The Cream of the Crop!
©
Written by Danny Bunn,B.A. (Born-Again believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ)
Chapter 17
His time comes
Joe didn't like being alone even for those few minutes. His
mind feels like it wants to crack. Cindy comes back into the
living room with a tall glass of ice cold tea. Joe thanks her and
Cindy sits back down. Joe glances at the bible again and says,
"What ya reading, hon?" Cindy tells Joe some of the things that
the Lord has been showing her in regards to image. She first
shares with him from Genesis how God made mankind in his image
but he didn't say that about animals. Joe's ears kind of perked
up. He is interested now. Cindy then talks about how image is
used mostly in the Old Testament to do with graven images, golden
images and the like. She tells Joe that she was in Romans 1:23
when he comes in. Then she reads it to Joe. It says, "And changed
the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to
corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and
creeping things." Cindy was seeing from this that God is not to
be made in the image of man or beasts. He is God. Joe is
following or so he thinks. She reads some more.
Cindy gets to Romans 8:29, "For whom he did foreknow, he also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he
might be the firstborn among many brethren." She says, "Joe, if Jesus
looks like man already and he does then why are Christians called to be
conformed to the image of his Son. We know that he was flesh and
blood, he became a man for us. So what is it saying here?" Joe's
mind is stirring again, the word does that to some who are really
interested in what it says. He jumps up off the floor and grabs
his bible. He looks up the verse and Cindy is going on with her
concordance. Cindy gets to II Cor 3:18, "But we all, with open
face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed
into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of
the Lord." She throws another one at Joe as he is doing his own
searching. So from reading this one, then his image is to do with
glory and not any physical thing?
Joe says, "Listen to what I found in 1 Kings 8:27, "But will God indeed
dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot
contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?" Honey did
you hear that one and it makes more and more sense as we keep going,
you are showing me by the verses that you are reading that God's
image isn't a physical thing so it must be something else. Joe
looks back down at his bible and he says, "Honey, there is a
verse to cross reference it to, let's see what it says. Joe turns
to the verse, it is Jer 23:24, "'Can any hide himself in secret
places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill
heaven and earth? saith the LORD.' This is getting exciting, I
think that I am beginning to understand much more than I did when
I came into the house." Cindy is getting pretty hyped too.
"Listen to this one! 'And have put on the new man, which is
renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:'
That is in Col 3:10, think about this one Joe. Knowledge,
wisdom, love, glory, etc. are the things that make up the image
of God." Cindy goes right to another one. You would think that
the Lord is in this. She turns to 1 John 4:8, which says, "He
that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." Now she is
getting excited. "Joe, Joe, I told you that God would teach us
just as he has taught Clyde so many things." Joe is laughing.
"Yes, Cindy. So many times I don't understand the Lord's timing
but I know he is there and I know he hears and I believe that he
will answer, sooner or later but I always hope sooner. But then
again, I remember that verse that says the trying of your faith
worketh patience. Well, I think that I am getting to be a pretty
patient fellow." Cindy laughs.
"Joe, from all this so far, we see that God is a Spirit,
he is everywhere present, he loves this world so much that he is
even called love. That the image of God are his attributes since
he is not a man as we saw in Numbers 23:19. God became a man,
Jesus was the God/man. 100% God and 100% man, that is totally
unbelievable. Wouldn't you know it Joe, only God could come up
with this. Joe smiles and nods. He says, "Yea, honey! Only God!"
They get up to go to the table to eat supper that has been
sitting for a while. They just finished a hot topic, it was
cooking on the front burner, so to speak. Now to sit before a
cold supper but they are learning to be thankful since they know
that all things will work together for the good to them who
love God. Cindy puts the food in the microwave for a quick shot
of heat. They pray and eat, then they retire to the living room
once again to discuss even more of the things that they are
learning.
Joe and Cindy are each in their own little world seeking to
receive from the Lord. All of the sudden Cindy says, "Oh Joe, I
forgot to tell you something else that I learned earlier today
before you got home, it is when Noah got out of the Ark, God told
him that he has given him the animals for meat as well as the
green herbs. So God does want us eating animals as well as
vegetables." Joe is listening and at the same time thinking,
'Animals bleed like us, they seem to have emotions, feeling as we
do but they are not created in the image of God, only mankind is
and that isn't physical as we have seen but it is God's
attributes, the qualities that reveals God to us, his love, his
wisdom, his ability to create, to think, to design, to plan and
animals do what they do by instinct but we do it by choice,
whether a right or wrong choice we still do it by choice. Like
Cindy was going to have her baby killed and it was going to be
her choice but she would live with that choice the rest of her
life. God has actually given us the ability to choose. As he said
in Deuteronomy that he sets life and death before us and he tells
us to choose or as it is recorded in Joshua that we are to choose
who we will serve and it must be God to really have life." He
glances back at his wife and says, "Cool, thanks babydoll!" They
read and discuss a few more things in the word before retiring
for the night. Joe feels that God is preparing him for another
encounter with Jerry but he wants to be moving in his Spirit when
it happens then all the glory will go to God.
