CREATION-INDIVIDUALS
I would
rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I
could think of; for to have been thought about, born in God’s thought, and then
made by God, is the dearest, grandest, and most precious thing in all thinking.
Quoted by J. R. Miller, Finding One’s
Mission, Peiner Publications, n.d.,
p. 2.
“Slightly
lower than the angels” is a whole lot better than slightly higher than the
apes. Let’s get the order straight. God, angelic beings, man,
animals, and vegetables.
Stuart Briscoe
You are the
result of the attentive, careful, thoughtful, intimate, detailed, creative work
of God. Your personality, your sex, your height, your
features, are what they are because God made them precisely that way. He
made you the way He did because that is the way he wants you to be. …If God had
wanted you to be basically and creatively different He would have made you
differently. Your genes and chromosomes
and creaturely distinctives - even the shape of your nose and ears - are what
they are by God's design.
James Hufstetler,
On Knowing Oneself, Issue 280, January
1987, p. 13, by permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
You will
never really enjoy other people, you will never have stable emotions, you will
never lead a life of godly contentment, you will never
conquer jealousy and love others as you should until you thank God for making
you the way He did.
James Hufstetler,
On Knowing Oneself, Issue 280, January
1987, p. 14, by permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
People travel
to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas, at the
long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular
motion of the stars, and yet they pass by themselves without wondering.
Augustine
God has one
destined end for mankind - holiness! His
one aim is the production of saints. God
is not an eternal blessing- machine for men.
He did not come to save men out of pity.
He came to save men because He had created them to be holy.
Oswald Chambers
Jenny, God
has made me for a purpose – for China; but He has also made me fast, and when I
run, I feel His pleasure
Eric Liddell
Chariots of Fire.
Special significance of the creation of male and female
in the image of God:
1.
It is only after God has created man that He says of all He
has made: it is “very good” (1:31). This is not simply because God’s creative
task is finished but because mankind is the pinnacle of all He has made.
2.
The creation of man is introduced differently than other
products of creative work, with the personal and deliberative expression, “Let Us
make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.”
3.
The one God who creates man as male and female
deliberately uses plural references of himself (e.g., “Let Us,” “Our
image,” “Our likeness”) as the creator of singular “man” who is plural “male
and female.”
4.
The “image of God” is stated three times in 1:26-27 in
relation to man as male and female but never in relation to any other part of
creation (are angels created in the image of God?).
5.
The special term for God’s unique creative action, bara, is used three times
in 1:27 for the creation of man in His image as male and female.
6.
Man is given a place of dominion over all other created
beings on the earth, thus indicating the higher authority and priority of man
in God’s created design.
7.
Only the creation of man as male and female is expanded
and portrayed in detail as recorded in Gen. 2.
Sam
Storms
The Image of God in Man, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com.
Used by Permission.