Reflection on Worldview

Worldview is certainly and interesting and very meaningful concept; one which we should be more familiar with. Do you recognize what your own worldview is.  Is there a worldview that is true or in accordance with an ultimate reality? Or are all worldviews legitimate?

Everybody has a worldview, but I don't think too many people have taken the time to consider what there's is, as well as the implications of it, the origins of it....where that particular worldview will take them in life, etc.

A worldview can be thought of as a pair of invisible eyeglasses that we might not be conscious of all the time, but that cause us to see and perceive the world in a certain way. These glasses literally affect everything related to ourselves: relationships, goals, values, morals, ultimate meaning, etc.

I can actually remember my first interaction with that concept (worldview), and it was about 3 and 1/2 years ago while I was attended Oral Roberts University.  I was required to go to a lecture for an English Comp class where this gentlemen was giving a lecture on Christian worldview. It was at that time a new concept, and it didn't carry much weight with it. It was stored away in my memory file storage box, unaccessed for a for years. When I began to understand the implications (really being consciousness) that all men are created in the image of God, and what that would mean for me, and my relationships with people, that file was pulled out again.
 It is quite impactful if we really contemplate it and have our hearts exercised by that reality. That first chapter of Genesis is maybe the most overlooked and taken-for-granted chapter of the whole bible, and might contain the most greatly missed significance for our lives, as well as those around us.  Sorry for straying from the theme of worldview, but I had to slip mine in there a little. 

I was referred to a man's personal website (John Michael Lane) that deals extensively with the understanding that mankind bears the image of God, and he has a very good section on worldview.  I think it would be a very healthy personal exercise to go through that and kind of think that out, as far as the questions that he asks in there to find out what our particular worldview is.  Worldview exercises.
Link to John Michael Lane's blog-style website
especially pay attention to the first section : 

1. Weltanschauung: An Introduction

Having said all of that, I would have to give an honorable mention to a man named Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984). In 1976, Schaeffer did a 12 part serious titled How should we then live? The Rise and Decline of Western Though and Culture.

These are available on Youtube, in 10 parts (each being about 30 minutes), and they are awesome. He gives a very somber yet engaging analysis of how and why we in the western culture think the way we do (aka our worldview). I've watched all of them that are available on Youtube, and I would highly, highly recommend them, even though there were done in the 70's.  Timeless treasure

Son of God Movie...

I read an online article, and it appears that within this year, there is to be a number of releases of bionically themed movies.  The first one that is coming out is entitled, "Son of God," and is a representation of the historical Jesus Christ, as you would find in one of the gospels.  The first thing that I have to say is that, isn't it amazing that after 2,000 years this Man is still receiving such attention.  What an impact His short earthly life has had upon the last couple millennium (I speak from almost an unbelieving viewpoint).

Here's the trailer

There is potentially a lot to say about this upcoming movie, as far as how true of a re-presentation of the true Jesus will be seen in this movie. Why I am interested in it is that I might be prepared to share with people who Jesus was and is in the light of this movie, and what it is He came to do.

First off, the great work that He came to this earth for is not representable on a movie screen, because it was a spiritual work.  How can you represent on a movie screen Christ restoring humanity, recreating the image of God in man in Himself?  How can you represent Jesus becoming a curse for us on the cross and taking the sin of the world upon Himself.  How can the One New Man being created on the cross in Himself be represented?  How can His resurrection as the Second Man be represented.  It cannot on a movie screen, the only possible representation is in our lives. Thank God for that!

The true value of Jesus Christ can only be communicated to your heart through the Spirit of God...not merely a movie screen...His value is almost visibly unrepresentable visually.

An interesting line inn this trailer is where Jesus can be seen saying to Peter that they are going to "change the world."  I smell politics in that. That sounds good, but we have to handle that carefully.  He certainly did change the world, but not by a teaching.  Well, actually His teaching has changed the world, but that was not His mission.  He didn't come to change.  He came to "seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10).  That goes a lot deeper than social reform, we are talking about humanity in God's image recreated in Himself. From death to life.  From the authority of Satan to God.

Having said that I do believe that this movie can serve a great end if it is properly handled.  People are going to be contemplating the question of who Jesus really was and is?  May that work that He accomplished be shown in each of the lives of those who are realizing that men and women bear the image of God, and Jesus came to restore and breath His own life on that in them. Hallelujah! 

Book review: Identity Theft by Mike Breaux

Well, firstly, this book was recommended to me by a brother in the Lord, telling me that it had some good content regarding man as created in the image of God, which is a theme (and much more than that) that has been upon my heart for a period of a little less than a year,  and something that I have been finding very significant to understanding the gospel, and God's purpose for man (humanity).

So I got this book in the mail after having purchased it on Amazon, and read it while riding on the DC Metro train  on my way to work and back.  Before I get into the content of the book...the book is divided up into four chapters (each chapter dealing with a specific way that our identity can get stolen). Obliviously, this book is not dealing with your U.S. identity, such as birth certificate, social security information.

So on my way to work, I got through about 50 pages, and up to that point the content seemed like any number of articles that you could find of the web (except in a longer presentation since this is a book) that basically deal with some problems we get into in relationships: unforgiveness, control issues, etc.  I appreciated what Breaux had to say, but it wasn't anything exceptionally deep, helpful, or new.  But I persevered in reading.

When chapter 2 (out of 4) rolled around, titled "Mugged by the mirror," the nature of what was being communicated in the book started to change.  Breaux in chapter 2 deals with self-image, aka how we see ourselves. He gives some contemporary examples to kind of open the topic up a little bit (plastic surgery, images of famous people, etc.)  There was some neat stuff in there, but still nothing really touching and resonating within me.

Then I arrived to page 68, and I would like to give a couple of quotes from the book.  I really began to sense that Breaux hits the nail on the head with some of his statements, and he began to touch something that was really coming from the heart of God, like "that which was from the beginning" (1 John 1) type stuff, like God's original intention for humanity.  And the valuable thing is that he is communicating it in the context of our contemporary culture.

On page 68 he says,

"And as the lie is perpetuated and reinforced, way too many people - especially young girls - are literally dying in their efforts to achieve an unattainable image. I don't know about you, but to me the hole thing sounds incredibly sinister...
and you know why? Because it's all based on a lie that comes straight out of the depths of hell. It's a plan that the enemy of our souls has had from the beginning to distort our image, to distort the image of God, and to steal our identity...
In facet the whole image thing started a very long time ago, when that identity thief entered a garden called Eden. Take a look: Then God said, "Let us make people in our image, to be like ourselves...""

So that quote in particular really being to awaken something in me and resonate in me (perhaps the image of God in me), and at that point this book took off from being another cultural outcry book... Breaux at some points in this book really touches the heart the problems, or shall I say, the origin.

Later Breaux uses an awesome example related to a person's battle with their self image (it had a mind blowing and heart touching effect on me).  He relates the story of a lady that had been battling for years and years with an eating disorder, sometimes with victory, and at other times the compulsion overcame her.  So the lady wrote Breaux and explained her situation, really broken, hwo she battles with her self image, and in the end of the letter, she asks if, in the light of all the other problems going on in the world like aids, or poverty, or starving children, does her wrong self image matter to God?" The thought was 'how insignificant to God it must be that I have a screwed up self image....like I need to get over myself.'

Man, when I read that, I don't know how many times I have thought about people with similar problems (Struggles with their self image) and even told them the answer was to think about people who had it worse off then them, as if to belittle this problem of a false self-image were the solution.  But when I read that story, it hit me, that this battle is probably the most important thing that it going on in this universe (Not poverty or hunger or aids). The battle of the recovery of life in the image of God.  That mankind would discover that they were created in the image of God, and that it has been restored in Christ, and made available to us all in Him.

Mike Breaux

I will close this book review by recommending this book for all who find in themselves an interest in developing a proper view of humanity, a proper worldview, a proper self-image, and I will close with just a few more quotes that struck me...

"It is critical that we grasp the truth that we are fearfully and wonderfully made in His image." (75)

"I will not be held prisoner by the reflection in some silly piece of glass.  I will pursue no other image than the image of God in me." (77)