WHAT IS MAN, or, WHOSE AM I?

 WHAT IS MAN? Or, WHOSE AM I?     Week of 4-25-18

When pondering the above questions, PSALM 8 helps me realize                        Whose I am, and What I am…    8:1 O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth, Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!    3When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have  ordained;    4What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him?                                                                                                       5 ..You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You crown him with glory and majesty!

GENESIS 1 also inspires me as I read, 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”27So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.

Blessedly, we can know WE ARE HIS, and that we are created in God’s image to glorify, know, serve, and love HIM now and forever!

            As we look at WHAT, and WHOSE, we are, I think of 3 key Scripture passages..                            ROMANS 12:1-3 ‘(Therefore,) I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will. For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.’  In these verses, we learn how, as HIS, we are to worship Him through our bodies and minds as we welcome God’s will and work in our lives. Humility is crucial..Hmm..

JEREMIAH 9:23-24 reminds us, ‘This is what the LORD says: Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they know and understand Me, that I am the LORD Who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight.’    If we are HIS, we can be vessels of His kindness, justice, and righteousness.

Finally, GALATIANS 2:20 answers well for us today. ‘I have been crucified with Christ, therefore it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives within me. The life I now live in my flesh, I live by FAITH in the One Who gave Himself up for me!’  Practice Forsaking All, I Take, Trust, and Thank Him!