Let's begin at the beginning. Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth". Now we'll drop down to verse 26. "And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness" -- "So God created man in his own image."

We are not made in God's physical image as he is not flesh and bones. But within our physical beings we have a soul, the spiritual aspect that is created in God's image. John 4:24 "God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." Luke 24:39 "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is myself: handle me, and see: for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have."

Our physical bodies are temporary but our spiritual bodies are eternal.

There's something else that we learn from the versus in Genesis that I'd like to consider today. In verse 26, it says "Let us make man in our image". God said "our image", not 'my image'. Who else was God referring to?

John 1:1-4 "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father.)" The scripture is speaking of Jesus here. He was with God in the very beginning. In fat, he was God. In verse 3 the Bible says, "all things were made by him: and without him was not anything made that was made." In verse 10, "He was in the world, and the world was made by him." And then in verse 12 we read, "As many as receive him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God."

What a beautiful plan for us! God sent a part of himself... the only begotten son... Jesus... to live on earth and become the one and only sacrifice, providing for us a way of redemption from our sins. Can you imagine assigning yourself to torture and one of the most gruesome deaths known? That God would do this very thing shows the tremendous love on his part for us.

As a teenager, I questioned the validity of Christianity. Was it just my parents' belief, or was it for real?

Two things convinced me of its reality.
      1. Jesus was written about in my 8th grade history book as a great prophet.
      2. Prophecies in the Old Testament and their fulfillment through Jesus' life and death in the New Testament, and his own prophecies of his resurrection.

Consider Isaiah 53:3-12. These words were written 700 years before Christ was born; they are filled with prophecies concerning Jesus. (This passage has shown the messiahship of Jesus to many modern day Jews.) Verse 3: Jesus knew he would be despised and rejected of men. Verse 5: Jesus knew that he would be wounded for our transgressions; he knew he would be bruised. (Enough stripes were laid upon his back that he could have died from the flogging alone.) Verse 6: We were the ones who went astray, and as he died on that cross all our iniquity and the sins of our ancestors and those yet to come were laid on him. Verse 7: He was the lamb led to the slaughter. Yet he didn't open his mouth in his own defense or complain, even though he knew his own life would be cut off. Verse 9: He died between two criminals who hung on crosses on either side of him, and he was laid in a rich man's tomb. Verse 10: He was made an offering for our sins. Verse 11: Since he bore our sins on the cross, we can be justified before God through him.

Over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament were fulfilled through Jesus.

Christianity is the only religion that worships a living God!
Praise the Lord; We serve a risen Savior!!