*{The term “man” or “men” in this article refers to mankind=men & women unless otherwise specified}**********************************************************************

Do you know we have been fed a LIE? Not just any lie, but THE LIE. And that LIE has stripped us of our value to the lowest common denominator. Common is the operative word here. We have all made ourselves common to try and escape the question that rages inside of us. Who am I and what is my value? We have relegated our uniqueness to commonality so that no one feels less than anyone else and in doing so we all feel less than who we are created to be.

We have lost sight of our own image and identity because we have lost sight of the image of God in whose likeness we have been created. The LIE is that God is like the creature and originates from what is created instead of being the Creator of it all. The LIE says that God is like the animals or like the creation, that He is a figment or illusion of men. Some have called God a tree or the sun and stripped Him of His glory to make him more palatable, tolerable or worse, dismissible.

He cannot be reduced or dismissed and therefore the fight rages on the inside of us. Creator calling out to creature,” be reconciled”! Calling out, “come and be who I created you to be in Me.”   But, the understanding of who God is has been lost and therefore we have lost our value because we are created in His image, [Gen. 1] If we don’t know who He is, how can we possibly know who we are?

If God is no greater than an image of wood or gold then what does that make us? In losing sight of His beauty we have lost sight of our own. We have lost sight of His glory and forsaken the glory He has placed in each one of us and defined for ourselves what we want to be instead of becoming His masterpiece.

We have lost sight of the greatness and majesty of God and as a result, lost sight of our own beauty and value. [Ps. 139] We have lost sight of our uniqueness as man and woman and believed the LIE that we can be each other because we were sold the lie that one is superior to the other. So we’ve made ourselves neutral and stepping into “neutrality” does not make us equal, it makes us less than who we were designed to be!

Out of this LIE emerges the question of worth and the voice of self-hatred that makes us ashamed of who God made us. Therefore we strip ourselves of both the glory of man and woman and take on neutrality. Nothingness. To squelch the gnawing question; the question that demands an answer!

But we will never squelch the question because it screams from inside of us. We must realize the struggle has always been in us and the only one thing can heal that; understanding that there is a God and that we all find our value and purpose in Him. [Col. 1] To squelch God is to squelch ourselves. We are nothing without God because we are made in His image. Don’t you see?

We have tried to find our identity outside of Him and in the process, become confused about who we really are.   The only answer is to return to Him. To see Him, in all His magnificence and beauty! In returning to Him, we behold True beauty not pseudo beauty that the philosophies of the world has sold us and called beauty. Outward. Fleshly. Earthly. Sensual. But the true beauty of kindness, goodness, peace, faithfulness and love. Beauty that cannot be denied in the face of the most heinous evil, against such there is no law.

Beauty that has been forsaken, because we called it weak and replaced it with power over another human soul, slavery to human whim and greed, beauty we replaced with the worship of self and sexual prowess. Driven by fear to never be a victim, we never love or let love in. Love. The purest beauty. The True beauty that shines light into darkness and darkness has no power to overcome it. [John 1]

That beauty is found in one face. The face of Jesus Christ. The truest! The most beautiful! The most glorious! And it is in gazing into His face that we find our true value and beauty. It exists in no other place, but in Him. He is the image of the God, invisible. The exact representation of His person. When you have seen Jesus, You have seen the Father, God.

Do you want to know what God is like? Look at Jesus and learn about Him! Don’t take for granted what you have been told by mere mortals about who He is, but seek Him yourself and be undone!

Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost. Yes, people that were lost but something else that was lost. Beauty. Value. Relationship. Worth. We have all let go and gone our own way and taken our own path in stubborn pride. In our pain and agony, we have run the other way, to find another alternative to God because the lie has told us, “God would never love you, want you or accept you. He doesn’t love you, He just wants to send you to hell!”

So, we run and become lost. Have you ever been really lost, like in the woods or driving on a road? It is frightening! Wanderers. Confused. In search of our value, we have looked to other things like education and intellect to give us worth. We have called outward achievements our value. We have sold our souls to “them” whoever “they” are and believed the LIE that we are only valuable based on these things or appearances.

But the problem with that is no matter how much we acquire or achieve or how skinny we become, we cannot fill the void of shame which haunts and mocks us constantly. Self -development is commendable but the only problem with it is it can only go so far because ultimately we cannot improve self! The LIE is always screaming that we are never good enough!

So we kill ourselves to find something that can only be found in the God whom we strive so hard to rid ourselves of. Imagine that; throwing out the only answer to our pain!!! Imagine that!

So what, then, is the solution to this dilemma of human value and struggle for acceptance within ourselves? We must look outside ourselves to the beautiful God. We must surrender the illusion that we are smart enough, pretty enough, strong enough and skilled enough to fix anything, especially ourselves. We must fling ourselves upon the goodness and kindness of God. The only Savior. The only One who can bring something out of nothing. The only One who can bring beauty out of tragedy. The Only Creator, Redeemer and Healer. The Lover of our very souls!

Look! The philosophies of mere men are death! The principles of this world are blindness! But, if we find ourselves in Christ and are rooted and built up in Him we can find our true beauty and worth!

Everything is in Him! All purpose. All glory. All value. All strength. All wisdom. [Col. 2:3] [Re. 4:11, 5:12]

Let Christ be glorified in all!

Crisie