Image makers

IMAGE MAKERS 

How do we become who we are - how do we see ourselves as that person that we think we are. That is an image – that is an idea in our head – where did it come from?
A person does not make up an image all by themselves. The image we have of who we are is an already formed idea of what gets reflected back to us through our life that we accept and act out from. 

The image of who we are comes originally from God’s idea of who we are, Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…

Then came the devil’s idea – his idea of who we are was fist proclaimed by Satan when he said to Adam and Eve ‘God has told you not to eat of that tree because he knows that when you do you will become like Him and God does not want you to have that experience.’ So they believed him, and rebelled against God and were deceived into believing that it was too tempting to throw that short cut of being like God away. They had accepted the idea of darkness which was the actual image that the devil had of himself who also wanted to be like God and that image was now being imprinted onto them. 
They accepted the idea of who they were as being somebody separated from God competing with God for their own autonomy as an independent person apart from God. 

This idea of being able to fashion their own idea and way of being like God which was a lie was sown into the hearts and minds of humanity and made its permanent imprint upon this world. This became the mindset of the human race that in wanting to be so much like God that they made themselves to be their own God, an then made themselves into that image 1John 5:19 ..whole world lies in darkness…

TOWER OF BABEL

That grew to a point that they were not just individuals who had their own individual idea but there grew upon the earth an entire population of people who had one idea and language and under the leadership of a man, Nimrod, who said let us make a city and build a tower that will reach to heaven, and that became the first collective human idea, an identity of humanity that had enormous power in the earth. 
The tower of heaven reaching heaven is not only man’s idea of being independent and making himself like God but being able to build the city of God and to create your own utopia, your own heaven on earth. That became the lie that as cultures developed became imprinted upon the people that developed that culture.

God realized that if all of mankind had one idea in common and pursued that into the fulness of its darkness and deception humanity would eventually destroy itself by giving itself to the devil and become the expression of that darkness.
To save them God decided to bring confusion into their language to communicate to one another and he scattered them on the face of the earth and they all became different cultures in different places in their behaviour, language morality and values. 

So that is three big ideas of the making of the image of humanity upon the earth- God’s idea, the’ devil’s idea and the collective culture’s idea, with spiritual powers of darkness influencing them.

And then there is a fourth idea which is of our own invention and imagination, our voice to ourselves which comes about because of all the different ideas that have had an influence upon us and reflect back to us the image telling us what they want us to be.
This is always the way. 
A person does not begin in their formative years , say from 3 to 7, to sit and analyse what kind of person they are and who they plan to be what they want to pursue as a career and to adopt certain values that they aspire to.
It starts with parents who believe what this little person should be like, what they should think and believe and how they should behave and what they should value, and this is different from culture to culture – a self image is being formed. 
The childhood experience can e positive or negative, helpful or harmful, harsh, provoking the child into reaction ( Ephesians 6:4).As a child grow beyond age 7)
A child then also gets influenced by the peer group and decides to form in their mind how they want to behave in that group in order to belong. That group image begins to define them. This goes on into adulthood in the formation of self-image. No matter how radical or weird or extreme that brand of thought and behaviour is. That doesn’t matter because that’s where they feel at home and where they belong. That is their tribe, whether religious, political, cultural or ideological, or weirdly personal.
So four image making ideas have come into that life.

BUT there is a way that we can respond to the best idea of who we are - God’s idea, and that is found in the Bible. In the Old Testament we can say for the sake of clarity and brevity that that is reflected in the core values of the ten Commandments which reflect back to a person the picture of God’ wisdom and care for relationships, His wisdom and integrity, so that if people as individuals embrace these core values they will be a community of people that not only survive but they will flourish and be the best kind of community that they can be.
In the NT those very same values of love and truth, honesty, productivity in relationships, caring for and honouring one another are imprinted on us by the Holy Spirit.  
When Jesus died for us and rose from the dead and sent the Holy Spirit, who lived a human life in and with Jesus he made way for us now to be in that same empowering relationship with the Holy Spirit.

So there are two things happening within every human being today – there is still that instinct to form your own image of who you want to be in the current day world in which you live that is reflecting its values back to you saying ‘this is how you are going to make it in this world. This is what the Bible calls being conformed to this world. 

However to summarise so far - God is the primary image maker. In the Old Testament the Commandments were the primary model of the image of God because they reflected the nature of the wisdom and the ways of God. In the New Testament the Holy Spirit works upon our hearts to transform us into the image of Christ. 
Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
The renewal of the mind takes place when a person accepts the truth of who they were created to be and allows God to do that transforming work.

Then comes the question - What is that world out there?

Just as the Tower of Babel was a community of people with one mind and one language, That tried to build their own heaven, there is in the world today a new progressive collective identity that has a lot of other group identities arrayed within it that is seeking to build its own idea of heaven on earth. They see themselves as an enlightened empowered group of individuals with the freedom to do what they want to do and behave how they want to behave and have want they want to have, and they are being told mostly by one another who they should be what they should think and how they should talk and what they should believe and what rights they should demand in order to be an acceptable member of contemporary new order of society (the internet makes it possible to get all that information in minutes or seconds). This collective identity is based on not having to conform to Biblical and traditional core values and their restraints - and it means fighting for the freedom and autonomy to set up a new set of values, virtues, and entitlements, to be committed to and championed as a social construct – an ideological political system – a new utopia, a repeat of the tower of Babel.

This clashes head on with a conservative traditional value system based on biblical Judao-Christian values – two value systems. But both of these value systems are falling short of producing an expression of an intact and effective ordered human family in these times. Just as Israel in the Old Testament Israel couldn’t obey the Commandments and Christians don’t live perfect lives. There is a lot of veering off the mark. But at least God’s core values remain as the pillar and ground of truth and are there for people to come back to when they fail, and they fail consistently through the self serving human attitudes that we all have in common no matter what our values are. God is dealing with this state of affairs right now this very moment. This is a recurring theme in the Bible.

At one stage of Israel’s history they were taken captive by a man called Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, which was the most powerful and glorious city in the world (Babel/Babylon – the same word - confusion). Israel were placed in bondage under the religion and culture of that place. At one point the king decided to build a huge statue of gold, almost as tall as a ten storey building (Daniel 3:.
He made a decree that at any time when his chosen music was played everyone had to bow down and worship that image. If they did not bow down to the image they would be thrown into a fiery furnace. There were three young Jewish men who had been given high honour in the political and administrative courts of Babylon, and they had been given the Babylonian names of Meshach, Shadrack and Abednego. It was reported to the king by some other Babylonian court leaders that these three men had refused to bow down to the image. They were called before the king who was furious with them and told them to recant, but they said that their God was able to deliver them from the fire and even if He didn’t, they were prepared to serve Him to the death.
So the furnace was heated up seven times hotter than usual and the king had some of his toughest senior military leaders throw the men into the furnace. However the soldiers were burned to a crisp trying to cast the men into the fire, and when the king stood to inspect the destruction of the three Jewish men he was astonished;
Daniel 3:24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered “True, O king.” He said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like the son of God.”
Nebuchadnezzar then proclaimed to the entire Nation that anyone who speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.
He then declared;’ It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me. How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders!
His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation.

It says in the Bible that the fourth person with those men in the fire was like the Son of God – That was Jesus with them in the fiery trial.
A true Witness is seen in God’s people today through the power and influence of the Holy Spirit, even as we go through the fiery trials of faith in these days that purify our hearts. 
Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses… (Not just talking about God but having God on display in our lives…)
This work of becoming the expression of our true selves in Christ involves going through the trials of faith to trust God’s love and mercy and truth to us in the transformational process (1Peter 4.12… don’t think it strange when the fiery trials come… Peter also says this is the goal of your faith 1Peter 1:9.). Holy Spirit is reflecting back to you who you are, joined to the Lord as one Spirit. We recognize our shortcomings and obtain mercy and find grace to help.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           All of this is happening in real time now no matter what we see happening in the midst of all the emotional confusion and deception and conflict and rage going on in what we see around us. We are being preserved in the midst of fiery trials being made into the image of God, and he will be seen there with us, that is the witness of his presence with us finding meaning and purpose in all that happens.
It takes place when you are still, knowing that He s God, and as you behold Him in this way the Bible says (2Corinthans 3:18) you are being transformed into His image by the Spirit of The Lord