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Illustrations of why all this is on target are numerous. Even the things we think have the least significance are done intentionally, guided by some point of reason. We brush our teeth because we don’t want cavities or bad breath. We get up because we want to keep our job (or even better, because we have something fun to do). We turn left instead of right because we have a place to go. On those occasions when we might do something that could be called irrational (like flaming someone on social media who may never see it or care), it’s still because we want some desired outcome (to feel
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We are purposeful beings!
Given the fact that he didn’t need us but still made us, there’s only one rational explanation for why he created us. God wanted us to exist in order to enjoy us (and to have us enjoy him in return).
Imaging God also gives us purpose. We have a mission. Every person, no matter how small or weak or short-lived has some role to play in someone else’s life. Every task we set our mind to that honors God and our fellow imagers becomes a spiritual calling.
though his children (in the spiritual world and on earth) were like him, they were not him. They were less than him. They were imperfect, whereas he is perfect.
Why is there evil in the world? Evil exists in the world because God decided he wanted to create beings like himself.
I think this shows God‘s true nature, and that he would take on himself much grief and suffering, so that we could experience the joy and the freedom and the power that comes from being able to choose. What good is love if you don’t have the freedom to not love?
The result of all this is that evil exists because people abuse God’s wonderful gift of freedom and use it for self-gratification, revenge, and the mirage of autonomy. This abuse began in Eden.
God banished Adam and Eve (and, therefore, their descendants) from his presence.
That’s what separation from the source of life—God—ultimately costs.
God truly is the source of life. I feel this every time that my heart and actions pull me away from my heavenly father. It is only as I do well in his presence that I experience what true life really is.
God wasn’t giving up on his plan to have a human family, but rebellion had a cost. God also punished Satan. Having brought death into God’s world he became lord of the realm of the dead, what would later become known as hell.
While God knew what making us like him would lead to, the result was preferable to not having a human family at all.
The story is about how some of God’s supernatural children (the “sons of God”) wanted to imitate God by producing their own human children to image themselves. They decided to use human women (the “daughters of man”) for that purpose.
At least there was Noah and his family.
Why did Noah take his family with him? Yes it was to preserve the human race, but obviously God wanted to save his family as well. So he must’ve done something right as a father and husband for his kids to follow him. That can be encouraging to me as a dad.
God’s laws were designed to help his children avoid other gods and live happy, peaceful lives with one another, not to improve God’s disposition toward them.
Jesus was the ultimate imager of God (2 Cor 4:4; Col 1:15). He is the illustration of how to image God;
But again, something is missed. That’s the Great Commission all right. But I skipped verse 18, the one that’s usually skipped when people talk about our mission to evangelize. Here’s the full statement of Jesus with something important in bold: And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
His ascent—which naturally had to follow his resurrection—marked the end of the authority of those who held power on the earth up to that point. Who was that? The fallen sons of God, appointed over the nations when God divorced them (Deut 32:8).
The kingdom of God is therefore already here in some sense . . . but not completely here in another.
The same is true of the defeat and destruction of Satan and various fallen sons of God. It is already in progress, but not yet realized. Satan has no claim—no ownership, no power of death—over any member of the kingdom of God.
This is an interesting paragraph in light of missions work. What I mean by that, is that when we go to place that are under a spiritual darkness, we are not under their control. We go in the power of Jesus and we are under his protection and guidance. Well that doesn’t mean we won’t be scared or face challenging circumstances, but we are in gods hands. This was true Jim Eliot with Auca Indians, it was true for me in the garage door, and it’s true of anyone who is following spirits guidance
