The illusion of Image 1 John Chapter 1 8-8-21
Culture puts premium emphasis on beauty, strength, personality, money and power. It states that if you do not have these attributes, you are less than, inferior, faulty, imperfect. The attention is placed on the outward appearance of an individual. Instead of what really matters, what is on the inside, like character, love, integrity. Hollywood and social media put complete value in one thing the outward appearance….Image! The Image is an illusion. It is a lie. Image causes us to pretend to be something we are not! People put a lot of energy into image development but not so much not moral integrity kindness or love. 1 Samuel 16:7 Man look on the outside God looks on the heart. The fruit of the Spirit is Gods inner beauty, and inner beauty is hard to develop. Fruit must be grown over long period of time. 1 John 1:5-10 Lets talk about connection, fellowship, true intimacy in communication. How do you connect with someone else to have lasting, real, authentic relationships? The answer is in 1 John and what it teaches about friendship and fellowship to ease loneliness.God created us in a world of people for a reason. We are created for relationship with other. We are created to connect with others. Trauma, abuse and sin cause divisions and disconnections. It gets to where people don’t even what to be around other people, they choose to isolate themselves. Jesus can bring healing to your life and relationships. The principles is in 1 John 1:7 If we walk in the light we have (connection) fellowship with each other. Remember in relationship with others, light reveals and darkness hides. If you hide yourself from others, you will never reveal your true self. Light reveals, if you reveal things from your heart you will connect with others. If you don’t reveal yourself, they will never know you. The greatest joy in life is if someone sees your true self the good, bad and ugly and still loves you! They really know you and STILL love you. That is real love and connection. Darkness hides, if you never reveal yourself, you will always be in darkness. (Lonely) The answer to loneliness is to take little steps of faith to reveal small part of yourself to build confidence. The word Intimacy means: See Into Me! Light reveals Darkness hides.
The story of the broken pastor. I once knew a pastor from in Iowa that was like no other I have met. Every other pastor I have ever meet was whole, perfectly healed by Jesus and had almost zero faults. They never shared any struggles because they had none. They only knew complete victory in Jesus in all areas of their life. They had studied and developed knowledge of the word of God and applied it to their life. So that took care of all their person complications. They preached how you could be that way too. If you only believed hard enough.
Then I met the broken pastor. He introduced himself as a broken pastor. You see he was not perfect the other pastors. He had struggles with mental health issues, depression and anxiety disorders, which manifested in panic attacks from time to time. He told me that this problem and struggle made him a better pastor. He had to trust God more. He hurt with depression and anxiety that made him sometimes stay in bed all day. He wasn’t perfect like most pastors. He felt ok that he wasn’t perfect. He thought God was ok with him not being a perfect pastor and that Jesus loved him anyway. He shared with no shame about his mental health issues to others and that brought them comfort. They would realize that they were human and could struggle in their life and still be a committed Christian. It gave them hope they were ok and helped them trust Jesus. The broken pastor realized his limitations. God used him to reach many people who were hurting. I think it is ok to be a broken Pastor. What do you think? James 5:16 Confess your faults to one another. 1 Peter 1:12 Don’t think it strange with the difficult trial in you life. 1 Peter 1:7 Your trials in life are more precious than gold. Psalms 34 :19 Many are the troubles of the Christian but God delivers them out of them all.
