In His Image

Most of religion today is sin management.  ~Dallas Willard~

One time Jesus was approached by a group of Pharisees. They were trying to trap him to say something unlawful so they could build a case against him and have him arrested. Scripture picks up the story in Mark 12:14: They asked him, "Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay, or should we not pay?" But knowing their hypocrisy, Jesus said to them, "Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius to look at." (A denarius was a common Roman coin at that time.) "So they brought one. "Whose image and inscription is this?" he asked them. "Caesar's," they said. Then Jesus told them, "Render onto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." In other words, if Caesar's image is on the coin, then it belongs to Caesar. Jeane was talking to her friend, Linda, a couple days ago and Linda added some wonderful words to that simple parable. She pointed us back to Genesis when God was creating the world and all things in it. Gen. 1:27 says, "So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female." So how do you tell ownership of something? Apparently, you look at the image it bears. And, good people, we are stamped with the image of the Most High God. We were literally created in His image. It doesn't get any better than that. If you ever feel lost and wonder where you belong, just look in the mirror and say, "I am created in the image of God. His image is stamped on me and I belong to him. I am his - period." ...and Hallelujah to that! Greg