Creation and Human Nature..Sunday opening message - 10-18-2020

 Creation and Human Nature

Genesis 1:26 -28

The Sixth Day

…26     Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.” 27  So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.28God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth.”…We are very blessed and can be very proud to be Created of God in this manner.. Jesus said pride goeth  before a fall but we can be proud of our God and grateful that we have been his chosen to rein upon the earth. We can boldly and unashamedly  go forth with our lives like that of Jesus as he never diminished himself but always gave credit to the Father for all that he was and all that was good…

What is God?

Aside from the bible, We need to look no further than ourselves to get a multidimensional picture of God. Of course there are many things not reflected.. such as God is the creator of all things and “is” all things as he is the Father, Son and The holy Ghost… How could we see or imagine what this could look like. He is not one dimensional or 2 dimensional or even 3 dimensional…HIS DEMENSIONS ARE INFINATE... But we see ourselves and each other. We are witness to all of His creation on earth…That we can get our minds around.

When God says” Let Us make man in “Our” image, after “Our” likeness,  is that God  speaking as a Trinity, of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? 

 According to Scripture as a whole, the full Trinity was present at creation. Genesis 1:2 describes the Spirit of God hovering over the waters, and John 1:1–3 reveals that the Word, Christ, was active in the creation of all things.

Next, this verse raises the question of what it means to be made in God's image, or in His likeness. Without question, this statement does not necessarily mean that God created humans to resemble Him physically (John 4:24). Rather, this seems to support the idea that God endowed humans with a certain kind of awareness, one which animals and birds and fish were not given. We do not know for sure about the physical resemblance but we do know about humans possessing the capacity for reason, morality, language, personality, and purpose. In particular, the ability to use morality and spirituality are unique to human beings among God's creations on earth. Like God, we would possess the capacity to experience and understand love, truth, and beauty. And let us not exclude the ability to use abstract thinking to manifest “faith”….

Humans are made in God's image in another way: as a model, or a representative. God is the Maker, and all of creation belongs to Him. He is Lord over it. However, in the moment of creation, God gives mankind the responsibility to rule over all other life He has made on the earth. In that sense, humans would stand as God's image, God's representatives, on earth as we rule over and manage all the rest of His creation. We need to seek to make Him proud and worthy of his trust in us….

To see God we need to first see ourselves clearly….

Being human is complicated. Even if we came with a set of instructions, seriously, who would read them.  This is a good thing. The only way to do ‘human’ is in our very own way.We have instructions for living; it’s called the Bible… It is the imperfect things we do, and we all do them, that are such an essential part of being human. We don’t want to lose these endearing qualities… God never intended that we be clones of one another.. Our individual natures make us interesting and attractive to one another… The disciples all had their own personalities too… It makes us wonderful and perfect, as a creation.. It “is” part of who we are…

There are the vulnerabilities that exist at our edges with a reality and a rawness that can feel overwhelming at times. It is easy to feel as though we are the only ones… but we’re not. We never are. We might  struggle or bungle at different intensities and with different impacts and levels of awareness, but we all “struggle and bungle”. It is the beautifully imperfect art of being perfectly human. Maybe this is why forgiveness is a part of our world also… What a balance!

Psalm 139:13-15

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

What a wonderful expression of our creation and what was to be the end product..”HUMANITY”

 Being human, as we struggle and bungle through life, we will have our regrets. 

Such as:

The adventure we said no to. The person we didn’t kiss. The job we didn’t go for. The move we didn’t make. The person we chose as forever. The career we locked ourselves to. The city that is clawing at our spirit. Regret happens because time changes reality. It gives us knowledge we didn’t have and the opportunity to experience the path we decided on. The problem is that we can generally only experience one path at a time. Time has a way of polishing the alternative path until it sparkles. But at the end..When it is all said an done..When we are presented with the final curtain , even with our natural regrets we need not be in a position of regretting not living for God…That would be very sad indeed… Let our choices along the way be wise.. Let us also not forget that The fear Of God is the beginning of wisdom… It seems that the earlier in life that we choose to serve God the fewer regrets we will have at the end… It is true that Jesus will forgive us even at the 11^th hour but look at the wasted years…….

On Human Nature….

Our human nature therefore is a wonderful part of us..

It seems that this term has been used and confused in context with several definitions. Suffice it to say that if the term “Human Nature” is being used to describe  the dark side of us.. as a descending element,; referred to in the concept of Yin and yang, the evil that dwells within us, than by all accounts it should be controlled, supressed but better dissolved for a suppression will manifest itself magnified in different ways as to fool our very consciousness…To the extent that we diminish the darkness in our lives , through the grace of God, we increase the light in our lives .. The reverse is also true…

However, to be human is not an evil force and our nature was part of a gift package from God himself.. Gifts that we need be thankful for , cherish and use wisely in our lives… Our human nature in this sense of the word is the substance of how we were created and hence who we are….In this context we can celebrate human nature everyday….It becomes part of the Joy of serving God.. A wonderful awareness…

We can therefore love ourselves and our brothers and sisters , even the plants & animals ,as we all are the Lord’s creation even if we disagree or even though we are top of the food chain here on earth. We are here but for the grace of God….

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. - John 13:34-35

If one must intellectually process the definition of “Love” Paul has seen fit to oblige with a poetry rarely found in a former Roman soldier of the times. In a letter to the Corinthians Paul writes:

 Corinthians 13:4-8

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

Love endures…….

I will end on that lovely note..Let Us pray….

We know Lord that to love thee is to love all of your creation of the heavens and earth, including ourselves. We stand in awe of your wisdom and power and we are thankful for your blessings. We are humbled by the example that Jesus has set before us and we seek to use the gifts that has been bestowed upon us, at the moment of creation, to be more like Lord Jesus Christ…Help us Lord and guide us so that we can reach out for that perfect example that has been given to us . We are thankful each day for the record left for us and for enlightenment, at the perfect time, when you reveal to us the wonders of YOU little by little.. We understand that with revelation comes vast responsibility and so we pray that as bits of your light are revealed to us also give us strength and wisdom to carry forth this knowledge as would Jesus do….

Bless this little bible study today and let us feel your presence as we engage in fellowship even as they did in the first churches. Help us lord to understand the substance of what we study each week and to apply it to our lives in meaningful ways….As you open our eyes we are more grateful for all that you have given us. We pray for others that they maybe experience the joy of serving you as we do.

We ask these things in Jesus’ name..

Amen