This Week |
#41 (6-13-04)
The Image
Did you ever hear the expression,
“ugly as a mud fence?” Yes, I know it old and girls and guys have gotten a
lot cuter over the years. You hardly ever see “someone as ugly as a mud
fence.” But the expression came to mind This Week
as I was doing some
light reading in 1 Corinthians. Take a look at Chapter 15, verse 49.
We bear the image of Adam, the man
created out of the dust of the ground, according to Genesis 2:7. Isn’t it
amazing what God can do with a little dust? And yet the Truth remains that
the physical components of our being are not worth much. A few chemicals
rightly placed, “a hank of hair and a piece of bone” in the hands of the
Master, well, surely looks good on some folks.
The real value of our life comes,
however, when we move from the image of the man of dust to the image of
the Heavenly Man. The second man, the one from Heaven was not made at all.
He is the Lord God, and we who are but dust can take on the image of God
himself.
Now we all expect to do that when we get
to Heaven (you are going, right?). But what progress are you making toward
bearing the image of God now? How is it that you are being transformed
from the “mud fence” of this world, to the Heavenly light of Glory? In the
most simple of terms, is your life choked with the dust of sin which
obscures the light of His presence, or are you being transformed by the
Truth and Llove to a daily conformity to His Spirit’s leadership?
Now let me assure the scholars among you,
I understand this passage is about the change in our natural body which
through the resurrection will be transformed into a body fit for Heaven
(the mortal putting on immortality and all that stuff), but still there is
ample insight providing for a renewed image in our current circumstance.
How does it happen? You should be finding
out through your study of God’s Word and the assistance that comes from
the messages on Sunday at Shady Grove (reference “52 Days;” “No Law;”
“Happiness,” just to name a few) that speak of the process of becoming
mature in The Faith.
The sad Truth is that many of our lives,
Spiritually speaking, are “ugly as a mud fence.” We’ve got more fleshly
dust than Holy light. What if we make a commitment to change that, right
now?
©Weaver 2004