It is necessary to take a small review here to set the scene for this next essay on worldview. Genesis one and two gives us the information of Emmanuel hand forming the first man by hand, then breathing into his nostrils the breath of God so man became dust and deity, the image of God. Then Emmanuel took a sliver of bone from Adam’s side and hand crafted the one we call Eve about that bone to stand at Adam’s side as his fully qualified help mate. The two were created in the image of God so we will refer to them as the Imago Dei. Now obviously they were not created in the physical image of God, but in the spiritual and intellectual image of The Triune. Man and woman have the creative ability of God in music, art, science, engineering, building, mechanical arts. The Imago Dei has the ability to create knowledge, retain knowledge, and pass on knowledge; they also have the ability of language, written, spoken and signed. The Imago Dei has the ability to love and to hate. There is more, but that will give you the “Cliff notes” of the original creation of the Imago Dei. It is important to note here that Adam and Eve were created mature, complete, and fully functional. All accomplished in a couple hours on the sixth 24-hour day of Genesis one and two.
Because the Imago Dei were created to work, the first assignment given to them was a work assignment.
Genesis 1:28, God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
In Chapter two he added:
Genesis 2:15, The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
The first assignment was “cleave to your wife and become one flesh” and have babies so as to increase in number. Great work assignment. Then take command over all creation, subdue and rule over all creation. The Imago Dei was to work the ground and care for his environment. The very best garden place will grow wild and unkempt if not properly cared for. Added to the work assignment was the only legal restrictions, you may not eat of the fruit on one tree in the garden upon the penalty of death; that was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
I want to dig a little deeper into the God and Imago Dei cooperation in the conceiving and birth of human babies. God is hands-on involved in the procreation of His human family.
Job 31:14, what will I do when God confronts me?
What will I answer when called to account?
15Did not he who made me in the womb make them?
Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?
Thus spoke Job of God’s involvement.
Psalm 139:13, For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
15My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
So wrote David.
Jeremiah 1:4, Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified you;
I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”
So wrote Jeremiah.
Ephesians 2:10, For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
So wrote the Apostle Paul.
With the understanding that God is involved with each one of our lives from long before conception, let me introduce you to the idea of the Grand Weaver.
God has a plan for each one of our lives. What we are called to do, where we are planned to live, and each of us are threads in a beautiful tapestry
I want to call forth another scripture to place you and I in that colorful tapestry.
God plans where we live.
Acts 17:26, From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.
So preached Paul to the educated on Mars Hill in Athens.
Let’s stop and put together what we have learned so far. We are God’s workmanship (Masterpieces). We are recreated and made all new in Christ Jesus our Lord. Long before we were born God had a job plan laid out for us. He was a partner with our mother and dad in the DNA design of our life to be. He puts the right genes from our mother’s ancestors and the right genes from our father’s ancestors to make a unique you/me, custom designed for the job He planned for us to do. From the womb he knew where we would go, who we would be and what we would do, and where we would live.
The Grand Designer sees the finished tapestry in his mind’s eye; we just see that we are a blue thread being woven back and forth. We can not see the beauty of the finished tapestry of the all-wise, all-powerful, all-knowing God that is weaving billions of threads at the same time.
In the 1960s I was working hand in hand with the Navajo and Apaches with the Navajo Christian churches. I got to know several rug weavers with their large rigs and looms in their yard beside their hogan.
The Shama never had a pattern or picture of the finished rug; it was all in their mind. Yet, when fished, the design was complete and the rug beautiful.
As the Grand Weaver, God has a problem. He is dealing with an Imago Dei that has freewill and a mind of his or her own. There are things that interrupt the plan of God and move him to the second string to keep the design going.
One of the most damning is abortion, the willful killing of babies in their mother’s womb while God is knitting them together and planning their life. Since Roe, 65,000,000 babies that God was assisting with have been burned in the mother’s womb or cut into pieces and extracted. All of this while the baby is feeling pain and terror. This crime against humanity has interrupted God’s plan 65 million times. With
Daniel and Nehemiah we need to fall to our knees to pray for forgiveness for our part in the sin of abortion. If you voted for anyone of the last four presidents before President Trump, or the one that ran against our president, or most any of the Democratic men/women in Congress, you aided the abortionists. Our guilt is nationwide. President Trump is the first to take a worldwide stand against abortion and financing the murder of babies.
Just two weeks ago at the G7 Economic meeting in Canada, President Trump stood strong against the Prime Minister of Canada that was seeking to make abortion a part of the economic plans. The liberals have met their match in President Trump. Abortion worldwide is genocide and a crime against humanity.
The next road block against the Grand Weaver is our human nature, freewill and normal bull-headedness.
When the Angel Gabriel talked to Mary and told her she had been selected to be the mother of God, she would be the virgin that took all the social flack for being pregnant before she was married. The angel gave her time to respond. And Mary did; she gave God permission to make her pregnant. God has plans for us and then woos us toward our selecting God’s way. Many times, friends and family get in our way of obedience. This happened to Melba and I when we were shutting down in Socorro, getting ready to go to Ozark Bible College. The city business men and women gave us a good-bye party. At that party the general manager of U.S. Carbon cornered me seeking to change my mind about being a bi-vocational minister. He said I was “too valuable to the business community… to be a preacher.” When we follow God’s call, Satan will seek to get involved.
Years later, I had a couple of teens in youth group that were winners. They were planning to graduate from high school and go to Bible college together, get married, and minister. His mother and daddy wanted their son to go into business and earn a decent wage for his family. God had a calling; mom and dad won out. God lost the first round, but the couple’s son is a good minister in Colorado today; God won the second round.
The third road block
The third road block to God is a new technology that is 10 to 20 years from being safely marketed. The successful part of the program is called CRISPR. In an article from MIT and Harvard entitled Engineering That Perfect Baby, Dr. Luhan Yang from China is describing technology that is outlawed in other major countries in the west but under past administrations has been legal in the USA and government financed here and in China. Basically it is re-engineering the DNA in the cells of the female egg and male sperm to remove genetic chronic diseases, creating healthier babies, and remove the sickness-causing genes from the human genome. This sounds great and the government-supported labs are full speed ahead. The secondary plan is to custom design babies with the color hair, eyes, IQ, size, et al; so for a few thousand dollars you can preplan your perfect child. This is getting involved in God’s work in the womb, and the admitted dangers of failure and miss-queued, changed DNA are great. A secular scientific and educational system gone astray could produce a giant soldier army of super heroes as in Genesis five and six. We live in a dangerous time, with more plans to get in God’s way of creation, the human force that He designed.
The first thing you need to know that no matter how small or large the project is that God has called you to, He will equip you, finance you, and direct you from beginning and through to the end. Your job is important to the Grand Weaver’s final tapestry.
Most often when we complete one project, God has another, larger project for us to do. God gets us ready for the next project by completing the current one. When we cooperate with God, the Grand Weaver, we become full-time partners.
I want to again be clear: there are no small or large jobs for God. Each is totally important to the Grand Weaver; each is a graphic part of the final design. Each thread enhances the beauty of the tapestry. God sees the smallest church that may be assigned to re-establishing fallen saints as important as a mega church with a multimillion dollar budget.
The Grand Weaver is a fair and kind master; He wants to share the glory. In 1 Corinthians 3:10ff we are told our works will be tested by fire, and we will be rewarded, for those that do not burn up. This is called the Bema judgment. God not only makes us lifetime partners, He gives us eternal rewards.
God created us for fellowship and a lifetime of working together. I can think of little that would be worse than having been given a job by God and having done so poorly a job that it burns like hay or stubble in the Bema judgment. Thus, our goal is never perfection; it is excellence to the best of our ability.
How do I get an assignment from God? Just go to work for God wherever you are, and God will move you into your next project. God knows what He is doing.
The Apostle Paul who got the heavy load of assignments during his lifetime ended with these words:
2 Timothy 4:6, For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. 7I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.