UNDERSTANDING MAN

Where did I come from? What is my purpose in life? It seems that just every so often I am compelled to ponder the "whys" and "wherefores" of my very being. Are you that way too? I'm thinking that our life upon earth would be aimless, and as it were, a wondering from pillar to post, if man didn't have an understanding of his role in the great scheme of things.

If there is one thing I'm certain about concerning my being upon this earth, it is that I was designed and created by a higher power. We are much too intricate and flawlessly designed to have just evolved by chance. Our habitat, the earth, is so harmonious with our physical needs it would be impossible for all this just to have happened or evolved into what it is.

Sure, man was created the same day that the beasts were created, because his body was made of the same earth with theirs. And sure, while man inhabits the same earth with animals, he is yet a higher form of creation. There is one great difference in man and beasts; man was created in the image of God, (Genesis 1:26). What that means is that there is more to man than just what meets the eye, if you understand what I'm saying.

Since God is a Spirit and we are created after his image, I conclude that we have a spirit also. Also, since God is eternal, our spirits are eternal. Spirits never die.

The body, which we can see, is the house or the tabernacle for the spirit of man, which is the real man (2 Corinthians 5:1-7). At death, James says it is the body without the spirit that dies, (James 2:26). Peter refers to the spirit of man as "the hidden man of the heart" (1 Peter 3:4). Paul talks about the "outward man" and the "inward man" (2 Corinthians 4:16).

From the creation, man has been given one main responsibility, which should serve as a perimeter for our every action. "Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man," (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Man is to glorify his creator in his "body and spirit, which are God's," (1 Corinthians 6:20). Man is to offer both his body and mind as a living sacrifice to God, (Romans 12:1-2).

Who am I Lord that you are so mindful of me?

By Wendell Ward

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