FOR WHAT PRICE ?

IS GOD’S IMAGE ON THE AUCTION BLOCK? WOULD YOU SELL IT FOR THE PRICE OF AN APPLE?

Is God’s image on the Auction block? What will a man give in exchange for his soul?  If not His image than who’s? God created man in His own image, unfortunately, for the price of an apple, Adam, and Eve discarded their true reflection. Your soul is eternal, and the image of Christ is essential.

The world is going to pass away and the lust thereof.  Then the question, “what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” What would you take for your soul? Some of you have been wandering in the wilderness in your Christian experience, maintaining a barren soul. His image just a dimming light. God is calling you to spark up the flame, pass over Jordan, and enter the promised land.

Once upon a Midlife crisis I found myself staring in my mirror, chanting; “You have potential, believe, receive and conquer the day. I will never fail only sale-sale-sale because I love myself and deserve all.” Chasing my shadow, seeking my own image, looking into mirrors only to find the wrong reflection of my soul.

When I was a sales Rep, I bought into the self-esteem movement. I was visualizing my future posting pictures of cars, houses, and buckets full of money all around my home. I was told that whatever I thought could be achieved if I believed it to be true. Think it, believe it, and receive it.

To my surprise this career was short lived. I never attain anything I was promised in all the books I bought and seminars I paid to attend. Selling a weight loss product for a year and I never lost a pound. I could not even push self-esteem motivational tapes even after all the prep in front of the mirror.

Even as a kid I bought into POPEYE THE SAILOR MAN, otherwise known as the Great Spinach Conspiracy. 

“I’m Popeye the Sailor Man. I’m strong to the finich, cause I eats me spinach. I’m Popeye the Sailor Man.”  I would flex in front of the mirror after each portion of that green stuff. Never looking like the bodybuilder promised, I lost all faith in this guy

The most painful deception was when I realized walking on fire only burnt my feet. Seeking my potential in the reflection of my mirror only for it to laughed out loud at me. Self-image, self-esteem with all their trappings only held up my true purpose in life. Even then God’s still small voice was saying “It is My Image Stupid!”

God’s Word tells us to esteem others more highly then ourselves. To humble our self in the sight of the Lord and He will lift us up. We are also instructed that who by giving any thought could add one hair to their head. Jesus put it this way, “ And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?” (Luke 12:25).

Even though we lost our image of God in the garden we are still destined to be like Him. He is the only “pattern” we must follow.  And because he really lives his life in us, we too can “walk even as He walked,” “do as He done,” “love as He loved,” “forgive as He forgave,” and “have this mind which was also in Christ Jesus.” It is because He became like us that we are identified with Him and we can become like Him.

Satan’s greatest weapon is man’s ignorance of God’s Word! Additionally, half of the truth is the worst part of the lie. With every temptation, there is a lie involved. (1) The Prove It Lie, (2) The “For It Is Written” Lie, and (3) The Short Cut Lie. The devil deceived Eve in the garden with these lies while Jesus was victorious in the wilderness.

The devil would have us conform to the ways of this world through peer pressure.  The Christian life is so different from the world’s way of thinking. The world wants their self-esteem to feel good, while God tells us to esteem others more highly than ourselves. Non-believers need their image to shine above all others, but God wants Jesus’s Image to prevail. The world says to go for it, no matter the cost. God’s Word tells us to count the cost.

God’s image is worth the battle. Victories are won as we put off the old man and put on the new. Transformation into the image of Christ is only realized when we learn how to use the Word of God to overcome the world.

When we become Christians, God does not remodel us or add to who we are – He transforms us.  A Believer does not have two different natures.  He has one new character – the single life in Christ.  The old self dies, and the new person becomes alive; they do not coexist.

God’s Word exhorts us, to “Put on the new man,” a new behavior that is proper to our original nature. But to do so, we must end the patterns and practices of our old life. Furthermore, He has given us the rules, the principles, the strategies, the armor, and the promises for fulfilling His purpose. If we will renew our minds and study the Word, then we will be able to sort out and discern the will of God. When we make the right decisions combined with some skills, we will succeed and come out on top.

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

“In the beginning God”. . .

“And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Corinthians 15:49).