Thursday, August 6, 2015

He defines us

  So I've been contemplating our identity as sons and daughters and my thoughts lead me back to the garden. I do not hold to the belief that sin seperates us from God. God runs to sinners, we see this in the life of Jesus...the perfect reflection of our Father. Separation is a westernized idea. Sin is missing the mark. What mark? The mark of being truly ourselves. Our sinful behaviors are simply symptoms of lack of understanding who we are.

  The story of Adam and Eve is not just about eating fruit that God said not to eat. We see the problem when "the accuser" convinces them that they can be like God by knowing the difference in good and evil. A few things to consider here:

  1. They were already like God, made in His image. 
  2. They had to be convinced that drawing lines if demarcation between good and evil was  
       The lens our  Father saw us through.
  3. The separation came from them not the Father.

  When we don't see the Father accurately we don't see ourselves accurately. They were already in God's image but they believed the lies told to them and began to think the Father didn't make them in His likeness, and that he would be angry at their poor choice. Then the scapegoating began..."but the serpent convinced me" / "but the woman." They were convinced that they could not trust our Father to define us but we could define ourselves based on our goods and evils as opposed to Him defining us in grace. He defines us in the incarnation. Jesus the perfect human re birthed us, to prove our likeness. We look into Him as a mirror of how God sees us.

  We have so many filters we see God through. Our upbringings, our country of birth, any painful experiences, etc. Ask any person with a poor relationship with their dad. They struggle to see God as dad. This is the renewing of our mind. This is repentance. Taking sides with Jesus in the light of how He sees us not how we see ourselves. I hope my thoughts here are clear. Let's keep asking Holy Spirit to show us the difference in our own made up images of God, and the real ones. We are sons and daughters not slaves to our definitions of ourselves.

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