The Lord has really been teaching me a lot about His character, His personality and His heart through the actions and emotions that Jesus displayed. It got me to thinking about ourselves. Mankind is the only creation formed by the hand of God, the other creatures were just commanded to come forth out of the ocean or out of the dirt through the Word of God. We are created in His image, kind of like a man would create an "idol" out of the image of a cat, cow, eagle, etc... It looks the same, but it is smaller. God created man is His image, no wonder He commanded us not to defame this wonderful act and create a graven image after the likeness of anything He created and bow down to it. This was a sacred thing, and nothing else deserved replication other than Himself! I do believe that Adam, when clothed in the glory of God looked much different than humans do now. How else would you "know" that you were naked? What if you were clothed in beaming light and everything about you reflected the beaming, beautiful, colorful glory of GOD and then all of the sudden you were the most plain jane looking creature on earth?

Looking through my Pinterest folder of God's creatures it really draws my attention to our plainness in the flesh. Man is the glory of God, woman is the glory of man. Have you ever looked at a Cardinal and wondered why the male bird was always colorful and beautiful and the female was dull and almost colorless? I think that it is because Man is the glory of God and woman was created in the similitude of MAN! Kind of like the sun vs. the moon. One is brilliant and no one can look into it's light, and the other is dull and only a reflection of the greater light. Anyway, look through this folder again... gaze upon the beauty, the array of COLOR! I always think about Heaven as being a place of white light, nothing else. I have always thought that we will all be caucasian, sitting on cotton clouds, floating in fog, singing like Angels with golden locks and creamy complexions while they are robed in white, boring tunics. When I re-read the descriptions of the Glory of God, that is the farthest thing from the truth! He is CIRCLED BY A RAINBOW! Imagine a subtle rainbow, now imagine a crystal and how when the light shines through it it creates a rainbow against the wall depending on where it refracts the light... now think about the glory of God CIRCLED by this rainbow... can you imagine the entire throne room of God is BURSTING with color? Every color! Now think of the New Jerusalem, it has twelve foundations and they are each a different crystal. I looked all of these up one day and they are ALL different  colors. Now when you put the Lamb of God, who will be the LIGHT day and night INSIDE the City, can you imagine that the whole new heaven and new earth will be lit up by BRILLIANT COLOR??

I love in Matthew 6 how Jesus compares us to the lilies of the field, how they are so beautiful (they are colorful and very detailed) and how God will clothe us because we are more important than they? Or the birds of the air (I tend to think of blackbirds, boring, until I saw some of these incredible birds of paradise) and how we are more important then them! God cares about us more! I love how He showed two different stunning and unique creations.

If you stood me next to Josh and I didn't have any makeup on, you would definitely see that Josh is the more attractive human. I think that this happens in most cases with men and women. Without the makeup, hairstyles, shaved legs, fancy clothes, tans, etc... women are just like the female birds. Women try so hard to outshine the men and use their beauty to bring the men under their authority. Think about it, lust is the only way that women can harness a man. Think about Samson and Delilah. This is why we need to be cautious to not try and seduce men by our appearance and our bodies, because it is wrong!! I am so guilty of this, but remember it is a heart issue. I used to put on outfit after outfit just trying to find the one that would make my body look the "hottest". This was sin. Yet, if you wear something that isn't immodest and a man still lusts after you, then it is not your fault, but theirs. God knows the thoughts and intents of the heart, and so do you! YOU are the only one who can know what your heart is thinking while doing something, so pay attention to your heart and deny it any action that is not rooted in love and godliness.

Ok, I'm off track, so anyway... I think that when we are clothed with our "new" bodies after the resurrection that we will be the most incredible looking creation ever! We are so dull, bodies made from dirt, eyes the color of the ocean, hair that comes only in about 4 shades. Think about things like jaguars, elephants, birds of paradise, fish of the sea... all of these things have incredible detail, color, pattern, etc... Do you not think that man will be the most magnificent looking creation of all when clothed with the GLORY OF GOD? I think so!

Ok, way, way off task. I wanted to talk about the things that are built into us since we are the image of God. God has a personality. He can be provoked the jealousy, He can be angry, He can be merciful, He is full of love, He is JUST and righteous. Ok, now remember, we are created in HIS Image. If this is true, then all of our emotions are also like His.

It is when we have these emotions, but don't act with them in righteousness that it is hypocrisy.

Think about it. When you had a boyfriend or girlfriend when you were little and they started flirting with another person, what arose in you? Severe jealousy. Have you ever thought that God allowed us to continue in His emotions so that we could understand Him and His ways more? God is also a jealous God and we feel the same thing that He does towards His people who go after their own glory, or glory of other gods BECAUSE we are made in His image. This is in us, BECAUSE we are made in His image. It was His emotion first, He just instilled it into us also. We feel that burning rage and desire for justice on behalf of your boyfriend "breaking covenant" or cheating on you. This is how God feels also.

When have you felt ANGRY when someone wronged you on purpose? Have you ever read the verse that says "be angry, but do not sin"? You would think that anger was bad and that He should have rather written "do not be angry". We can't refrain from anger, because it is an attribute of God's personality that we have BECAUSE we are in His image. Now with the anger, we are not perfect as God is, and we are far from being slow to anger and so Satan tempts us in our anger to hurt people with our words or with our actions. We can be angry (righteous anger, not angry because we are not patient) as long as we do not sin.

Have you ever thought of justice? When you saw that Tiger Woods had multiple affairs on his beautiful wife then you wanted him to burn, repent in utter humiliation or suffer greatly for his wrongdoing. This is because we are created in God's image! He is the same way! When the children of Israel made a golden calf and worshipped it right after they made covenant with God not to, He wanted to blot them out of His book. He wanted to destroy them and bring forth His promise through Moses and his children. Moses (a type of Christ) said NO! You would have to blot ME out of your book also if you did this. Do not do it! It was because of Moses' petition that God's anger was appeased. God saw goodness and mercy in Moses, which are also attributes from God, and He did not destroy them. Back to Tiger, everyone HATED him during all of that media frezy, he was now the scum of the earth because he did what was wrong. It is wrong and it is seated in our innermost parts... because this is how God created us... in His image and likeness.

So this is where the hypocrisy comes in. We are angry and feel justified at condemning Tiger Woods, yet we in our hearts are led to commit adultery through lust, and justify ourselves in doing it because we are blinded by the sin. We are blinded by Satan and tainted so that we can't be made complete and be conformed BACK into God's image through the life of Christ. This is why hypocrisy is so terrible, because we have the attributes of God at our disposal and we still feel the anger, jealousy, mercy, love, etc... and we exercise all of these against other people, but we ourselves are condemned by the same thing we say to another. This is why Jesus told us not to judge, because we will be judged by the SAME judgement.

It brings me to another attribute... mercy. When I was chosen as 1 of 12 jurors in Texas against a sex offender I went in angry and I was determined to put this terrible person behind bars. When we had to deliberate though, seeing him sit there in sadness and worried about his future in prison (his deed wasn't what you would think with a normal sex offender). Anyway, we all wanted to show him mercy, but he only allowed us to say if he was guilty or not, not determine his sentence. We had to agree that he failed to register as a sex offender and when we read the verdict he broke down in tears. We left feeling extreme mercy and compassion on this man and we wanted to make it go away. I never found out if he got off easy or had to go to jail, but we all would have set him free. This is the attribute of God when WE have a broken and repentant heart over our wrongdoing... mercy.

So next time you feel an emotion, remember not to be a hypocrite as Satan will tempt you to be, but be conformed back into Christ's image and you will gain more and more understanding about WHO God is and WHO He wants us to become!

So do what Jesus said to do: LOVE! BE merciful, don't judge (because that same judgment will judge you!), forgive 7 x70 times when your brother repents, have compassion, help those in need and you will be walking IN CHRIST! BE conformed to HIS IMAGE and His personality, use the attributes that God has given you as Christ would, not as Satan would. This is all summed up in two words: love and humility.

So knowing ourselves helps us understand how the same God can be just, merciful, compassionate, jealous and angry all at once, because we are the same way. We are aroused to these different emotions based on different circumstances. We ourselves will be shown the love of God if we walk as Christ walked, in love and compassion.

1 Peter 5:5

Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.

2 Corinthians 5:2

For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:

Matthew 17:2

²And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.

Revelation 1:10-17  when John saw Jesus in the Glory of God

¹⁰I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

¹¹Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

¹²And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;

¹³And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.

¹⁴His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;

¹⁵And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

¹⁶And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

¹⁷And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:

Revelation 4:3

³And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.

Exodus 34:14

For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

1 John 4:8

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.