Mandy and I were talking earlier and she was trying to help
me see past some of the scars on my soul.
Part of doing that had her telling me that the farther away from IFB
teaching she gets, the more clearly she sees herself in “the mirror”. She told me she’s finding peace with herself
the more she sees God the way the Bible says He is. As is often the case, I was confused and
asked her to explain.
The Bible talks about having created man in God’s
image. It says, male and female, He
created them both. So, if we are God’s
image, then He must embody both genders, right?
Then she said, if God embodies both genders, why do we think it matters
so much how we love? Good question! I was following her train of thought, so she
continued.
“Let’s take God out of the picture for a sec” she said to
me. “Jesus came to the earth preaching
love.” He broke the religious rules of
the time because he cared for and about people.
Preaching love and compassion and doing good ended up getting Him
killed. Bringing God back into the
picture, Jesus said all the commandments could be broken down into 2; love God
with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. Then she told me “this command is a
circle. The more you love God, the more
you can love yourself and love others.
The more you can love yourself, the more you can love God and others,
and the more you can love others, the more you can love yourself and God. Strange how that works, but I think she’s on
to something.
Mandy then said to me that she thinks the IFB and most
religion in general have this whole “Christianity thing” backward. All our lives we were taught we are diamonds
in the rough and that it is our job to let God take us, cut away all the parts
that don’t belong and shape us into a perfect and beautiful gem. But if we think of our creation in that way,
it means God created something that wasn’t perfect to begin with, doesn’t it?
When the world was first created, it was perfect,
right? Everything God created, He said
was good. Then humans came along and
broke the creation. She told me she
believes “what this broken world does breaks God’s heart, so the idea of His
Son dying to fix what has been broken wasn’t as painful to Him as it was to
watch us in daily pain” That’s an
overwhelming thought. God has perfect
eyes, so from our birth, He sees the priceless gem He created, before our
parents and the world had a chance to cover us in dirt and filth (sin if you
will). When Jesus died, He gave us the tools
to scrape all that junk off and see the truth of our creation.
For me, that thought begs another question: If the world is broken, and we’re born into
something broken, does God really expect us to live as though we had the
perfect creation like Adam did? Is God
so unreasonable He expects the impossible from us? After all, that’s what the IFB does! But God knows what He created, and what kind
of world we live in. He already sees us
as the perfect gem He created, and not what we can do for or give to Him. Therefore, nothing the world does can change
God’s view of how He created us, because He can see through dirt and filth!
So if God can see through the dirt and crap, why do we
refuse to? Jesus died to take away the
monster we see in the mirror. His death
gave us back our original value. He
purchased our guilt, shame, worthlessness and every other emotion we use to
look at ourselves negatively. The more
we allow Jesus to take with Him those things He paid for; we can begin to see
past the mask the IFB has forced us to wear.
Living in the dirt and muck the world created for us has put the ‘rough
around the gemstone’ but hasn’t destroyed the truth of what’s really
there. Our real challenge then becomes
to strip away the muck, and surround ourselves with people who will help the
true brilliance shine forth.
