Genesis 1:26-31

26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, ^[b] and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so.

31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

Read and reflect on the above Scripture. Read through it slowly, and focus specifically on verse 27. Say the verse a few times over in your head. Once you've done that, ask your self the following question:

What does it means to be made in God’s image?

God has been dealing with me in this area a lot over the past few weeks, and, honestly, it's been awesome. The coolest thing is that God has not only been showing me his character, but he's been showing me why knowing his character is so important.

Read through the following Scriptures, and pay close attention to every word that describes who God is.

Exodus 34:5-7
Galatians 5:22-23
1 John 1:5
1 John 4:7-10, 16

Make a list of the characteristics you see, and meditate on them. What sticks out to you?

How To Live Life In God’s Image

Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, in their book How To Read The Bible Book By Book, talk a lot about what it means to be made in God’s image. They say that there are three implications because man was made in God’s image:

1. Man got to know God’s character and what he was like

2. Man enjoyed fellowship and communion with God

3. God’s character was embedded in man

However, as a result of the Fall, these things were all messed up, including the likeness of God in man:

“…the Fall also caused us to distort-and blur-the divine image in ourselves, rolling it in the dust, as it were. Instead of being loving, generous, self-giving, thoughtful, merciful-as God is-we became miserly, selfish, unloving, unforgiving, spiteful. Created to image, and thus represent, God in all that we are and do, we learned rather to bear the image of the Evil One, God’s implacable enemy” (Stuart and Fee, How To, pg 16).

As I said before, the great thing about God dealing with me in this area is not only the fact that He's showing me who He is, and what He's like, but He's showing me why it's so important to know all this.

Simple reason: God calls us to reflect His character to the world around us. The image God made us in is what we're called to show to everyone. Don't believe me? Read this:

But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." (1 Peter 1:15-16)

Notice, the reason why God calls us to be Holy is because it is who He is. It is His essence and His character, and thus, we are called to be like Him.

Take time to continually reflect on God's likeness, and figure out how you can grow and become more like Him.

3. Understanding Oracles
Reading the OT Prophecies can be a little weird because of their structure and organization. What we need to keep in mind is that the prophetic books are merely written prophets. That is to say that there were many prophets in Israel’s history, just not everyone’s message was written down. A good example of this is Elijah and Elisha. However, Amos, like Isaiah and Jeremiah and others, were recorded. What we have in the Bible is a collection of oracles (or messages) put together. Not necessarily one long message (How To Read The Bible For All Its Worth).

4. Specific Situations
We need to understand that God was speaking to a specific context, a certain happening, while this certain person was King, or while Israel was fighting these people, or oppressed by this group, etc. In other words, in order for us to secondly understand what God’s message to Israel means to us, we need to firstly understand what God’s message to Israel must have meant to Israel. Otherwise, we run the risk of reading Scripture totally out of context. Also, we need to understand that for many of the prophecies, what was future for the original audience is already past for us.

John 8:1-11

1But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" 6They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." 8Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

11"No one, sir," she said.

"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."