Brave Women run in my Family; Eve: Image-Bearer 10/4/2014

Sisterhood 10/4/2014 Bobbie. Houston

Eve - Image - Bearer

Within the pages of the bible we find many women, named and unnamed (the unnamed includes us all) whose lives left an imprint on our history. e.g. Mrs Noah doesn't have a name, but consider the impact of her life as Noah's wife.

An imprint = produce a mark or pattern by pressure.  We are delusional to think that there won't be pressure on our lives; it's through pressure that the potter (God) can mold our lives. A lump of coal becomes a diamond only under pressure.

Eve is our perfect and first example of value and identity.  Eve was fashioned to complete Gods creation.  Imago Dei (Latin) = made in the image of God; and we are imbedded with Gods own likeness at the very core of our being. We are 'imbued' with His image; we are divinely created daughter's, worthy of value.

The Sisterhood therefore exists to champion and protect every daughter.  Eve, the perfect and first woman was marred by the lie of the fall, but still redeemed by His grace. God didn't cancel His promise with humanity with the first bend (sin entering with the fall) in the road.

At Genesis 1 verse 27 man enters the frame.  So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27 NIV)

'Image' (in Hebrew) is Tzelem = representation in physical form but not necessarily physical resemblance.

Consider the scope and magnitude of the fact that no-one in history has ever looked the same or has the same finger prints.

Gen 1:28 we (women) are positioned with men, right from the beginning, not beneath or secondary.

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. (Genesis 2:1 NIV). VAST ARRAY; both the physical and unseen likeness of God.

Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7 NIV)

The mere breath of God within us means that we live for eternity; forever to exist. We are part of reality for eternity.  

Consider: What happens to us in the afterlife? This is the great commission, the reason for our existence; to be advocates and voices of Gospel of Truth.  The Word must come alive in our hearts, allowing us to clearly hear the spirit of God, and engage the truth of God into the lives of others.

Gen 3:1-19 = the fall and the consequences thereof. The fall wasn't about the fact that they ate a simple piece of fruit, it was about obedience to God; protecting them from what they didn't need to know (from the tree of knowledge). God gave them everything to enjoy, with only ONE exception (the tree of knowledge). He is a holy God & His judgments are pure and just.

Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. (Genesis 3:20 NIV)

Adam named his wife after the fall and all of the consequences associated with that. Adam named her 'the mother of all the living'.

Eve didn't arrive in the garden needing to be brave, as she had everything that God provided, but after 'the fall' she had to learn to be brave, due to the consequences of the fall. Eve was created into the most perfect environment, but she had to learn to be brave, in the same way we need to learn to be brave due to our environment and as a result of our own consequences.

Eve - in the Hot Seat (Bobbie pretends to interview Eve)

Question: What was it like to open your eyes and be alive? From what we understand in the bible Eve didn't have a childhood, she was a fashioned woman (from Adam's rib). 

When God breathed life into Eve, she was 'face to face' with the creator.

Question: What were your thoughts as you beheld the creator and His creation for the first time? Consider perhaps the visual stimulus = stunning, or the sensual (senses) feast of creation.

Question: Did God say anything as He took you to meet Adam?  Did Adam get emotional as he saw you for the first time. [Bobbie makes reference to the 'Colour Opener,' and the visual representation of Gomer (wife of Hosea) returning to Hosea after running away, and his unconditional love for her, and acceptance, and likens this to the love shown by Adam to Eve.]

Question: How did you feel when it dawned on you that you were the crowning, finishing touch of creation? Eve was living in the glass house, and naked to boot!

Bobbie then asks us to consider the fact that we are created in His image and likeness.  As we walk the journey of our life we are continually learning and growing in that fact. 

Question: Did God spend time explaining the fact that we are in His image, or was that fact obvious in beholding God? 

Bobbie then encouraged us to consider: If we beheld Him more would 'in His likeness and image' become more obvious? 

In the cool of the day they saw God walking in the garden. Is that when they conversed and spent time with God?

Question: What went enough your head and heart when you realised you had violated the one (only) commandment?

People may be under the misunderstanding that it was only Eve that caused the fall, but they fell together.  From our standpoint it would be so easy to deem them a failure, but they were human.

Sometimes you don't know what you have until you lose it. They walked with God, we now have the Word to restore us.  In many ways we have no excuse as the Word is available for us to learn from the lives of those contained therein. 

Gen 3:20; Eve is the mother of all living. Eve was called the mother of all the living, and so she needed to move on from the fall.  She took a deep breath and pressed on regardless, and became the woman she was.

Eve = Life giver, life spring. Eve changed a desolate place (as a consequence of the fall the landscape of the environment changed, both flora and fauna) into a place of life. She had to be brave. We are called to bring more resource and be a well of salvation within the desolate places.

She pressed on to reestablish her relationship with God. Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” (Genesis 4:1 NIV) 'With the help of The Lord' suggests a restored relationship with God.

Adam made love to his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.” Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord. (Genesis 4:25, 26 NIV)

In the midst of those circumstances she maintained her relationship with God, resulting in the people calling on the name of the Lord.

1) Remember Gods' intent.  God loves us uniquely. We have His infinite likeness, His image, within us, which makes us beautiful. We have an outer and inner substance. What uniqueness can I bring to the body of Christ. There is a measure of His image and likeness within each of us, that is meant to serve His body. As we abide in Him, and become more in line with His likeness we can delve into the our 'treasure chest' to serve the Body.

The fall may have disrupted Gods intention, but Christ restored - Eden revisited and more.

God loved Adam & Eve so much that even after the fall He took care of them, by sewing skins and clothes for His children. God had always purposed that humanities redemption would come from His seed.

2) The enemies intent still remains. The thief at the end in Revelation is no longer a snake but is a beast. 

3) Remember redemption's intent through Christ and His word.

The bible is a mirror of God. Abiding in His word is a redemptive process; we are in the process of being changed, as we become more like what we behold (God). 

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV) AMP version. Every time we open His word we are changed by one degree of glory to another.

In a way, we are masters of our own destiny when it comes to reading the word. We can remain the same or choose to be transformed by it daily.