Author: Megan Langan

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 139:13-16 (day four)

Psalm 139 reveals several things to us. The four verses we’re focusing on this week reveal that God knows us intimately and cares for us even before we’re born. It reveals that not only is he near to us from the moment of conception, but that he is actually engaged in the work of forming us, gently creating us in our mother’s womb. This is miraculous in and of itself.

But when we read these verses in the context of the entire psalm, we see that God’s intimate knowledge of us is made even more amazing by his omniscience and omnipresence. In verse 7, David asks, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?” He goes on to proclaim that there is not one inch of heaven or earth that lies outside of God’s presence. There is not a soul whom God does not know intimately. The God of the universe is so kind that he makes himself present to us before we even have a conscious thought. He chooses to know us before we can utter a word of praise.

Because God makes himself present to us even in the womb, because he forms us with love and creates us in his image, he imbues our lives with dignity. Our lives have dignity from the moment of conception because God chooses to impart divine dignity to us. How, then, should this impact the way we treat others? How might we acknowledge the divine dignity in those around us, even those we would consider our enemy? He is as present to us now as he was from the start.

Re:Verse passage – John 9: 1-3 (day four)

Knowing how to engage with someone who is different from you is challenging – this was true in ancient Israel and it remains true today. When we see someone who is different from us, especially in a way that is physical or obvious to our eyes, we might find ourselves feeling uncomfortable or not knowing how to respond. In our own way, we may even search for reasons to “explain away” that person’s difference, just like the disciples.

But this man’s difference couldn’t be explained through the disciples’ way of thinking or cultural assumptions. It could only be rightly understood in the light of Jesus, the light by which see things clearly, as God made them to be. God created this man to live a life that spoke of God’s glory and miraculous nature. Later in the story, we read God used this man’s physical blindness to shed light on the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees.

Those who are different from us uniquely and equally reflect God’s glory. When we engage with difference through worldly eyes, we become fearful, distrustful, and search for blame. When we engage with difference through the eyes of Christ, a new part of the Kingdom is unveiled to us.

Re:Verse passage – 1 John 4:19–21 (day four)

“God is love” is a phrase that gets a variety of responses from people. I’ve heard many respond to this sentence with “yes, but…”

In an attempt to make sure our view of God doesn’t devolve into a mushy Valentine’s Day-like sentiment, we want to say, “Yes, God is love, but he is also holy, just, judge, king.” Fill in your word of choice. But when we do this, I think it reveals that we’re using the wrong definition of love. We’re using an earthly definition of love to try to understand something that’s divine. It’s only natural for us to try to use earthly frameworks to define heavenly concepts, but our earthly view of love is limited.

What if instead, when we hear the phrase “God is love,” we consider that phrase in a new framework, “Whatever God is – that’s what love is.” Now, love isn’t just a nice sentiment or or a particular emotion. It’s certainly not fluffy or shallow. Now, love is defined by all that God is – just, holy, merciful, sacrificial, fierce, powerful. This list goes on. How might this change the way we think about loving our neighbor?

Re:Verse passage – Jeremiah 29:10–14 (day four)

There are some who believe God to be like a watchmaker – he sets the “watch” or the world in motion, and then walks away. No longer intimately involved in the world or in our lives, he simply allows time to tick on. Then there are some who think of God more like a character in Greek mythology – constantly meddling in human affairs for their own gain and getting caught up in earthly drama, punishing his people when he has a bad day. Passages like this remind us that neither of these theories are true.

Our God’s character is unlike any other. Only Yahweh is both holy and loving, omniscient and intimate, just and merciful. Only he can stand as Lord of Lords and creator of all the earth while also speaking kindly to the specific circumstances of his people. Only he can exist in perfect holiness while turning his face to sinful people, offering hope and restoration and wanting to be found by them.

Our God is intimate enough to set hopeful plans for us, and he is powerful enough to see them to completion.

Re:Verse passage – John 10:10 (day four)

Jesus gives this invitation into abundant life in the middle of a parable. In this parable, he identifies himself as the Good Shepherd. He is the only shepherd who knows his sheep by name, the only one who goes looking for the sheep that is lost, the only one who will lay his life down for the sheep. Only through him can the sheep go out and find pasture. When he uses this language to describe himself, he not only shows how intimately he loves his people, but he also reveals his divine nature.

When Jesus calls himself the Shepherd who offers abundant life, he identifies himself with God the Father. In Genesis, Jacob states that Yahweh is his lifelong shepherd. David calls God his shepherd in Psalm 23. In Ezekiel 34 God proclaims himself to be Israel’s shepherd. Jesus’ words in John 10 reveal his identity as the Son of God, the flesh-and-bone shepherd of the people of God.

So, in the context of God the Shepherd, what does abundant life look like? It looks like living without fear of thieves and wolves, it looks like fresh green pastures and peaceful quiet waters, it looks like restoration and righteousness, perpetual goodness and lovingkindness. Abundance of joy, abundance of peace, abundance of love. Sounds a lot like Revelation 21-22, doesn’t it?

Re:Verse passage – Genesis 1:26–27 (day four)

We often feel a sense of reverence for creation. When we’re standing on the beach watching the ocean roll. When we’re looking up at a starry night sky. When we hike to a marvelous view on a hilltop. We have reverence for it because we know God created it. Every grain of sand and every unknown creature in the depths of the ocean – God created them. It’s right that we would view them with reverence.

Humans, though, were created in a unique way. All of creation brings God glory, but humans were created in God’s image. We uniquely reflect God’s glory unlike anything else in creation.

Yet, we don’t always have that same sense of reverence for ourselves that we do for the rest of creation. There might be moments, when we witness humanity at its best, that we feel a sense of awe for one another. But we’re often deeply unkind to ourselves. We treat our bodies poorly. We let unholy things enter our mind. We starve our spirit from sustenance. We easily treat ourselves irreverently. And we are guilty of treating others the same way.

The more we understand the Imago Dei, the more we will live with reverence for ourselves and those around us. What would change if we lived this way?

Re:Verse passage – John 14:6 (day four)

As we consider what it means to be made in the image of God, it’s right that we first understand the God in whose image we’re made. We begin this study by going back to the beginning – but not to Genesis. We’re going to the beginning described in John 1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Christ the Son is God’s gift to us, co-eternal with the Father, he is God made manifest in human form that we might know God – his substance, his character, and his love.

In Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15, Paul paints a picture of Christ as the true and better Adam. Through Adam came death, but through Christ, the true and better Adam, the firstborn of all creation, came the resurrection of the dead. In him we see the fulfillment of God’s perfect plan. In Christ we see the truest human to ever live.

Because of Christ, 2 Corinthians 3:18 is our reality, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”

May Christ, the true and better Adam, transform you into his likeness. Glory to glory.