THE BLESSING OF THE LORD !

THE BLESSING OF THE LORD ! FROM DIRT TO DIVINITY: On the six-day Of Creation, everything was ready. The heavens and earth were complete and all the preliminaries finished, so God went to work on the first member of His family. He prepared to create a man. Many people think that the body that God formed from the dust of the earth is the man; but that is the furthest thing from the truth. The man that God formed in the body as God blew the breath into the clay or the body it became a living spirit. The Scripture says a living soul. The first thing He did was form a body "of the dust of the ground." Sometimes, people say God created man from dirt. But that's incorrect. God fashioned the man's body from the dust--- not the man himself. Once the body was formed, God created the man the same way He'd created everything else: God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth up on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them (Genesis 1:26-27). Here again, the English strand is weaker than the Hebrew text. It almost gives us the sense that God was just making plans aloud, that He was saying, "I have an idea. Let's make a man in our image." But in reality, God didn't create anything that way. He didn't make anything on a whim just to see how it would turn out. He had everything planned to the minutest detail before He started. When God made the planets and stars, He did it according to the blueprint already formed within Him. When He formed the sea creatures, the birds and the animals, He made each one according to the pattern He'd designed beforehand. When He created man, He did it the same way----with one astounding difference. Instead of making man from an original design, God used Himself as the pattern .(See verses 26--27). When God created man, he actually copied Himself. He didn't decide to do that at the last minute. Either. He has made the decision to create mankind in His image before the foundation of the world. The Bible says that God even had the plan of redemption mapped out and accomplished in His own mind back then. It says that we, as believers:. . . Were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested in these last times for you (1 Peter 1:18--20). Mankind is a Death or Life speaking spirit ! (Proverbs 18:21). What a planner ! Long before God said, "Let us make man in our image, and in our likeness," He had already created in His heart and mind every human being who would ever be born. He had already foreseen the fact that the devil (Lucifer) would tempt Adam and they would sin. Before the universe began, God has settled it in His own heart that He would restore all that would be shattered through their rebellion. He and Jesus had already agreed that Jesus would go to the cross and paid the price for the redemption of their family. God also knew, way back then, all who would one day receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. However, everyone will not simply obeyed the voice of God. He saw us in His heart before we ever existed and chose us "before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in Love" (Ephesians 1:4). As a result, from before "the beginning" God has seen every born again believer has made perfectly in His image and likeness. . . And He still sees us that way today. He never accepted that Old, sinful image of us that the devil conjured up. However, many people do not see themselves the way God sees them. They'll say "I'm just a sinner saved by grace" He never saw ours as old dirty dog sinners.