Just reading a book by John Bevere called EXTRAORDINARY. It has certainly been a journey and an eye-opening one at that.
In His book John maintains that we as humans have three images our “projected’ image, our “perceived” image and of course our “actual” image.
Must admit I took a bit of a gulp when I read that because his words hit their mark with me straight away. – I would just like to share some of the things he wrote and my own thoughts on this vital message of how God really ‘sees’ us.
John goes on further to say that your ‘perceived’ image is how others see you – your ‘projected’ image is how you desire others to see and your ‘actual’ image is who you really are.
This really got me thinking – how often do we live in a world of ‘projected’ images – living to please others – going to and behaving in a manner that suits the occasion – like going to church and putting on your ‘spiritual’ face, talking in the ‘spiritual’ way with all the ‘spiritual’ cliche’s.
If you were raised in Sunday School like I was – you know all the ‘right’ things to say to rise to almost any situation you are put into when it comes to holding your own in a ‘religious’ sort of way. You can carry on a discussion in a Bible study or lead a group, pray in church and do copious amounts of Bible reading with the best of them. BUT…
Where does that actually leave you in the “actual image’ department?
Take Jesus for example (and you couldn’t get a better one) – His ‘perceived’ image was atrocious – He was slandered, mocked, abused, labelled as a blasphemer and even accused of being demon possessed. He had hardly any friends and those who were, abandoned him quick enough. BUT His ‘actual’ image was altogether different.
In Hebrews we are told that He is the express image of the Father. So while humans saw their ‘perceived’ image of Jesus – God saw His “actual” image. And the “actual” image of us – it what God sees too!
Our “perceived” image does not mean a thing to God – we can look as good as we can and go to all the right places. We can meet all the right people and say all the right things but God sees who we really are.
Jesus was the same with the people He met on a daily basis as He was the Father – can we say that??? Would God be welcome to share every thought we have and every conversation?
Maybe you can see now why I took that BIG gulp after reading just a few pages of John’s book.
Jesus didn’t try to boost his reputation – he didn’t try to get the accolades and win applause by the crowds – he actually hid himself away on many occasions. He wasn’t interested in the approval of mankind.
Jesus only cared about what was important to the Father God – and we should imitate Jesus in that way.
Faith in God is believing His Word over anything you may see, hear or experience. Married to SueAnn and living in Newcastle NSW Australia – We both love Jesus – he is our strength, our Hope and our Redeemer.
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This was very eye opening for me too. I am still of course growing in my faith, however there are a couple of things that I say and I do differently than other Christians. For one I tell people that I have no religion I am simply a follower of Jesus Christ. This gets me some odd looks but then I tell the second thing that religion is a man made thing that follows man made rules and because over time some people didn’t agree with all the rules (man made) that was put forth so they broke away and that is pretty much all these denominations came about and all they do is keep people fighting over all these stupid man made rules and thinking they are the only way to the Lord and Heaven and nothing could be further from the truth. To me this how the devil has slowly found his way into the church and causing enough strife that sooner or later this will cause churches that don’t preach God’s word and concentrate on God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit will fall because a house divided cannot stand. I hope you don’t mind if I reblog this and share it on Facebook.
Reblogged this on The Rough Christian and commented:
This something all Christian old and new should read.
I would love to re-blog this on my Cyber Support Group blog if you don’t mind. Seeing ourselves through God’s eyes makes all the difference. Thanks for sharing.
Reblogged this on Sue's pen2paperblog and commented:
This is such an important message and such truth that I’ve re-blogged it and hopefully the followers of http://www.cubersupportgroup.org will read it as well. How God sees us is what is much more important than how we see ourselves or how others see us.