Weekly Exhortation 1
Since this is the beginning of the year I felt my attention attracted to this verse, "In the beginning God created." He not only created the world, He created man, and He created me. I prefer to think of creation not only as a divine fiat of God the Father, but as a cooperative effort of the triune God. It says in Genesis 1:2, "The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." In Colossians 1:15, a longer passage but one worth meditating on, speaks of Jesus, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created in Heaven and on Earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities; all things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." God created man. He not only created man, He created us in His image-the image of God. Genesis 1:27, "God created man in His own image. In the image of God He created him, male and female, He created them." He created the first two components of a family, male and female, in His image. Then He created something called marriage. This sacred institution was not something that developed over time or evolved through the centuries, this was a God idea from the very beginning. Genesis 2:24 says, "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh." I believe deep in my soul that when God created me as a man, that He designed me to be a husband. He designed me to love my wife as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her. This is what God intended when he first designed me in His image. He also designed my wife to be a wife, She was created to submit to her husband as unto the Lord. This is totally from scripture. Together as a married couple we have become one flesh. We were then called to be fruitful and multiply and have children. We were commissioned to train up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I believe he also placed His image on children and equipped them to honor their father and their mother. Now, you might be sitting there thinking, "Well, I don't always feel like I want to love my wife as Christ loved the Church," and wives might not feel not feel like she needs to submit to her husband, and children may not naturally be inclined to to honor their mom and dad. I recognize that these attitudes don’t take place naturally, since even though we were created in His image, we have also fallen from that initial glory. We each need to be redeemed. Our old fallen natural man cannot do these things, but those that have been born from above, that have become new creatures in Christ, and have received the grace of Jesus Christ, can. In Christ, we are equipped to be the husband, the wife, and the child that God designed us to be. Ephesians 4:24 says, "And to put on the new self-created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." This transformation emanates from the heart, not from the outside. It's only by God's grace, only by being filled with God's good Holy Spirit that we can each hope to be who God intended us to be and who he created us to be. Ephesians 2:10, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Not only did the triune God create each of the members of the family, he designed the institution of marriage and family. Each of the members are different and unique, but I don't but the notion that men and women are from different planets, because we are all created in the image of God. I hope this knowledge will bless and encourage you this week. Knowing that we have each been created in the image of God and designed to be just who He is called us to be. Have a great week serving, and following Christ. Prayer Father bless us each in walking in this knowledge that you, by divine fiat with the whole presence of the trinity moving and working, have created and designed us to be just who you made us to be. Thank you Father for being our Father, and thank you for making us in your image. In Jesus name, Amen.