Made In The Image
We have probably all heard the phrase: "Made in the image and likeness of God". What exactly does that mean? When I was young and exploring my spirituality, my rather avant garde mother encouraged me to go to different churches of different denominations and see which, if any, fit my needs and personality. She did not do church although she did believe in a Higher Power and did pray. I owe Mom my very life, as she was able to facilitate the healing of my cerebral palsy by using what she learned in Dr. Ernest Holmes' Science of Mnd lectures. While she was a great advocate of the Science of Mind way of life, she did not see it as a church, as many in that era did not.
So I went to everything from Southern Baptist (no dunking for me) to Armenian Apostolic (the Church of my Father's ethnic background, rather like Greek Orthodox but in Armenian) and everything in between. I found a temporary home in the local Methodist Church since they did not seem to be to negative or scary. In every one of these churches I found one thing in common; they all said I was made in the image and likeness of God. Did that mean that God looked like me? Did God have a rather prominent Armenian beak? If so, that was pretty cool but I had a hard time believing that! What then did that phrase mean?
Some people take the child's view of image and likeness and believe that God must look and be just like us. Many believe that God is a super-human with a face, hands, and a body fully human but on a much greater scale. I just don't conceive of God that way. The theistic, anthropomophic God is the God of Sunday School and I am well beyond that. How about you?
In Religious Science (Science of Mind) we do not understand it that way at all. Image and likeness to us means that we are like God in qualities, not externals. We believe that the Universe IS the body of God. Literally, the body of God. God is a Spirit, a great mind constantly creating and recreating with its Divine Mind, the Spiritual and physical Laws that She instituted and with Her love. That which God creates is its body. We are all part of the body of God and so God must love us, just as we love each part of our body. How could we not? Can you imagine saying: "You know, I like most of me but I just can't stand that little finger of mine, it sucks, I think I will cut it off!" Ridiculous, isn't it? So you see, God cannot say that it likes one and not the other of us since we are all made in its image and likeness and are thus part and parcel of God. We are to God as the fingers of our hand are to us.
Ok, great Rev. Dore', but what does that mean to me in my daily life? It means that what God can do, you can do but on a smaller scale. If God can create a planet or an ocean or a tree - you can create a home, a cathedral, an invention, a great life or a hell of a life. The choice and the power is yours. You create YOUR world the same way God creates THE World and all that is in it. You are a spark of God in microcosm. Just as a drop of seawater has the same properties of the entire Gulf of Mexico, so you have the same properties as The Most High God - the difference is only of scale.
No, you cannot create a new planet or move a mountain without machinery, but you can and do create a life out of nothing but your thoughts, your desires and your imagination. That is what I mean by being created "In the Image and Likeness of God". God does not have my Armenian nose or my Scotch-Irish light blue eyes, but I have Her power of Creation, I can use Her Law to create whatever I believe in and can accept as mine.
You and I are expressions of the Lord of The Universe - Never, Never forget it and never let anyone tell you otherwise. You have been using God's gift of creation and Law unconsciously all of your life and getting perhaps chaotic results. When you learn to get out of the back seat of the automobile of your life and get behind the wheel and consciously create what you want; giving no thought and no words to what you don't want - Wow, just watch the difference!
May God Bless each moment of your life!
AND SO IT IS!
So I went to everything from Southern Baptist (no dunking for me) to Armenian Apostolic (the Church of my Father's ethnic background, rather like Greek Orthodox but in Armenian) and everything in between. I found a temporary home in the local Methodist Church since they did not seem to be to negative or scary. In every one of these churches I found one thing in common; they all said I was made in the image and likeness of God. Did that mean that God looked like me? Did God have a rather prominent Armenian beak? If so, that was pretty cool but I had a hard time believing that! What then did that phrase mean?
Some people take the child's view of image and likeness and believe that God must look and be just like us. Many believe that God is a super-human with a face, hands, and a body fully human but on a much greater scale. I just don't conceive of God that way. The theistic, anthropomophic God is the God of Sunday School and I am well beyond that. How about you?
In Religious Science (Science of Mind) we do not understand it that way at all. Image and likeness to us means that we are like God in qualities, not externals. We believe that the Universe IS the body of God. Literally, the body of God. God is a Spirit, a great mind constantly creating and recreating with its Divine Mind, the Spiritual and physical Laws that She instituted and with Her love. That which God creates is its body. We are all part of the body of God and so God must love us, just as we love each part of our body. How could we not? Can you imagine saying: "You know, I like most of me but I just can't stand that little finger of mine, it sucks, I think I will cut it off!" Ridiculous, isn't it? So you see, God cannot say that it likes one and not the other of us since we are all made in its image and likeness and are thus part and parcel of God. We are to God as the fingers of our hand are to us.
Ok, great Rev. Dore', but what does that mean to me in my daily life? It means that what God can do, you can do but on a smaller scale. If God can create a planet or an ocean or a tree - you can create a home, a cathedral, an invention, a great life or a hell of a life. The choice and the power is yours. You create YOUR world the same way God creates THE World and all that is in it. You are a spark of God in microcosm. Just as a drop of seawater has the same properties of the entire Gulf of Mexico, so you have the same properties as The Most High God - the difference is only of scale.
No, you cannot create a new planet or move a mountain without machinery, but you can and do create a life out of nothing but your thoughts, your desires and your imagination. That is what I mean by being created "In the Image and Likeness of God". God does not have my Armenian nose or my Scotch-Irish light blue eyes, but I have Her power of Creation, I can use Her Law to create whatever I believe in and can accept as mine.
You and I are expressions of the Lord of The Universe - Never, Never forget it and never let anyone tell you otherwise. You have been using God's gift of creation and Law unconsciously all of your life and getting perhaps chaotic results. When you learn to get out of the back seat of the automobile of your life and get behind the wheel and consciously create what you want; giving no thought and no words to what you don't want - Wow, just watch the difference!
May God Bless each moment of your life!
AND SO IT IS!
posted by Rev. Dore' Jacques Patlian at
4:31 PM
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