Making God In Our Own Image

One of the most profound statements at the very beginning of the Bible is, God made man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him male and female. He created them. Every human being is created in the image of God. This is one reason why it is THE reason why we make such a strong stance against abortion. It is the murder of someone that is being created in the image of God.

The Bible also has a lot of information about idolatry. It is one of the most condemned sins in all the Bible. Every time, every place I travel, especially in Europe, I want to go see the biggest Catholic cathedral that is there. I am just amazed at the idolatry of it. It amazes me every time. You go in Notre Dame and it is like, I can't believe this. I once went into a Hindu temple and you can't believe the idolatry. The multi-armed woman, female goddess that they worship, the elephant god, and these different things. You and I, if we are not careful, we reject idolatry. We don't have any icons. We don't even have displays of crosses. Except if they happen to be in a building where we are renting. We don't display crosses. We try to stay away from anything that is falsely used as a symbol or part of worship.

Now, are we, though, guilty of a different kind of idolatry? That you and I may be guilty of and we don't even know it.

What we are going to talk about today, are we sometimes guilty of trying to create God in our image? We are creating the image of God, right? But we define God by us. We define God by our emotions, by our ideas, how we think about things. And so we define Him that way.

You know, when you actually understand God, you're surprised by Him a lot. If you're never surprised by God, maybe you're not thinking real deeply about this.

So can we be guilty of sometimes trying to create God in our image? So He does what we want. He says what we want. He handles things the way we want to. So we're going to look at a number of questions today. Questions we need to ask ourselves as we think through this. Is that even possible that we maybe have a form of idolatry? That we're literally trying to make God in our image? Well, the way we do that isn't because you're consciously doing it. In fact, it's usually an emotional process. We feel a certain way, so we make God feel that way. This is the way I see it. This is the way I feel. So that has to be the way God feels. There's an interesting couple of verses in Psalm 50. Let's go to Psalm 50 because David is very upset here about certain things that he sees, certain sins. He's now speaking and giving God's viewpoint.

Psalm 50.

It's very interesting because Psalm 50 is... These are words that God told David. Actually, it's not David who wrote this. It's Asaph. But these are words that God told him. So it's God speaking here. In verse 16, we're going to, in the middle, there's a very interesting... Psalm 50 is a very fascinating psalm. Let's pick it up in verse 16. But to the wicked, God says, What right have you to declare my statutes, or take my covenant in your mouth? In other words, he's looking at wicked people who claim to be following God. Now, if they're worshipping idols, that's obvious, right? Well, these people are doing things. They're obviously wrong. But they can't see it. And there's a reason why. He says, Seeing you hate instruction and cast my words behind you, when you saw a thief, you consented with him. You have been a partaker with a dulcher. So here's... he's specifically saying, here's some of the problems these people have. They are just flat-out dishonest. And they commit sexual sins. And they don't think either of these is wrong. They believe they're in a covenant with God. Or either of these things are wrong, because they believe they're in a covenant with God. You give your mouth to evil, and your tongue frames the seat. So even the words they say can't be trusted. Because they have, at the core of them, a dishonesty. You sit and speak against your brother. And I have found this 20 and 21 to be very frightening verses. You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother's son. That's what your own mother's son would be your brother.

So the point he's making here is you slander, and you can slander anybody, including your own brother. And here's what God says. And this is why this ties into what we're talking about. These things you have done, and I kept silent. God said, I didn't punish you right away for these things. You should know these things are wrong. I have people telling you, Levites and prophets telling you this is wrong. These things are wrong. But you don't listen. And then the next thing he says, you thought, here's why they do it. You thought that I was all together like you.

God said, you made me in your image. And you thought these things were okay because you thought, oh God agrees with me. And then he says, but I will rebuke you and set them in order before your eyes. Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces and there's none to deliver you. Wow. That's a little harsh statement, isn't it? His point he's making is, the reason you live these lifestyles is because you think I'm like you. You think I see it the way you do and I don't. And that's why we have to ask ourselves every once in a while, is there some area in our life that we're actually trying to make God in our image? It's an honest question. And if we really examine ourselves, I think all of us are going to have to admit there's some area in our life where we're actually trying to create God in our image. Instead of being created in the image of God. And God is, you think I'm like you? You've got this wrong.

The Bible reveals the reality of the true God. They think about it. He's all powerful, He's all knowing, He's the Creator, He's absolute goodness, He's absolute love. He knows everything you think. Understand it. He knows everything we do and everything we even think. He knows it.

And it is a fearful thing to fall into His wrath as we just read. But that all powerful God is incomprehensible in some ways to you and me. I mean we all have an idea about God, but truth is, we all really understand, or should understand, there's things about Him that are just incomprehensible. What is it like to live for eternity as the most powerful being in the universe?

Jesus Christ there with Him. For eternity. These two beings. What's it like to live like that? We don't know. What's it like to create angels? What's it like to live the way He does, to do what He does? We really don't know. What's it like to create a tree? I can't even grow one. He creates one. And so we have to understand, in our limited ability to truly grasp who and what God is, we fill in the cracks many times. We fill in what we don't know by making Him like us. So He's like me this way. And we can then do things and live life. Sometimes, in a way, actually He does not want. So that's our first question. If I'm creating God in my own image, then we have to ask another question to deal with that. And that question is, do I know God? Do I really know God? Not about God. Or yes, I know who God is. He's the Creator. I can sort of visualize this sea of glass and this throne and the lightnings and the thunderings and all these voices singing and the 24 elders beside Him, which I have no idea what they look like. But I can sort of see this glowing person, right, the way He's described. I can sort of see that in my mind's eye. But do you really know Him at the level He wants you to know Him? None of us do, by the way. This is a lifelong process. And that's why we don't understand. That's why we're in a panic so much of the time. That's why we're filled with fear and anger so much of the time and angst so much of the time. Because we don't even understand what He's doing because we don't know Him well enough. And we all have a limited ability to do that. That means He has to do something. Let's stay here in the book of Psalms. Let's go to Psalm 27.

Psalm 27. Now, this is the Psalm of David here. That was Asaph in the last one. This is Psalm of David. And God says something to Him here that is absolutely incomprehensible if you try to wrap your mind around it.

This is verse 7.

In other words, He's crying out to God and He says, I need your help. I want you to be in charge of my life. I want you to take care of me. God, where are you? What do you want me to do? And God's answer is unbelievable. And when you said, seek my face, do you realize how intimate that is? You know, Kelly, when she was little and I wasn't paying her enough attention, she'd come up to me and take my hand and her face and move it so we were eyeball to eyeball. And it was seek my face, Dad. Because she had something to say and it was important and I didn't get it and she needed to talk and seek my face. The Almighty God's answer to David is the same answer to you and me. We want to know what we should do next. And so what we'll do is, okay, let me find one more thing I can do to obey him. And that's not bad. We all want to obey God.

But he says, wait a minute, look me in the eyes. Seek my face. That is a remarkable statement. Now, we don't know what that face actually looks like. But he's saying, you look at me for who I am personally as a being, as the creator who has all genius and all wisdom and knows everything. Who made you the way you are. Who understands you. Who loves you. And he says, just look me in the face. We meet God. I know what all of us are going to do. We're going to be down on our face. We're going to be down on our knees just out before God, just amazed at being in his presence.

And I think God's going to say, look me in the eyes. Worship me, yes. But look at me. Know who I am. Seek me. What a personal statement. And this is where all of our religion is supposed to take us. To seek God at that level. It's easier to do other things. And then, since we only know little things about God, just fill in the cracks. Fill in what we don't know by making him like us. And pretty soon we have this image. And many times the image is just us. And it really isn't God. Seek my face. And my heart said to me, your face, Lord, I will seek. And then he says, but I don't even know how to do that. So he says, do not hide your face from me. He says, you're going to have to do this. You're going to have to reveal this to me. You're going to have to bring me there. Because how do I... OK, seek me, my face. Look at me. How do I do that? He says, you have to make that happen. You and I have to realize that we have to trust him to make that happen. That's maybe going to happen here. We're going to find God in here. We're going to find him in other ways, too. But this... Don't go seek that God somehow just shows up and talks to you. Because that's not how it works.

Seek God. And he says, do not turn your servant away in anger. You have been my help. Do not leave me nor forsake me. Oh God of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take care of me. Now even his mother and father would die eventually. He said, but I know you are still there. Seek me. How do you seek to know God? How in the world do we do that? Well, there's a few things we can do. And one is what David said right here. We can ask him. You can't go... We can't make that happen. Ask God to show you who he is. Now remember, we're all going to get... Even when God is directly interacting with us. And you can see that all through the writings of David. You see that all through the writings of Paul. There is a realization, I understand God. How did Paul part it? You know, looking through a dark glass. Still, I get part of this. I continue to seek. We have to continue to seek him on this very personal level.

Or we can do things that are good things and still not get it. And we'll show you an example of that in a minute. Where we're not fully where God wants us to be. You search the Scriptures and find out about how God does reveal himself and everything. Every one of his commandments is a revelation about him. You know, all his laws reveal God's righteousness. It reveals how he thinks.

There's another thing that we're separated from in our society. You seek God by enjoying the creation. I can remember going hunting all day long and not shooting my rifle and coming home happy.

Well, not totally, but...

But coming home feeling peace because... I don't know, just sitting out in the woods, looking at creation, looking at animals, watching it snow. And you find yourself praying.

I think sometimes, and I'm going to give a sermon on this here in the next couple of weeks, we have got to break away from so much screen time. Kids and adults. We have got to. And we've got to spend more time looking at what God has given us. We rush through life missing the most incredible things. That's there.

And we're going to have to do that. So maybe next week I'll talk about that. I've been thinking about that for a while. And maybe next week I'll tackle that. But also, God reveals himself to us every day in a hundred ways.

We look at all the negative, and we live in a very negative world. What about every blessing he gives you every day?

Every day! God's given you something. And you know, I really do think God sometimes is saying, hey kid, I do good work. Enjoy it.

And we're just burdened with so many things that we don't see what he's doing and what he's giving us. See, this is a mindset we have to have. We have to seek his face. Pretty soon you start finding, well God's doing all kinds of things that we're absolutely ignoring.

When you begin to seek God's face, there's some things that begin to happen.

As we seek God's face on that intimate level, that takes a lot of prayer, too. It takes a lot of prayer. It takes just being constant in prayer. You're doing something and you pray a little bit while you're doing it. And what happens is you see God, what God's doing more and more, and you begin to understand Him, really, His mercy and His love, and more and more. As that happens, you begin to give more and more control of your life to Him. You just give more and more control. I can't do this. You do it.

I don't even know how to handle this situation. So I'm going to pray about it, study about it, do the best I can. It's like I talked about health issues last week. Someone says to me, I am very, very sick. I have cancer and I've done the research. I want to be anointed and I'm going to take chemo. And another person says, I'm very, very sick. I've done the research and I'm not going to take chemo. My answer to both of them is, let's pray. It's not, I'm going to give you advice on whether you should do that or not. It's let's pray. Let's seek the face of God.

And that's the answer. That's the kind of support we have to give each other in this thing. Let's seek God. And all of us are going to make good and bad decisions about our health. Because we all do. We try to make the best ones. And God cleans up the mess sometimes, which is good. And sometimes he doesn't. He says, that was your decision.

We were able to give more and more control to God when we understand Him personally. You begin to trust God even when it doesn't make sense. Even when you lose the job because of the Sabbath. Even when you find that you make a moral decision and all your relatives think you're nuts.

And yet you believe that you know it's the right decision before God. Or you tithe and you find yourself in a financial situation you didn't create and you're basically wiped out. I've seen that happen before. Wiped out!

And the person says, but I've tithed.

So either God didn't uphold His end of the bargain, or you're being punished. Or there's times you have to say, okay, I have to trust you in this, don't I? I have to trust you in this.

And that only can happen at that level when we begin to have a true, personal relationship with God. You know when you're beginning to seek God and when that's beginning to happen is because you're actively seeking His will first in everything.

His will first. What is it He actually wants?

And because of that, you begin to see God as your source of stability, your source of happiness, your source of security in a chaotic world. Now, once again, no human being can completely know God, but we are to seek to know Him. Just seek His face.

Now, that brings us to our third question. Okay, are we making God in our image? Are we truly seeking the face of God? Or we have, you know, we're trying to obey, we're trying to do what's right, but we're not seeking Him. As the core and source of our lives.

And then a third one we have to be careful of.

Am I making God in my image? And in doing so, am I judging God? So I don't judge God. Well, we can. In fact, in our society today, judging God is just done all the time. You know, God was evil for killing the people in Sodom because He was an abortionist because there were babies there in the womb and He killed them. So it's an evil God. I'm serious. There are people, there are churches that teach that.

How could... No, Christianity can't be that corrupt. Did you see what happened in Jamaica this week? Yeah. A Christian church started doing human sacrifices. Yeah. Now, that's not happening in the United States, but it's still in the name of Christianity.

So we have to be careful. We don't judge God. I didn't mean to bring that up. That's a very negative thing. I'm trying to be positive today. It blew my mind. I still can't get over it. It was like three days ago and it's like, what? The pastor and a group of people are going to kill a bunch of other people in the congregation as human sacrifices?

You know, and then they wondered why everybody ran away? Then the police came and started shooting at them? But we can do that on a very personal level. On a very personal level, we can judge God. Why are you letting this happen to me? That's not judging God. That's asking a question. But why are you doing this to me? This isn't right. That's judging God. That's hard sometimes not to do that, right? Because it's not fair. Nothing in Satan's world is fair. Nothing. And God lets us live in it. That's the reality. God's the only answer we have. He's the only one who comes along and fixes things. And we live in the unfairness. We live in the difficulties. And that's when we have to go back to Isaiah 45. And remember, this is one of those passages that's a cliche, unfortunately. It's read so many times over the years, but we can't let it be. We have to remember this. Woe to him who strives, this is Isaiah 45 verse 9, who strives with his maker. Now, understand, God doesn't punish us when we question, I don't understand what you're doing. Why is this happening? Because you see all kinds of people doing that in the Bible. Abraham did it, right? Other people, you see in the Bible, asking God, I don't understand this. This doesn't make sense to me. He does not punish us for saying that. Just like if a child came up and said, Mommy, why are you doing this? And you can explain it, and they don't understand. A child sometimes cannot understand certain things. You don't punish him for it. You just say, someday you'll know. Someday you'll understand.

I wish I had a dollar for every person that's told me, Yeah, when my kids reached someplace around the mid-20s, they came home and said, Thank you for doing all those things when I was a teenager and kept yelling at you, and I didn't understand. Because now they're an adult, and I do understand. Right? So God doesn't punish us for not understanding. He doesn't punish us for sometimes emotionally saying, God, this doesn't seem fair. Because we're going to him as a father. But when we decide we're going to argue with him, now we have a problem. Because we're actually judging him. He says, let the potshards strive with the potshards of the earth. Okay, you are a piece of pottery. So if you want to argue, argue with other pieces of pottery. If you all want to argue, God says, God, argue about everything. But don't come argue with me.

He says, shall the clay say to him who forms it, what are you making? Or shall your hand your work say, he has no hands? He's not good at his work. Woe to him who says to his father, what are you begetting? Or to the mother, what have you brought forth? Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel and his Maker, ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the works of my hands, you command me. I have made the earth and created it, man on it, and my hands stretched out the heavens, and all their hosts I have commanded. He goes on and talks about, O rest, the chapter, is about, understand me, look me in the face, and understand who I am. Look up there in the sky, and I made all that.

So I do know what I'm doing. It's God's way of saying, I actually know what I'm doing. You don't believe me? Just go look at a horse run, and then tell me I don't know what I'm doing.

But it's so hard for us because there's just so many uncomfortable things in this life. There's so much suffering. There's so much watching other people suffer.

How many of you mothers have thought, I'd rather be sick than watch my child be sick?

And it's just such a burden. And what God says, let me do my work. You live in a messed up world, let me do my work. The only way you're going to do that is you're going to have to look me in the eyes and stay focused on me.

And I will take care of you. But that's hard. Because, once again, it doesn't...we're so small, we're so weak, it doesn't make sense to us. There's a lot of things that God has done that at times doesn't make sense to me. Every once in a while in the Bible I'll read something and I'll think, man, I'm going to have to think about that one. Why did he do that that way? Because in my own little brain, it doesn't make sense. And it doesn't make sense because I have a very little brain.

My capacity for understanding the greatness of God is very small. It is. Right? It's very small. And so we don't understand. And we struggle with that. There's a perfect example in the Scripture in the life of Job. I talked about Job last week in just Job, went through chapter 1 and chapter 2. And the rest of the chapter, all of Job, is about how his friends came and told him, the reason God is punishing you is because you're a bad man. And as I said before, what we find interesting in the book of Job is the reason he gets sick was because God let Satan make him sick. God actually allowed it to happen. And so you have this incredible discussion throughout the book of Job. And then Job at some point says, okay, I want to tell my side of the story. So let's go to Job 38. And this has to do, then, with what we're talking today. So I didn't plan to give these two sermons back to back. I had a different sermon planned for today. And I changed it because I started thinking about conversations I've had this week and what people are going through. And so I changed. Job, and let's go to chapter 38.

So he starts defending himself.

I mean, he's lost everything. Everything. His children, his house, his... I mean, well, maybe not his house, but his other properties he had. Always animals, always wealth. His wife is, you know, just despondent and not helping him. And he's so sick, all he can do is sit out in a garbage dump and scrape his skin with a piece of pottery.

And then his friends show up and tell him what a bad guy he is. And so he says, okay, it's time for me to talk. And he says in chapter 38, let's pick it up in verse 2, because we're just going to pick out a few places here. He says, Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Oh, I'm sorry. I want to go to chapter 31. I'm going to go back to this in a minute. Chapter 31. That was God's answer.

Verse 2. For what is the allotment of God from above and the inheritance of the Almighty from on high? Is it not destruction for the wicked and disaster for the workers of iniquity? Does he not see my ways and count all my steps? He says, you know, the God I worship punishes wicked people. So my question is, what have I done?

What have I done? He says, if I have walked with falsehood, or if my foot is hastened to deceit, let me be weighed on honest scales that God may know my integrity. If my step is turned from the way of my heart, or my heart is walked after my eye, or if any spot adheres to my hands, let me sow in another eat, and let my harvest be rooted out. He goes on and he says, look, if I have ever been enticed and even thought about another woman, then give my wife to another man.

He says, because I deserve it. He says, if I have ever been greedy, then I deserve what's happened to me. If I ever have, and he just goes on and on, if I have done this, and I have done this, and I have done this, and I have done this, then what's happened to me is absolutely good. But I haven't done those things. I want someone just to weigh this out, weigh my life out, and how much I've obeyed God, and then try to figure out why God has punished me as if I'm a wicked person.

I remember even God said he was a righteous man. So it doesn't make any sense to him, and any human being in this situation, it wouldn't make any sense. It's easy for us to judge Job, but this man is remarkable, and then this happens to him, and he can't figure it out. Now, if God doesn't throw him away, God shows up.

Now let's go to Job 38. Job 38. And verse 1. Then the Lord answered Job out of a tornado. You know, sometimes God shows up, and he's just there. And sometimes it's like, let me do something to get your attention. So he watches a tornado come up to him, and God answers out of the tornado. Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man, and I will question you, and then you shall answer me. So you're asking me some questions here. Okay. You really don't know what you're talking about, so I'm going to ask you a few questions.

Now the next couple of chapters are some of the most amazing questions you'll ever read. Verse 4. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know. Or who stretched out the line upon it? He says, I want you to explain gravity. Now he didn't use those words, but... I don't think at that time there's any scientific understanding of gravity. They just know when you drop something it falls, but they haven't put that into a theory. Explain the earth in space. What space, Job? Explain this!

Because you sure you know it. I mean, because, wow, you've basically said, I don't know what I'm doing. So I just, before I answer you, I just have a few questions. I want you to explain it to me. He says, what is this foundation's fastened? Who laid this cornerstone? What all the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. He says, all the angels were just shocked when they saw me make the physical world.

And the physical universe. Or who shot in the sea with its doors when it burst forth and issued from the womb? When I made the clouds its garments. He goes on and asks him question after question after question about plants, about animals, about constellations of stars. They didn't give him a chance to answer. So I just make a list here, because I just want an answer to one of these. Answer these questions. And he goes on and on and on. In other words, for the first time, something's happening with Job.

Job obeyed God. Job had faith. Job followed God. But for the first time, he's actually having a comprehension of God face to face. This is what God told David. Just seek me face to face. And Job lived his life righteously before God. And he was missing something. And so God says, you know, like, takes his face and turns it towards him and says, look at me in the eyes.

And suddenly Job gets it. The absolute poverty he has before the righteousness of God. The absolute nothing he is without God. He had obeyed God. He loved God. But now it's like, God is so great. I can't comprehend it. But I can no longer fill in the gaps with my image. I can't make him in my image. You know, I can't sit here and say, why is God doing this in accusatory manner? He said, the question's okay, but you can't accuse God. Because I'm so little. And that's why you have his famous statement in chapter 42. Then Job answered the Lord and said, this is verse 1, I know that you could do anything and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you. You asked, who is this who hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand. Things, this is what's amazing, too wonderful for me to know.

Which I did not know. Listen, please, and let me speak. You said I will question you and you shall answer me. So I have the list of questions and here's my answer. I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes seize you. Therefore I pour myself a repentant destination. He suddenly realized, God is beyond me in ways I can't even understand.

God is so much bigger and yet God was interacting with his life just like your life. But he's so much bigger. Now, if Job couldn't figure that out, you and I are going to have difficulty, too, right? We have difficulty grasping how God sees this. And we can't completely. But this is what happens when we finally see God, figuratively, face to face. He actually didn't see the face of God.

What he saw was a tornado. He just saw power. Yeah, oh my. Me and my friends are sitting here thinking we got it all figured out. And we're so little. We're so little. And I said, good! By the way, I'm going to give you your wealth back and give you more children and make the rest of your life really good. No, he didn't promise to keep him alive forever physically. He eventually died, but he did have a good life after this.

But he had to find God face to face. Look how hard it was for him to do that. Look what he had to go through to finally be able to face God face to face. Do you think it's going to be easier sometimes for you and me? We're going to struggle with this, too. Seek my face. That's what God wants. We've got down the Ten Commandments pretty good, right?

We've got down a lot of things he tells us to do as we learn and we grow. And then there reaches a point. He says, okay, you got through kindergarten, now seek me. Seek my face. Seek who I am. The same thing of Jesus Christ. We're to seek him. How do we know? What we want is, here's the four ways to know that I'm doing this. And it's a little more complicated. How do I know? It's very interesting. Paul talks about this a little bit. He talks about...

He says it's like a spiritual mirror. Now, think about it. When you and I look into a spiritual mirror, what do we see? Well, we see ourselves. That's what we see. So, in our mind's eye, we look at ourselves. But then we have to ask ourselves, what do I really see? In your mind's eye, if you could see yourself in a spiritual state, what would it be? Well, it would be what? A person who's not perfect? What would you say first? Oh, I'm a man.

Oh, I'm a woman. Or, I believe in some political ideology. Whatever people put on themselves as labels, right? I am this. I am that. I look in the mirror. Oh, that's what I am. Is that how you would define it? As you look into the spiritual mirror? Or is it the color of your skin? What is it that defines us in that spiritual mirror? Is it how old we are? Is it how young we are? What fake image are you trying to put out there?

So, when you look in the spiritual mirror, you say, Oh, look! Boy, I've got it all right. Nobody else does. But that spiritual mirror doesn't let you really see it that way, right? Or, I have sins I'm hiding, and I hide my sins. But that's okay because... and then it's sort of fuzzy. It's like... or maybe you look a little bit like a monster or something as you look in that spiritual mirror because you're going to see the ugliness of who you are.

Paul uses a mirror... a spiritual mirror is a very strong analogy. Because you look in the mirror and it's like, Oh my! I look really bad. Or do you look in the mirror and you look at the way somebody else has defined you?

Sometimes we look in that mirror and we actually see how somebody else has defined us. You're stupid, or you're this, or you're that. And you look in that mirror and that's how you define yourself. But if we are seeking the face of God, what happens when we look into that spiritual mirror? What are we supposed to see? Well, first of all, you're going to see yourself. But you see something else. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 3. 2 Corinthians chapter 3.

This is what happened. You see, how do I know... well, first of all, you start to have a much deeper relationship with God. But what else happens here? Because we're talking about the image. We've been talking about God's image and how we try to make God in our image. But what is God doing to you? 2 Corinthians 3.17 He says, now the Lord is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. We learn freedom from sin and oppression. We learn freedom from all the negative things that happen to us.

We learn freedom even in the difficulties of life. But we all, with unveiled face, not covered, we look right into that spiritual mirror and we see the reality. Beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. And of course, the context here, if you read all through chapter 3, is about Jesus Christ. So he says, when you look into that mirror, what do you see?

Yourself. And then it's a little fuzzy and you see Jesus Christ. And then you see yourself. And once time goes on, we are no longer to see a spiritual image just of ourselves. We are to see ourselves being transformed into the spiritual image of Jesus Christ. Not we don't become Jesus Christ, but his reality, his character, his relationship with the Father, everything. We are now being transformed, translated into that. Why? Because Jesus Christ is giving us the Spirit of God. That's what it says. And we are, by the Spirit of the Lord, his Spirit, being transformed, translated, or transformed into the same image.

Here's the thing you and I have. You and I look in the spiritual mirror and we see ourselves. And we know it's not alright, but what we try to do is fill in the gaps with the image of ourselves. When we look in the spiritual mirror, we see ourselves, but the gaps are being filled in by Jesus Christ as the opposite. We are being transformed into something else.

We are being transformed into someone else as the children of God. We can't make God in our image. God's making us in Christ's image. We've got it backwards. We are being transformed into his image. And that's what God is doing in our lives. And how do we do that? We must seek Him face to face. We must seek a relationship with God where we bear it all.

Whatever must be changed, whatever must be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ, transform it. Change it. But then read the life of Jesus Christ. His life was pretty hard at times. His whole ministry didn't have a house to live in. He lived with other people. He even told people, you don't want to follow me.

I don't even have a place to lay my head. He was persecuted, hated, and killed. Now, that's not going to happen to all of us, but the point he's making is it's not an easy being transformed is not easy. And yet that's what's happening to us. That's why we're going through all this. That's why we can't be in despair. God says, look at the stars. Look at, just take a walk in the woods. When you get that chance to watch Kim and I the other day, we were driving, we stopped, and a doe, and a couple looked like yearlings crossed the road.

And we just sat there and watched them. You know, take those moments and say, if God does that, and you are more important than any of that to him, you are more important than any of it, then he will do that work anew. And the trials we face, the things we go through, that's just part of the process. He will keep us from some of it. He'll take care of us.

He's going to heal us from time to time. But he's doing something amazing in your life. And that's why we have to be sure to keep focused so that we are able to look at God face to face. And when we look at that spiritual mirror, and we see ourselves, we see ourselves being transformed into the very image of Jesus Christ.