Category: Repentance

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Marred Image of God

Recently, I saw a news report where some protestors marred a few expensive works of art in a museum. A once beautiful artistic work was marred, so it is with God’s original image of mankind, it has been marred by disobedience.

Do you realize we are all marred images? When I look in the mirror, that is not a concept I can argue about. A visit to Walmart will also verify that fact.

Mankind was originally made in the image of God according to Genesis 1:27 (NKJV), “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Of all the creatures of creation, we were the only ones created in the image of God.

I believe the image is more than an obvious outer appearance such as nose, ears, etc. We were created as spiritual beings with self-awareness, a capacity for moral judgment, and consciousness of divine existence (knowing that we are part of something beyond matter, energy, and time).

Man’s image became marred when the first couple ate the forbidden fruit opening their eyes to both evil and good. Then they had the capacity like God knowing the good from the evil. This put them in a dire position of knowing good from evil yet not having the inner power to always choose the good and refuse the evil.

We often speak of this marred image as our broken human nature. Every man born has a broken nature. There are many different forms and degrees of brokenness. Some are obvious and usually tolerated like an argumentative person. Others are cloaked and dangerous like a serial killer.

There is some form of brokenness residing in all of us. The image of God in us is marred—broken. We happily say, “No one is perfect!” It is true, yet, we say it happily to convince others not to judge us too harshly.

We should not get comfortable with our brokenness and wear a badge to prove it. We should not expect people to get comfortable with our brokenness. And most of all, we should not expect a wink and a nod from God concerning our brokenness. From time to time, someone will post on social media something like, “Don’t judge me, God doesn’t judge me.” Someone who thinks that God is not the ultimate judge, evidently has not read the description of the “Great White Throne Judgment” in Revelation 20:11-15!

Let me remind everyone, we all are broken in some way! I have certain unhealthy and/or sinful propensities, you have another kind. I do not expect or want anyone to affirm my brokenness. I will try to show mercy and grace and pray for you in yours.

“Brokenness” is a synonymous term describing sinfulness or the propensity for sin. The Bible describes besetting sins or “sin which so easily ensnares us” (Heb. 12:1 NKJV). It describes our weakness or fault point. The sin that easily ensnares us is another way of describing brokenness.

Again, we all struggle with something. Even though it may be an easy sin for us, it should not be an easy excuse for us. How many times have you heard someone say with a smirky attitude, “Well, that’s just the way I am, and people will just need to get used to it!” Really??

Or… “If you stay around them long enough, you will get to know them and get used to their ways.” Maybe most of us do not have that much time!!!

My brokenness is not an excuse for my conduct or lifestyle. It is not an excuse for my demand upon anyone to tolerate my brokenness, much less celebrate my brokenness. I should confess, repent of it, and ask Holy Spirit to empower the victory over my brokenness.

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV)

Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. (1 Peter 2:24 NKJV)

Do you know that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to die on a cross for our sins a.k.a. “our brokenness”? Why should we so casually glory in the sin that Jesus died for?

Yours on the Journey,

Harry L. Whitt

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The Value of Life

People are more than globs of carbon compounds organized by DNA. We, yes, you and I, were created and designed by God, in His own image. In the second chapter of the Bible, the declaration is made, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7 NKJV).

For all of you animal lovers, yes, treat your critters humanely, but they are not equal with us. Human beings are at the apex of the creature pyramid. Our eyes are on the front of our heads which makes us a predator. A five-hundred-pound black bear is much more likely to run from us than attack.

We are not gods, but we do have the spark of divinity in us. We were created in the image of God. Just as God exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, so he created us as a triune being with a spirit, soul, and body.

The main point to this: We were created in the image of God with a soul, and everyone is inherently spiritual. A person is a spiritual being regardless of their morals or religious leanings, people can be spiritually righteous or spiritually evil.

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Wake Up!

If you think long and hard about sleep, the whole concept is a little weird. Your conscious self goes somewhat dormant and oblivious to your surroundings for almost a third of the day. Yeah, just admit it, it is weird, but we have done it all our lives.

Most of us during periods of our lives went through a time when we were just sleep-walking through life. We were doing the same thing day in and day out in a semi-slumber mode. Then something dramatic happens and we are awakened to a new reality.

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Song of My Soul

Song of My Soul

How could I say that I have accepted Jesus, chose Yahweh to be my God, and Holy Spirit to fill me? As if I was shopping for a god and thought they were a great bargain.

No—the realization that He chose me. He came to me in my brokenness, revealing His completeness and perfection. At the time, I could not have articulated these words, but in retrospect I can see Him coming to me, instead of me going to Him.

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Chaos of the World

There is so much that seems to be out of control. Chaos abounds in the world at levels we have not seen in many decades. We have the first sniffs of possible nuclear war since the early sixties. Eggs cost about forty percent more than a year ago. There is a determined assault on families, the foundation of ordered society. Violence against the innocent and death by drugs have increased with only nominal attention from the media and little outrage from leaders.

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Yesterday’s Door is Shut!

Regret is a bad dream on a never-ending replay loop. I think most of us have some of those past events or choices of which we regret. “I wish I hadn’t done that!” or “I wish I would have made a better choice there!”

I know this is a rhetorical question, but I must ask it anyway, “Can we go back and change it?” Of course, the answer is an emphatic, “NO!” There is nothing we can do to change the decision or the action of the past. That door is shut and cannot be opened.

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Tag Along With Me to Jail

I have been involved in local jail ministry for the most part of thirty years. It is not glorious work. It is not scary as some might think. I have never felt threatened and most of the guys are usually respectable and appreciative.

The jail we visit is set up like a dormitory with bunks on two sides and tables in the middle. Lately, our jail ministry team has been alternating weeks and I have been going alone twice per month.

There is nothing fancy of what we do. No fanfare, no bells and whistles. Just an old buzzard of a preacher telling the story of Jesus to a bunch of jail birds.

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Where Do We Go From Here?

PRAY FOR THE FAMILIES OF UVALDE, TEXAS!

It is horrible thing when two neighbors have a quarrel, and one kills the other. It is so unthinkable when an evil person kills at random one or more who are innocent and vulnerable with whom he had no quarrel. It is unthinkable because normal, descent folks just cannot imagine why anyone would do such a thing—it is unthinkable.

There is the usual rush to put a “why” on the “what”. Most of us who have an ounce of compassion first think about those in our lives who approximate the same age as the victims, then a deep sick feeling wells up in our souls to the point we quickly change the channel in our mind to something less painful. We whisper a prayer for the hurting while our souls scream, “WHY?”

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