses opens Deuteronomy 10 by calling Israel to maintain radical God-centeredness (Deuteronomy 10:12–13). Yahweh is always to be the blazing center in his people’s solar system. He then notes that such wholehearted, life-encompassing allegiance to God was warranted from Israel because he created them and because he rescued them from Egyptian slavery (Deuteronomy 10:14–15). In light of these truths, Moses then applies the call to radical love for God into Israel’s everyday lives, and in the process, he reveals how far they were from God’s ideal. I see five significant points regarding love for God in these verses….
The Christian Traveller – Jeremy Walker (Reformation 21)
Looking about me, I was struck by the prominent ways and means in words and in deeds by which various of my fellow wanderers were proclaiming their personal identity and spiritual allegiance…. All of which fascinating tableau left me asking, “By what means should I, as a Christian traveller, communicate my personal identity and spiritual allegiance?”
What You Should Say After Every Week of Work – Trevin Wax
And like I do every week, I will whisper to myself as I walk out the door: “And God saw that it was good.”
9 Things You Should Know About Persecution of Christians in 2013 – Joe Carter (GC)
Christians are the single most widely persecuted religious group in the world today. As we pray for the persecuted church, here are nine things you should know about the plight of believers around the globe….
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day of rest and prayer!
What is Reformation Day all about? Robert Rothwell writes: Tomorrow, much of the culture will be focused on candy and things that go bump in the night. Protestants, however, have something far more significant to celebrate on October 31. Tomorrow is Reformation day, which commemorates what was perhaps the greatest move of God’s Spirit since the days of the Apostles. But what is the significance of Reformation Day, and how should we consider the events it commemorates? You can read the rest here.
Humans are designed to image or reflect God their Creator (Gen. 1:26-27). Don’t let the subtlety of this escape you. Our design as humans inherently requires something to image – God…. And when we don’t image him, by default we image ourselves and elevate ourselves as god. This is the height of idolatry…. We humans fail to grasp that we are most human when we image God. We vainly seek an image of our own to bear, hoping to project a self-image so captivating that others will love and accept us.
– Bill Clem in Disciple
Who am I? In the last two posts (Part 1 and Part 2), we said that we are image-bearers of God – made in his likeness, we are like God is several ways. Here are three more implications of being image-bearers of God:
First, I am a reflection of God. I am made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26-27). An image is a reflection, a representation. I look in a mirror, and I see my image – it is a reflection of me. I take a picture of myself, and that picture is a reflection of me. In the same way, we are created to be pictures, representations, reflections of God. We are created to reflect God to others. In my thinking, I am to reflect God to others. In my relationships, I am to reflect God to others. In my work, I am to reflect God to others. In my rest, I am to reflect God to others. In my behavior, I am to reflect God to others. I am to point not to myself but to God. I am to live for his glory, not my own. As the moon reflects the light of the sun, so I am to reflect the glory of God.
Second, I am accountable to God. God commanded Adam not to eat of a certain tree, and if Adam disobeyed there would be dire consequences (Genesis 2:16-17). He was accountable to God. And so are we. All of us will one day have to answer to God. How well did I use my mind? How well did I love God and people? How well did I work? How well did I rest? How well did I live uprightly? How well did I reflect God in my everyday life, instead of creating my own image for people to see?
Third, I am valuable to God. Yes, I am a creature made from the dust, but I am also made in God’s image which gives me great value, great dignity. I bear the Creator’s image. As one poster I remember from childhood said, “God don’t make no junk.” This is where I find my identity – not in what others think of me, not in my circumstances, not in my accomplishments or failures – but in what God thinks of me. He made me in his image, and so I have value. He made you in his image, so you have value. And so we ought to respect one another.
As I am to respect God, so I am to respect people made in God’s image. James 3 warns us about blessing God and then turning around and cursing people made in his image. When I curse, insult, belittle, and make fun of people, I do the same to God. How often have we cursed God? We must respect one another as image-bearers of God – regardless of behavior, political leanings, sexual orientation, color of skin, economic status, or whatever tempts you to belittle another person. Everyone is an image-bearer of God, and so we must respect one another. That doesn’t mean we will always approve of what others do – often we won’t. But we must treat people with respect because they are made in God’s image.
