IS THERE ANYTHING DIFFERENT ABOUT BEING UNIQUE?

 IS THERE ANYTHING DIFFERENT ABOUT BEING UNIQUE?

We live on a unique planet which is part of a unique solar system which is part of a unique galaxy which is part of a unique universe. Our unique planet hosts 8.7 million unique animal species and 7.5 billion unique people. There are many other aspects to our earth’s uniqueness, but there is one outstandingly unique trait about our planet that makes it uniquely unique. 

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
Psalm 139:14

 

A UNIQUENESS LIKE NO OTHER

While we are all created unique; and, we are each unique together. We are each and uniquely created in the image of God which makes us each unique but also uniquely distinct from all other creatures and it also bonds us uniquely together. We are quite literally a human family of divine image bearers. 

What is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
¶ Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet.
Psalm 8:4-6

The image of God that we each bear is not just that we each uniquely reflect Him to the rest of creation, it’s not just that we represent Him, it’s not just that we uniquely share several of His attributes (creativity, planning, conceptual communication, altruistic compassion, a spiritual essence enabling prayer and revelation), it is a unique status. The imago dei (“image of God”) is a unique status that only human beings are privileged with from the moment of their conception. When some heavenly (angelic) creatures rebelled, their Creator had provided no means to help them to ever be redeemed. Angels do not share the same privileged status of those who bear the status of the imago dei — as we each uniquely do.

For surely it is not angels that He helps, but He helps the offspring of Abraham.
Therefore He had to be made like His brothers in every respect,
so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God,
to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because He Himself has
suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.
Hebrews 2:16-18

The day will come when time as we have known it will come to end. On that “last day” (John 6:39; 12:48) those among the imago dei family who have been redeemed by Christ by accepting His offer of grace, will be entrusted by the Almighty to judge those fallen heavenly creatures who had rebelled and wrought so much wickedness and evil in the world.

Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?
And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases?
Do you not know that we are to judge angels?
How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!
First Corinthians 6:2-3

 

OUR UNIQUENESS REQUIRED A UNIQUE SAVIOUR

As we enter into this Advent season we should reflect on the uniqueness of the Christ-child whose birth we celebrate each Christmas. It often crops up on the internet around Christmas time that Christians simply reinvented pagan myths of virgin-born saviours which may rock the fragile faith of newer Christians. But as Dr. Leon Morris points out in his commentary on the Gospel of Luke, no such myth has yet been found and certainly no ancient myth ever proposed that a virgin would conceive – let alone conceive a child supernaturally! Dr. Morris points out that there are several mythological accounts of ‘gods’ having relations with mortal women to sire a child – but this hardly could then be described as a virgin conceiving! Reflecting on Luke 1 and Matthew 1 we see that Jesus the Christ had a unique birth (Matt. 1:2-23, 25). It was also unique because it was prophesied (Isa. 7:14); accompanied by independent angelic visitations to Mary and her betrothed Joseph. Secondly, Christ bore and received unique divine titles (Isa. 9:6). Thirdly, Christ had a unique name – Jesus – that revealed His unique identity. Fourthly, He had a unique mission (to save people from the eternal consequences of their sin, Matt. 1:21) which He was aware of from a very early age (Luke 2:49). Fifthly, Jesus had a unique destiny to die an atoning death, rise from the dead, ascend by translation back to His heavenly throne, and will then sit in judgment of all people. And sixthly, Jesus the Christ made – and the offer still stands – to cleanse a person from the soul-stain of sin and mediate their adoption as a son or daughter of God the Father.

And there is salvation in no one else,
for there is no other name under heaven
given among men by which we must be saved.”
Acts 4:12

 

OUR UNIQUENESS MAKES US FAMILY

Loneliness has now reached epidemic proportions in many parts of the world. God’s solution to this has always been family. Our shared humanity should help us to appreciate that our nuclear family is designed by God to be a community of care, support and encouragement to each family member. But God has also designed us to be members of a local spiritual family called a church. It is in the community of the church that we grow together and learn how to care, support and encourage each other. And if my hunch about the growing pandemic of loneliness is close to being right this means that God’s concept of the family complemented by His establishment of the church family certainly makes our uniqueness as a community quite different and probably what most people are actually longing for.

Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in His holy habitation.
God settles the solitary in a home;
Psalm 68:5-6a 

Your pastor,

Andrew

Let me know what you think below in the comment section and feel free to share this someone who might benefit from this Pastor’s Desk.

WHO CARES?

 WHO CARES?

The world into which the Saviour of mankind entered as a baby was a very harsh place. Life was cheap. Might was right. The oppressed were abused and often mistreated by the Roman conquerors. Those expected to speak up for, and defend, the voiceless vulnerable — their religious leaders of the day — had become too easily corrupted in their pathetic attempts to win a crumb of their conqueror’s power. This corruption in the pursuit of financial gain and political leverage had blinded these supposed-to-be-shepherds to the true plight of those they should have served as guardians. Why on earth would God send His Son into our world at such a dark time?

¶ But when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent His Son, born among us of a woman, born under the conditions of the law so that He might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law.
Galatians 4:4 THE MESSAGE

WHERE IS THE GOD WHO CARES?

In what would have to be the greatest reply to the oft asked question – what has the all-powerful, all-good God done about evil and suffering in the world? – God the Eternal Father sent His Eternal Son into this world of evil and suffering as a zygote (the earliest stage of human development) as His answer. In one of Dr. F.W. Boreham’s essays on this topic he pointed out how often it has been throughout history that just at the darkest hours in human history, a baby has been sovereignly born who would grow into a courageous leader who would be a further divine reply to the question about what has done about evil and suffering in the world. The greatest example of this of course is the Christmas Child. At just the precise time of one of earth’s darkest hours, the Christ was born. Little wonder then that Dr. Boreham could say that God’s answer to the world’s problems is always a baby. And the baby that God the Father sent to the world was the One who created it and everything in it (Col. 1:17-18). Did He come reluctantly? Did He come in the same way that the mythological Greco-Roman members of the pantheon of gods would come feeling rather indifferent to the injustices besetting the world? Let the written Word of God be our answer-

When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them,
because they were harassed and helpless,
like sheep without a shepherd.
Matthew 9:36

DOES JESUS?

Christ was moved with compassion for people. He felt their pain and saw their suffering. Did Jesus care? Asking this question sound utterly ridiculous even before I get the question mark! There is no doubt that Jesus cared. He demonstrated care for outcasts — such as lepers who shunned by society — but He didn’t care for them because they were a marginalised group or even because they were lepers. He cared for them because they were people created in the image of God. Jesus cared for the poor – but not because they were poor – but because they were people created in the image of God. Jesus cared for women – but not because they were women – but because they were people created in the image of God. And the same can be said of His care for those people with a different skin colour to His (which almost certainly was not ‘white’), or for those people of different ethnicity who could barely speak the language of the Hebrews without a tell-tale accent that brought scorn and even hatred among Israelites. He cared for these people despite these things because they too were created in the image of God. This reveals that Christ treated all people as sharing a common and unique bond: all people are created in the image of God and this common bond and shared privilege binds us each together as the ‘human race’ thus making all alternate adjectives of the word “race” superfluous and counter-productive to a biblical understanding of what it means to be human. Our initial question, who cares? is now forced to be adjusted to: Who should care? And the answer is immediately obvious. We should because we are the family of the divine image bearers. We are family.

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”
has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Second Corinthians 4:6

 

BUT WHO CARES?

Those who know Christ! To worship is to adore, to behold, to praise, to reflect upon and reflect. Thus, we become like whatever we worship. When we reflect on Christ we marvel at His care for each individual in a crowd where each one probably thought that no-one saw them in the midst of a sea of faces – but Jesus did. They may have thought that when Jesus looked at the crowd He couldn’t have noticed them but He did. As they blended into the masses of people that often flocked to Christ they may have felt that non-one cared for them – but Jesus did. Consider how often Jesus spent time with one person: the woman at the well (John 4); Nicodemus the Scribe (John 3); the man at the Pool of Bethesda (John 5); the women condemned as an adulteress (John 8); the man born blind (John 9); Lazarus (John 11); and Pilate (John 19).  

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord,
are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.
For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Second Corinthians 3:18`

Time and time again throughout the gospels we see Jesus taking time out for the individual – a woman with the issue of blood, the Syrophoenician woman with a demonise daughter, a blind man on the side of the road. Jesus’ care for people is a remarkable insight into the Father’s care for each member of His earthly family of divine image bearers. And just as Jesus conveyed the Father’s heart of care for each person, we too are called to also convey it (Luke 10:25-37).
 

 

Your pastor,

Andrew

Let me know what you think below in the comment section and feel free to share this someone who might benefit from this Pastor’s Desk.

What Makes Us "Human"

THE REST

There are certain things that make us unique and utterly different from animals. We desire and aspire. We appreciate and applaud. We love unreasonably and can reason unlovingly. We laugh. And we can repair our souls while resting.

Hebrews 4:9 "So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God"

WE DESIRE AND ASPIRE

We have wants and dreams. We desire to have, to do, to go, and to know. We aspire to improve, contribute, achieve. This is a part of being human and created in the image of God.

WE APPRECIATE AND APPLAUD

We are able to recognise the difference between poor, good and great achievements. When we recognise the latter we often show our appreciation by applauding in some way. When a cat catches a mouse you rarely see the other cats from the neighbourhood gather around and clap (not that paws could clap that loudly anyway). But we humans often give in to the urge to show our appreciation. The highest compliment an artist could receive for their painting would be to have someone sit and admire it for hours. The act of sitting in this instance is actually disguising what is really happening. What looks like sitting is actually admiring and appreciating. (Husbands take note: Apparently women feel the same way when a man pays careful admiration to them.)

LOVE UNREASONABLY

The recent Colorado tragedy where a deranged gunman senselessly shot at movie goers highlighted the best and worst in humanity. As the worst was rampaging the best were selflessly putting their bodies on the line to protect others from the showers of bullets. Many young men instinctively shielded nearby women and as a result died in doing so. This is called "altruism". It is an utter mystery to those atheists who hold to Darwinian Evolution as the explanation for how humanity came to be because it clearly does not fit within their story since it can not be about personal survival (or even the survival of the fittest). This kind of love is both unconditional and nicely unreasonable. Why do people do it? And why do people do it for complete strangers? Because we are created in the image of a God who loves unreasonably and unconditionally!

Romans 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

(We all long to love and be loved. We are designed to find love firstly from our parents, then our family, then our friends, then our spouse and eventually from our church. I have discovered that when people do not find love in their home, their craving for love from elsewhere is very difficult to satisfy. This is why people in a loveless home may come into a church and become very critical of that church for not filling their love needs. A truly loving church will help people look to Christ as the Ultimate Source of their loving and through this lens they will recognise the sincere love that Christ provides for the less-loved through His Body.)

REASON UNLOVINGLY

Animals do not negotiate or reason. We do. We can internally reason with ourselves about the consequences of our actions. We can reason with others about our opinions, ideas, or experiences. And even though our hearts may tell us one thing, we have the ability to reason toward the truth of a matter despite its impact upon us. People have reasoned that their nation was perpetrating acts of evil despite their hearts loving their nation (we saw this during the Second World War with people like Bonhoeffer).

Second Timothy 2:7 Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

LAUGH
Humans are also unique because we laugh. We (well, most of us) have a sense of humour. When we enjoy something funny we laugh. It is almost involuntary!

We are created in the image of a God who laughs and enjoys.

Psalm 126:2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then they said among the nations,
"The LORD has done great things for them."

REST
We humans are created to repair and rest. Each night we need sleep to repair and rest. Every seventh day we are designed to cease from our regular activity and rest and repair our souls through congregational attention to worship and the Word. At least once a year we need a holiday of sorts so that we come away from the demands of ordinary life and rest. Every 10 to 15 years we need an extended time off work to take leave and have an extended rest. And eventually we will all need to rest from our work and retire.

Pastor Philip Hills used to say of Christians, We work from rest rather than rest from work.  Hebrews 4 speaks of the rest that is available in Christ since He has done the work. We celebrate this rest from work each Sunday. Under the Old Covenant they looked forward to the rest that Christ would provide by anticipating it with their weekly Sabbath (Saturday) rest. Since Christ rose again from the dead on Sunday, poured out His Holy Spirit on a Sunday, and established the Church on a Sunday, we now celebrate our rest in Christ each Sunday.

When you come to worship in the House of God this Sunday, you are indeed coming to worship because you are created to desire God and aspire to be the person He has called you to be. You come to worship on Sunday because you are created to admire and applaud greatness - and no one is greater than God and therefore no one is more deserving of admiration and applause than Him. When you come to worship this Sunday you are coming to show love. When you come to worship together this Sunday you are coming to strengthen your reasons for trusting God. And when you come to worship this Sunday you are coming to rest from your ordinary work and celebrate the work which Christ could only do on your behalf. The rest we are looking for is found in worship.

Psa. 34:8 ¶ Taste and see that the LORD is good.
Oh, the joys of those who trust in him!

Ps. Andrew

Created In The Image of God

Human life is unique. The Bible reveals to us that after God created all non-human life, He then especially created humans. But even more importantly, God declared that He created mankind in His image. In Latin this is referred to as imago dei - the image of God. Only mankind bears the imago dei. We know that this does not merely mean our physical traits since God is Spirit and not confined to a physical body. So what does the "image of God in man" mean?

We know that mankind is uniquely endowed with -

• An immortal (not eternal, since it is created) soul that defines our life (James 2:26)



• Self-consciousness, we can ponder our own existence



• Moral sensitivity with the ability to be altruistic and heroic



• Aesthetic appreciation that admires and is captivated by beauty



• Spiritual hunger that manifests in transcendent (beyond this dimension) worship



• Curiosity about the past and the future



• A need for intimate relationship especially with God

This is what makes us different from animals and very special in the eyes of God. It's also why in Genesis 9:6 that God condemns the unjustified taking of another human's life.

The imago dei of humans is not mitigated by a person's size, gender, race, skin colour, location, intellectual prowess, or ability to perform a task. Therefore, from conception (the smallest possible size of a human) even in a mother's womb (location does not determine whether a human is a human) or in a hospice care bed attached to feeding tubes, human beings are of unique worth. God has made no greater statement about this than when He sent His Son to die in our place so that human beings could be reconciled to their Creator.