Made in His Image
by Steve Behncke
It has been written that we have been made in God's image. I have often wondered, "What does it mean to be made in God's image?"
Shamanism and New Age, Eastern beliefs say that everything in creation is made in God's image or is God Himself. I can buy that, at least in part. But only in the way that the thing made reflects the one who made it. The created world, all material existence, is in fact the product of God's imagination. God did not go to Comos Depot to pick up the supplies to make the universe. God just thought. God just said. And so it became. We do, in fact, eat, drink and touch God's imagination every moment of our life.
But still the Bible says we are made in His image. Not that dog or tree or rock, but we. Does God have arms and legs? I guess it could be argued yes, in the body of Jesus. But that is more God being like one of us. No, I must say that to me there is no more God-like attribute we possess, no greater way what we resemble Him than thought itself. Truly, if we are made in God's image it is in that we think. We imagine. We invent. We are self-aware.
In John it says in the beginning there was Logos. Logos can be, and is often translated Word. In the beginning was the Word. But that loses something to our understanding when we just say the word. What is it to say The Word? For one thing sounds that come from the mouth, sounds that represent language, are called words. Words represent thoughts, and our thoughts are we. And so the Word is definitely that; God's expression. But Logos is more than that. Logos is thought itself. It is the self-awareness of thought. The freedom of thought. The ability to think. The power of thought. In the beginning was God's thought. God's thought was with God and God's thought was God you could say. All things were made by the Word or by God's thought. Without it was nothing made. The glue that holds every atom together is in fact Logos.
Logos in all men
The Bible says that that Logos is the light of every man that comes into the world. . Every man? I thought that you must be born again to have that light? How is it that Logos lights every man that comes into the world?
Logos is the Greek root for all words that describe some sort of Reason. Logic for instance comes from the word Logos. To think critically is in fact Logos in you. Logic is the crucial element to science and to math. The ability to conceive the question and to answer it is in fact Logos in you.. Logic is also the basis for philosophy and too, logic, Godly logic, is the basis of spirituality for, says God, "let us reason together".
God did not say " Be born again and then be changed, and then, let us reason together" No, The Old Testament is full of the assumption on God's part that man was made with the capacity to reason. All men were made in God's image. All men have the light of Logos in them. And so God appeals to all men thru Logos. In short, God has already given you the capacity to think about it.
Yes He is that light that lights every man that comes into the world.
And that is so important to know. All of society, all laws, all medicine and
ability to know right from wrong is premised on the fact that Logos is in all
man and knowing this helps us to understand that it is by this Logos in man
that God will judge all men.
Paul says that we should bring in to captivity to Christ every thought. Of course one rarely succeeds in this. In fact, to be honest one rarely tries. And that is a shame if not a sin. Where is God abiding in this flesh we call the Temple if not in our thoughts? Our Logos. Your mind is the seat of your soul. How much is born there from God? Even salvation itself is born in our Logos. There is the language of the gospel interpreted in our brains, animated by the Holy Ghost. There is the call to repentance , which is the logical aspect of Logos appealing to our reason. God given reason. For it is, in fact reasonable, that if One died for our sin then all were dead and should turn from sin. Baptism, the "Holy Handshake" of God follows, as we covenant with God with our living soul to be bought by Him thru his blood for His eternal service. It is not a rite performed upon a baby but a holy act given to a believing, thinking being.
The word Faith in itself means simply " a belief that something is true" Let me tell you something; sleeping people need no faith. Faith is for those who are awake. Those who think. Those who exercise control over their thinking, as Paul commanded "Bring (you bring) every thought into the captivity of Christ" He does not say that God is going to hold your thoughts captive. Your living, breathing, thinking Logos will bring your faith under the control of Christ. Christ in you animates you to do so but waits for you to do it. Otherwise why would there be a command for you to exercise such control?
This is obvious to us in all normal aspects of life. All areas of our life are conceived in the mind and then brought about into our material world by the grace of God and the manipulation of physical things. Every invention of man was conceived in the imagination. The forging of steel into plows and into swords. The light bulb, the automobile, the plane, the computer. Logos at work.
Einstein was a not much more than a high school dropout, working in a patent office, when he conceived the famous equation; E=mc2. His laboratory ..the mind. He imagined that the universe could be like he thought it was, and as it worked out it was in deed so... that energy was equal to mass squared.
This one thought opened the door to the greatest physical force known to man; nuclear energy.
Logos in him
Logos in you.
So what is going on in your logos? What do you invent? Often I ask people what their fantasies are, even Christian fantasies. What would you do if you could do it? God says you can do all things thru Christ. If you have faith to believe this to be true then what would you do if you could do all things?
That's Logos at work. Tell me what you dream about and I will tell you what kind of faith you have. Little dreams..little faith. Selfish dreams...no faith.
Jesus once described the people who did not "get it" that is, get salvation, what it is... as ones who did not feed him when he was hungry, clothe him when he was naked, give him drink when he was thirsty and visit him when he was imprisoned.
"When did we see you that way Lord?" they asked Him, gazing at the outer darkness and obviously upset that such an important thing had passed unnoticed. His answer? "In as much as you have done it to the least of these you have done it unto me"
I like that. Logos at work. Logos says to your logos "let us reason together". See that guy over there...that's me. Feed me. And see that child over there? That's me...cloth me. See that lost person over there...That's me..lead me home" You see Logos gave of his logos so that you could invent. He was born again in you so that you could re-invent yourself in Him..
Stand before your world. Everything in natural existence is born from the imagination
of God. Now look at everything else. Everything else is come about by the imagination
of man. Every street, gutter, light, business, car, building, invention...nearly
infinite...every where you look, everything you see, touch, and taste; born
from the imagination, the logos of man. Some one thought of a way, blazed a
trail, made it easier, got rich. Someone thought it up. Thought it into
existence.
We have fifty thousand thoughts a day. Each one creative and wild. We lasso the thought with our will and bring it to Christ. Each thought is transformed and transforms us for "as a man thinks in his heart..so is he"
Jesus wants us to invent ourselves into the world. To Logos ourselves into an equation, an E=MC2, that rocks the world forever. It may be a small, contained explosion or one with such nuclear fission that the universe unravels. Does not matter. Its logos at work in you. Christ in you.
Seven years ago I met a man. A Zapotec Indian. I shared the gospel with him. I baptized him. They lived with us. Antonio and his family have been traveling as migrant workers for years. Their story is incredible. One that I have told many times before. It is a story of illness and poverty and demonic possession and then healing and salvation by Jesus. Poverty made them migrant workers. Homeless. Moving from camp to camp. The camp owns you. You can't get ahead. You put all your kids in the field and you still can't get ahead. You live there, work there, eat there. The camps are cramped and noisy, and they are filthy. Sickness runs thru them like a prairie fire.
Antonio is getting older. He has nine kids. Like any other man, he sits and thinks "what will become of me?" And like any other dad he wonders" What will become of my children?". He wants more for his children. Maybe a piece of land, maybe schooling, good jobs.
Anyway, one day Antonio found out that there were lots for sale on a little mesa just over the hill near the camp where they worked. He went to check it out. What he found was a little neighborhood of struggling hopefuls; Indians who had bought a chunk of dirt to call their own. Poor people who put together every scrap wood and cardboard piece they can find to make a home, anything to get away from the camps. Could Antonio afford the fifteen hundred dollars purchase price..no way! Could he afford the hundred dollars a month payment? It would take just about all they had. His wife worried "that's a lot of money, it's hard enough to make it as it is! And where would they live, in what? "
"I think we should do it, we need a home". Antonio said, and so they bought the little lot."
When I came to see Antonio, his wife and his youngest children came out from the little camper shell and blue plastic tarp where they were living to greet me. It was barely enough structure to keep them out of the wind let alone to endure the winter, especially a wet one which this one is promised to be.
. Antonio and I have had our ups and downs. We lived together at the mission after all. We are from such different cultures. Mine being superior (just kidding..kinda) But Antonio is my brother. And I love him. Then a thought came to my mind.... Logos.... Logos in me.... Logos in my logos; "build your brother a house. Get him to dry land. Give him a little comfort. Ease his burden"
You see I have eight kids. I have been broke down by the side of the road in an old school bus, hands freezing, replacing a timing chain while all the faces of my children watched me thru the window. So lost and so bewildered. I know what it is like. I know what he feels. I determined in my heart that I would build Antonio a house, what ever I could afford, however small, he was going to get something before winter to keep him dry. When my wife heard say to Antonio "Pray for me, we are going to get you a house" she shook her head. I had, just days before gone "tilt" from all the things there were to do. All the difficulties to overcome. I had "lost it" as one would say. She thought "that's all he needs, another project"1
But I know that was God in my heart concerning this. It was the truest of desires; to love ones brother. And I was prepared to do what ever God was going to allow me to do but then I was about to discover what Logos was going to do in others.
I called Rene. She is a sister in San Diego. I told her my desire to get Antonio a home. She met him once at the mission site in Baja. "That would be sooo good!" she said. The more she thought about it the more excited she got. She talked to her husband John. "I want to do this thing " she said, "and I want to bring Clint" Clint is their 10 year old son. She wanted him to have an opportunity to be a part of this work. To open his eyes. John wasn't sure. He does not like Mexico. Heard a lot bad stories. But Rene pressed him and soon, he too, was excited to go. Logos.
Rene had a good idea. Rene has a lot of good ideas. Just go to her house. Martha
Stewart, (sorry Rene) no other way to tell you about her. But really, Rene has
her very own way and creative style. Martha should be so blessed. Everyone likes
to go to her house. Sitting on the porch surrounded by John's flowers and Rene's
creative touches..you just have to see it. But Rene was just about to reinvent
her logos into something other than quilts and birdhouses.
She made phone calls and sent flyers and suddenly a lumber store calls and commits; nearly all the wood we would need to build Antonio a house delivered anywhere in San Diego! Then there was a "cake walk fundraiser" for Antonio. at Rene‘s. There was brothers and sisters and music and pizza and $311 in donations and a small group of people forming who were about to push beyond their fears and go love a brother in Mexico. There was Kenny's tithe and my mother-in-law's check in the mail. Logos
More phone calls...plane tickets bought...the boys from Hope Chapel Sacramento come down out of the sky; Richard, Scot, Ken and Mike. "Hey didn't we just see you at the missions project last summer?" Yeah...they've been bit! Logos got ‘em
James got the generator from work and was there ready to load his truck with wood. Rich the builder from the Desert got someone to cover for him at the Elder Care that he runs, loaded his tools, and headed south. Planes landed, trucks gassed, we all met at the boarder.
I was overwhelmed. Logos! Made in his image, all. Being transformed into his
image, all. All there, holding hands in a circle. Giving thanks for all we have...so
much!
What was a thought became earth. What was a thought became man. What was a thought
became wood and tools and a circle of friends ready to build Jesus a house.
We prayed .
The rest is glorious, Christian history. Written in the books of life no less an angelic joy than the fall of Jericho or the building of Solomon's temple. In two days Antonio got a house. The prettiest house on the hill. Everybody worked. An orchestra of generator, and hammers, saws and laughter. The outhouse was painted and a toilet seat covered with a soft seat ...on the girls side!(Hey, what‘s up with that?) Kids gathered stones for a garden wall. Then Logos had them check out that chicken coup and see if they could make it better, they did.
Logos showed Rich the best design and Logos helped us understand his directions. Up went a wall and then two, and then four. Windows with a view and a front door painted with flowers and a scripture verse in Spanish (Did anyone see Martha?). Curtains hung, a perfect fit! Who knew? Logos. Bunk beds to get the kids off the cold floor. Shiny hooks mounted to put...to put... "What do you suppose I should put on the those hooks?" asked Lorenza, Antonio's wife, looking at the gleaming brass hooks and wondering childlike what earthly item was worthy of such a hook? The sisters laughed " What ever you want! A coat, a towel, pot!"
A dining table, a cloth on the table. Then out came cozy sleeping bags and pillows and sheets and linens and blankets. "And these sheets" said sister Cathy to sister Lorenza
"are special, just for you and Antonio". A bushel of toys had been harvested from the closets back home and they were dumped on a table in front of the unsuspecting Indian children.... "Our Father which art in Heaven!...."
Mulch was mixed with sifted red clay, the rock planter was built and beautiful flowers rain bowed the front of the completed cottage. Then came a trellis and a bright red Bougainvillea to grow and climb onto the covered porch and mark the time when Logos worked in his children.
Two days and a hand full of thoughts. A life was changed, I can assure you that. They stood with mouths gaped, eyes wondering if what they were seeing was for real. Neighbors stared barefoot in the dirt path as someone's dream appeared, in a few short hours, on the little dirt lot that Antonio bought.
Crumbs. Crumbs from our table. Spare change they would tell you, the ones who came and built Antonio's house. And that is what makes it that much more incredible...the reality that if God can multiply our little fishes how much more could He do..would He do, if those who know him would believe. Logos. Logos in you, Logos in me..