Under Construction
Life Is Uphill All The Way ... You Need A Perspective
by
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All of us have God on our minds. (from Chapter 9, pg.42)
No rational person argues the issue of origin. Creation is self-evident. Disputes revolve around how and why it all came about. Opinions vary, but all are supposition... all are theories. Since no one has ever had firsthand knowledge, each of us chooses to accept the origin theory that offers the most reasonable premise.
No rational person argues the idea of a "god" of sorts. Why is this? Instinctively we know there must be a God. This idea is built-in. All of us have God on our minds, and we are committed to our God-ideas though we may not be able to articulate them.
Do our God-ideas really matter? Yes, they matter because our ideas about Who God is reveal how we feel about ourselves, and our God-ideas influence our human interactions. Our God-ideas influence the way we handle joy and responsibility, stress and heartache. Ultimately, these ideas bear upon the way we face death, our own and that of others. The truth is that extremes drive us to examine our God-ideas.
Examining the distinctions of being human... (from Chapter 11, pgs. 59-60)
1. People Are Unique. Every creative action was distinct from the previous one, with the human beings formed separately as the capstone. The man and the woman were God’s final and most distinctive creation. Creation-thinking piques our interest at this point in the narrative. Instinctively we know that people are different from all other life-forms... strikingly different. Therefore, when the biblical account is ignored or dismissed, human life has no genuine distinction and ultimately no real purpose. Human beings are unique and we know it. "Your hands have fashioned me. ... I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works, my soul knows it very well." [Psalm 119:73 (ESV); 139:14 (ESV)]
Consider this distinction... After a consultation, in a separate creative action, God intimately formed the human beings and breathed His own life into them. "Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over' ... And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." [Genesis 1:26-27 (NASB)]
All life is valuable because all life is a product of the mind, hand, and will of God. Yet, human life is unique. All human beings and only human beings are the image of God. God preserved the record of creation to tell us that He made us like Himself. This Latin term imago Dei comprises all that the English phrase the image of God embodies in both Testaments. We are imago Dei.
I love the phrase imago Dei (im-aah'-go
deh'-ee). Years ago I took a class taught by the late theologian Carl
F. H. Henry. It was one of the highlights of my life. I was the lone
middle-aged wife and mother, sitting nervously among a classroom of twenty five young folks studying to become official theologians. Professor Henry painted a word picture of imago Dei that is
still as fresh today as it was then. After a lengthy and scholarly
biblical lesson on the phrase the image of God, the next scene is
forever etched in my mind. Professor Henry walked up and down the
aisles of the classroom, stopping to look into the eyes of each of us,
and repeated quietly, "Never forget, you are imago Dei." I shall never forget.
Created imago Dei means that God assigned God-likeness only to human beings. Human beings are unique because we possess mini- equivalents of the attributes of God, characteristics of the very nature of God. Today, God is still saying to all human beings the same as He said to the man and the woman in the beginning. At this moment, God is saying to you and me, "Pay attention; I made you. You are different from all other creatures because you are like Me, really like me, and I am very pleased!"
When you look in the mirror, Dear Reader, to what do you compare yourself? An ape? God forbids the whole idea. God Himself is the model for human beings. Looking in any other direction or at any other creature obliterates your true identity and devalues your humanness. That face in the mirror reflects none other than the LORD God. Never forget, you are imago Dei.
2. People Are Persons... From God's works of creation and His words in Genesis, we conclude that God is a person because He thinks, communicates, feels, determines, and acts. All human beings, and only human beings have attributes that identify personhood. We are as we are and can do what we can do because we are human. You and I are persons because...
We think conceptually.
We communicate propositionally, expressing thoughts and defining emotions.
We examine, conclude, and choose, and also execute, investigate, and solve problems.
We are creative and persuasive.
We have a conscience and a sense of responsibility and accountability.
We understand the notions of good, right, just, and true, and we make value judgments.
We want to communicate, to know and to be known.
It is Godlike to do these things. We are imago Dei. From the compelling phrase, the image of God, we draw another worldview benchmark... God created only human beings to be like Himself.
3. People Have Purpose... God gave human beings a noble purpose. God revealed our creative pursuit, moral mission, and our responsibilities.
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About the Book
UNDER CONSTRUCTION is about you and your life... now and forever.
Since each of us is under construction... each of us is a work in progress, no one is immune to life's pain and pressures. What we believe to be true affects our choices, shapes our daily routines, determines our destiny, and influences the next generations.
Today few can explain what they believe about life and its purpose. Many do not have a cohesive framework of thought through which to sift their challenges and choices. Some are being tossed to and fro by the ever-changing ideas vying for their attention. Therefore, when things go wrong, we need to possess a true view of God, an accurate view of life, and a realistic view of ourselves.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION is a workbook tool that addresses these issues using an easy-to-follow analogy of building a house. You carry biblical building blocks and lumber from Genesis into Romans and Ephesians to build an enduring perspective that can transform you and will support you through life's ups and downs. You learn how to keep your head on straight in a broken world.
As you grasp a keen sense of direction, you discover that you have a remarkable purpose for being who you
are.
About the Author
Growing up I had no interest in nor questions about God until the
summer after my high school graduation when my father died. In college
and during the next nine years, silent and angry 'whys' intensified
against the "god" of my ignorance. Meanwhile, having had a culturally
moral upbringing, I tried to do what I though was right. Yet, my
sincerely held beliefs did not work out practically. My beliefs were
void of content.
Though we joined a church when I married, God was still unimportant.
When our girls were pre-schoolers, we began to attend church regularly.
I merely went through the motions until we had a special week of Bible
studies. During the guest speaker's message, I realized that I was
estranged from my Creator. I learned that Jesus' sacrificial death
provides the only means available to be reconciled to the true God and
to receive a new life with a remarkable purpose. At first I did
not understand what had taken place. Nonetheless, I knew that I had
been changed from the inside out. I began to read the Bible, and as I
continued to give the Bible a fair examination, my thinking and living
began to correlate... not flawlessly, but realistically.
For over fifty years, I have taught group Bible studies and retreats
throughout the country. Yet,
over the years, each new group understood less about the foundational
truths of Scripture. Few could explain what they believed about life
and their purpose. It seemed to me this meant that biblical truth lay
dormant or was non-existent. Subsequently, I began in Genesis to teach
the basic truths of the Bible. UNDER CONSTRUCTION is the outgrowth.