In God's Image

I love to think about how God created us in His image. When we think of image we think outward appearance. There is that...but I was thinking along the lines of a more "complete" kind of thing...the inner and the outer. Yes, God is perfect. Yes, we will NEVER be perfect. But as I am getting closer to God I am looking at Him in a different way. Not the way I used to as a Supreme Being that exists but in some surreal way in relation to this "real" existence that we know on Earth. But The Creator, Father and Friend that we can find in Him when we start to view Him as the REAL thing, in other words, as a reality that is as real as and of course MORE REAL than what we know of as reality. To God, a thousand years is like a day...and to us eternity is so overwhelming a concept that our natural minds cannot conceive of it in real terms.

But it has warmed my heart and helped me to feel like God is real to me, as I search for Him in a whole new way. The way you slowly build a relationship on Earth...where you meet someone and speak to them and get to know them, their likes and dislikes, their history, etc - we form a bond and as we find we have more and more things in common that bond forms ever stronger.

So it is with God, I have found. Thankfully, He has given me the faith to believe. I know I could not be even where I am today if it were not for that. But faith alone was not enough, for years I believed and was sorely afraid, but still kept Him at bay...it was His love that drew me in...and His love that I feel will get me closer and closer to Him.

I have never taken life for granted. For me, every new day is a gift...even if there are heartaches or backaches or financial hardships...while there is life there is hope...this has been a motto that has been embedded in the core of my being. But as I grow a little older I find myself thinking more and more about the life after this one. There are many things I know I will never understand but I am grateful for the fact that The Father has seen it fit to show me things now that I have never seen before. SO many things I could probably write without ceasing for days on end and still I would not be able to put into words ALL that I have been gleaning from the Bible and times of prayer and fellowship with Him.

I want to encourage ANYONE that doubts...don't listen to people...don't believe me or anyone else...just ask God...HE will reveal Himself...in His own good time.

What I have truly enjoyed as of late is this sort of parrallel I have noticed throughout the Old Testament...and even the New. And how they both complement each other in a way I never noticed before. But most notably how God is still same and ever will remain throughout the history of the World.

I realized I needed to get close to Him and that the only way to build a relationship with Him is to see Him better and to learn of Him even from the experience of others. The bible is chock full of those.

I was so amazed to see the examples throughout the bible that I could relate to...He gets mad, He gets sad, He gets jealous, He loves certain things and He hates other things - He has patience and then His patience runs out - but then He feels bad and is once again dealing with mankind and forgiving them when they turn back to Him. How many of those things are not like us? I am not making God human by any means here...no, but I AM realizing...wow...He DID create us in His image!

I was just SO amazed how His own beloved people of Israel turned away from Him SO many times and even as His heart was grieved and His wrath was kindled, in the same breath He offered them a way of escape...a way back into His good graces..."But if you repent..." and then would follow the blessed assurance that He would forgive and bless them again.

When people say that God is Love and think they can get away with murder because "He will forgive" they are not understanding the real dangerous idea that they do not know who God is. Yes, God is love and Yes, God forgives. It is His mercy which I know has kept ME though unworthy to this day...BUT one never knows when that window of opportunity is past. Then there are those that claim, if He is so kind then how can He be so veangeful to those that are disobedient, as to send them to hell? I cannot say I know...but I DO know this...He has shown OVER and OVER again in the history of the world AND even in my own life, that His patience truly is marvelous and His love greater than that of any man on earth!