Some Words

Ok ... for all of you reading the blog you get the "words" first.  CB posted about God's definition of special verses God's view of special (i.e., humble, meek, Beatitudes).  In Genesis 1 the words God uses to describe the first people are the words "in our image," "in our likeness" and "male and female."  All of these are important and we will unpack them on Sunday.  However let's stop and take these three phrases.  The first means that we bear a resemblance or similarity to the creator.  Theologians have spent lots of time about what this means but it can be summarized as people can think, reason and have free will ... traits that God would share and that He could convey.  The second term (in our likeness) is thought to be more spiritual and means traits like conscience, transcendence and the ability to maintain complex relationships that are both physical and spiritual.  This trait is the most damaged in the fall (January 16th).  The third phrase, male and female, is a very unusual one for the male dominated culture handing this story down.  It basically means that God's image cannot be conveyed without both male and female genders (God is beyond gender).  This is good, deep and foundational stuff upon which we begin to build our knowledge and understanding of Scripture.  I hope our journey remains God-filled and God-led!