 | Pastor Dave grew up in northern New Jersey in a very diverse cultural area. He attended Central College in Pella, Iowa received a BA in sociology and psychology. He was an offensive guard for their NCAA Div III National Championship team in 1974. In speaking for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, he sensed a call to full time ministry. Meeting is future wife Sandy at Central, went to Michigan to finish her college while Dave started Western Seminary in Holland, Michigan. Dave married Sandy in 77 and completed his Masters of Divinity degree in 78. Pastor Dave’s first church was in Fort Lee, New Jersey, home of the George Washington Bridge. Their three children were born there and he also served as a Police and Fire Chaplain for the city. In February 1991, they came to Wichita to start Harvest Community Church. In 2006, he received his Doctor of Ministry degree from Covenant Theological (Presbyterian) Seminary in St Louis. During that year he gained a daughter-in-law with now 2 grandsons of 3 years and 6 months old. Besides Pastoring at HCC for the past 20 years, he has been Director of the SCSD & WPD Police Chaplains for 11.
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Religion
2009-05-01 11:45:00
Are we supposed to look like God?
Question: We are said to have been made in the image and likeness of God. Does this mean that, if we were to see God, he would resemble a human being? Or, does it mean our immortal soul is in his image and likeness?
Answer: This is a wonderful blessing and privilege that God has bestowed on mankind. First, we must establish that “God is Spirit,” not physical, as Jesus declared to the women at the well in John 4:24. Some have imagined Him as an old man with a white robe and beard, out of touch and hard of hearing but that is for cartoon caricature and not the truth. In fact, in the passage, where the idea of man being made in the “image of God,” God shows Himself as something very different than all of creation. God shows Himself to be Triune or the trinity when He looks at His creation and says, “Let Us make man in our image.” {Genesis 1:26a} The privilege is that God makes His own self-expression through human kind. We have special qualities in our nature that manifest God’s likeness.
We are Spiritual beings as God is, that reflect His glory in our lives everyday. Not only are we spiritual, but we are also creators who make and create all kinds of things from a door stopper to complex chemical equations. We are communicators, logical thinkers and volitional like no other creatures on earth. That is why He created man last because humans as image bearers are the crown of His creation. {Psalm 8:5} We are free agents who can make decisions with a totally different ability and capacity than any others of His creation. Mankind interacts creatively and has also been given “dominion” (Genesis 1:26b} over all of creation.
Being made in His image has relational and moral implications that no earthly creatures possess. When God said, “Let Us,” God was saying that from a relational standpoint knowing Himself the joy and fulfillment relationships provide in the community of the Trinity, he decided to provide Adam with a suitable mate. So He made Adam in relation to Him but also saw that even before the fall, man was lonely without someone like him, {Genesis 2:18} of the same substance, yet different to be his companion. So God created Eve out of the rib of Adam so he would have someone like him, close to his heart, on the same level and under the arm of his protection. {2:21} As man understood the love of God, man would act in accordance with the moral laws of the one who loved him and also reflect that love to his fellow man. {James 2:8}
God also endowed mankind with some of His other attributes like justice, patience, forgiveness, kindness, faithfulness to name a few. {Galatians 5:22} Our spiritual self awareness gives us the capacity for spiritual / moral reflection and growth. Our ability to be self reflective from a rational thought process that has the capacity for abstract and symbolic thought, along with concrete deliberation and decision making, has set us high above all created beings. All this gives us a capacity to have a centeredness and completeness that allows us the possibility for self-actualization and participation in God’s sacred reality. {Ecclesiastes 3:11}
Realizing that you are made in the “Image of God” or an image bearer, there are two things I would like for everyone to think about applying to their own personal lives.
The first has to do with your self image. Because you reflect God in your life and share in His characteristics, you are of great value. Your worth is not based on your possessions, achievements, physical attractiveness or public acclaim; you are of worth because He created you in His image and formed you in your mother’s womb with great care. {Psalm 139:13-14} We should feel real good and positive about ourselves as His reflectors. We shouldn’t put ourselves down or deny what gifts and talents He has blessed us with, otherwise we are putting down and criticizing the work that God has called very good! Knowing that you are a person of worth whom God has created special and specifically, helps us love God even more and desire to know Him more and more {Psalm 139:15-18} and make a valuable contribution to those around. {Genesis 12:2}
Second, as image bearers we can delight in the work, accomplishments and things we create in this life because we are reflecting God’s nature. {Genesis 1:31} With a sense of gratitude we can rejoice and not feel guilty for doing something very good but feel a sense of joy that God has made us in His image and we can do, accomplish and create. We shouldn’t feel guilty for having a good time or feeling good about an achievement. {2 Timothy 4:7} As God felt good about His work, so we can also because we are just reflecting the image of God we have been given. May the joy of the Lord fill your life as you complete what He has set out for you to accomplish. {Ephesians 2:10}. Learning more every day of the deposit He has made in me, Pastor Dave.
