Made in His Image - Body, Soul, and Spirit

Good morning Ladies!

I hope you are all doing well on this beautiful day!


We have had a couple of weeks break and I am chomping at the bits to get back into our Bible study full swing. I hope you are also.


We have been looking at different issues we face with being human- basically struggling with our humanity while serving our Savior. Last time we looked at the word "trust". I haven't heard from all of you on that one, but I hope you have given it some thought and done the scripture search on it.


The next two weeks we are going to look a little more in depth at our tri-partite beings and the struggles we face. Before we go any further, it would really help to make sure you have completed the Bible study from October 1st, on looking at our sinful nature. Here is a link to that page to refresh your memory:

http://findingtreasureinjarsofclay.blogspot.com/2007/10/bible-study-our-sinful-nature.html


One of the greatest "revelations" for me in my Christian walk was when I gained an understanding of how God made me (all humans) and how to gain victory over my unChristlike desires. That is what we will be looking at this week.


How God Made Us

• Genesis tells us that we are made in His image. (Genesis 1:26) Notice it says, "Let US".


• Use your studylight.org reference tool and check out the word used for God in that verse.


• Now go to 1 Thessalonians 5:23. This is a classic verse that references HOW, we as humans, are made in God's image. We saw in Genesis 1 that the word "elohim" was the plural form of God, used when God is speaking of the fullness of the Godhead - the trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

This Bible study is so simple, yet can be so revolutionary to our thinking. I pray that you have an enlightening from the Holy Spirit on this subject. I know many of you have heard Pastor Rusty preach a sermon series on this, but I need to make sure we are all on the same page.
We are made in His image a tri-partite being- Body, Soul, and Spirit.

• Our body, through our senses (sight, touch, taste, hearing, smell), is world conscious.

• Our soul, through our thoughts, feelings, and will is self conscious.


• Our spirit is God conscious through our conscience and convictions.

The part that I want to bring together is the fact that we struggle with our "flesh" or the desires that our body has, but we control those desires through our soul - our will. We also struggle with our "flesh" through innate desires -and again we control those through our will.

Let's take a basic "sin" and look at it for a moment. Galatians 5:19 lists several. Drunkeness is one. Through the sense of taste the body "drinks" an alcoholic beverage and becomes drunk. If the person enjoys the taste and likes it and the "buzz", a "desire" is born. But the spirit of man, the conscious, says losing control is not good. Our soul man thinks about what his conscience is telling him, has an emotion about it (positive or negative) and makes a choice to drink again or not. It is our will that is in our soul that sets us apart. God has given us a free will to choose serving Him and His ways or not. We are in control of what we choose.

Now think about this for a moment- we are born with a carnal nature- a sinful nature. We don't teach our children to lie or disobey. They do those "sinful" things naturally. We have to teach them to tell the truth and to obey, etc. Those "sins" come from our fleshly desires.

Keeping all of this in mind, let's go to our next study passage: 1 John 2:15 - 17 and Genesis 3:1-19. Research the meanings of the original Greek and Hebrew using your studylight reference tool. (http://www.studylight.org/ - use the KJV with Strong's numbers, then click on the word(s) you need.)

Looking at the two texts listed, place the following phrases into the proper category below. (It is my natural tendency to just put it out here for you, but I want you to "dig" this out for yourself.)

Phrases from 1 John 2:
(NIV) "the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has
and does"
Phrases from Genesis 2:6:
(NIV) "saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom..."
1 John 2; Genesis 2
Body World Conscious

Soul Self Conscious

Spirit God Conscious

(If you are on my email list, I will send a word document with the chart in it. I think that may make a little more sense. I can't get the chart to post correctly in the blog.)

With this chart that you just made, any sin and any temptation can be placed into one of these categories. Is it a sin of base fleshly desires? Is it a sin of pride and arrogance? Or is it a sin against the knowledge of God, of rebellion?

Here are your life application questions: (You do not have to post your answers, but please make some kind of post when you are finished.)
1) List three areas in your life that you continually struggle with.
2) Under what part of your humanity do each of those struggles fall- body, soul, or spirit?
3) Do you feel that any of these struggles would be considered by God as a "love for the world"?
4) What does 1 John 2:17 mean to you?

For those of you who complete these studies easily and quickly, here are some challenge questions and a sneak preview into November 19th's study:

• Read Isaiah 53:4-7 Place those into our chart above.
• Find other 3s in the Bible that can be placed in our Body, Soul, and Spirit chart.

I pray that the Word of God will produce a 100 fold in your life as you study and seek His face.
I know this week is a different study, but I want you each to be able to draw the conclusions from God's Word yourself, rather than me telling you. The truths in this lesson are a great tool for you to gain victory over your flesh. I pray that as we complete the next couple of lessons, that all of this will make sense and come together for you as it has in my life.

Please feel free to email me personally if you have any questions at dorindablannwm@yahoo.com

Remember - you guys voted to have the Bible study every other week. On the off weeks, I will try to post something fun. Usually posts are made on Mondays or Tuesdays. (This week was a little late because I am getting old and have been quite under the weather.) POST POST POST!!! I want to hear from you! And if you have to post anonymously- don't forget to put your name so we will know who it is from.

Love you all!
Dorinda