Whose Image Are You In?

"People will spend millions and
millions of dollars just to protect
or project their image."

One of the things that our society is preoccupied with, borderline obsessed, is image. People will spend millions and millions of dollars just to protect or project their image. The cosmetics industry is a multi-billion dollar industry in large part because of image. People decide what clothes to buy, what car to drive, what house to live in, in large part due to Image. Even though this sounds somewhat petty and miniscule, believe it or not God is preoccupied with image as well. That's why I believe that people's preoccupation with image is not simply a secular or carnal desire. There's some Divine motivation at work as well. The problem is that the focus of our Image is off; and this is what gets us in trouble with God.

As I stated earlier, God, too, is preoccupied with image. As a matter of fact, the whole design behind the creation of humanity revolved around the issue of Image. God said in Genesis chapter 1, "let us make man in our image." The first sentence recorded that God makes about man is involving Image. 

What human beings fail to realize, and the church is in this bag too, is that life and human existence revolves strictly and solely around us being created in the image of God. Let me say that again: human existence revolves strictly and solely around us being created in the image of God. Anything else disconnected from that is superfluous and insignificant. 

Now because of the worldly conditioning that all of us have been exposed to, it's hard to fathom that statement from a practical standpoint. But whether we fully understand or comprehend it, it is the truth. And what allows people to live lives that are full of stress, depression, sadness and hopelessness is because they're not focused on the Divine Image for which God created us to operate in. I want to say very adamantly today, this includes Christians.

In order to grasp the belief that our lives are Divinely Designed to revolve around the Divine Image of God, we must first embrace the fact that we were not made for the temporal but for the Eternal. This is significant, because most of us, including Christians, live our lives based upon day to day agendas and temporal goals and aspirations. This is not the will of God. Yes, there are things that God wants us to accomplish "in time," but they're all directed towards Eternity. And if you're not reaching for the Eternal goals while you're fulfilling your temporal assignment, you will end up experiencing much anxiety, stress and unfulfillment. 

God did not make man to function strictly in and for time, He made us to function for Eternity.

With that being said, the only thing that is Eternal is God. If you are not connected to God who is Eternal, then you are dead, whether you're breathing or not. The express image of God is Christ (Hebrews 1). That's why everything we do should revolve around Christ and His Divine Will for our lives. 

We don't have time to delve much deeper into this, but I can assure you, the mainstream church doesn't have a clue as to who Christ really is. He's more than just the Savior who died for our sins. He's more than just the baby that was born to the virgin Mary. He's more than just the Miracle Worker that healed the sick and raised the dead. HE'S GOD! All of the Treasures of Eternity are wrapped up in His Person. And the mystery of humanity is that God has chosen us as His human creation to partake in the wonders and mysteries of His Only Begotten Son who has existed from Eternity. This is the glory and the honor that is available to all of humanity. But it can only be accessed depending on Whose Image You're In.