I have been debating what I should write about first to kick off this blog. I've decided that instead of trying to come up with the perfect topic, or even setting the perfect tone, I'll just be candid.
I'll start by telling you a little about myself. My name is Joshua Andrews ("Josh" is fine), and I'm Assistant Pastor at CTC: Church That Cares, in Tarkington Prairie, Texas. I am happily married to the love of my life, Joani, who has made me better in every way.
I grew up in Alabama (Roll Tide!) and in the Apostolic movement. I received the Holy Ghost, with the evidence of speaking in tongues, at age 2 in June of 1992, and was baptized in the name of Jesus. I have been licensed with the UPCI since 2011, and I love Jesus, the Church, and the ministry more than ever. I am forever grateful for the influence, friendship, and leadership of my Bishop, Kenneth Smith, and Pastor Kenny Smith.
Besides that, I'm an Alabama football and Atlanta Braves fan, and I enjoy reading, video games, and golf. Coca-Cola is the best cold beverage, with sweet tea as a close second.
Earlier this year, my friend and pastor, Rev. Kenny Smith, suggested that I consider starting a blog. He has his own blog called Spirit Walkers, and I have added a link below. You should check it out.
I decided to take him up on his suggestion, and after some deliberation, landed on the title Image Bearers. I chose this title because I felt it was a good accompaniment to the already existing Spirit Walkers blog, but also because the topics that I feel most heavily compelled to speak to involve the process of becoming more like Christ.
2 Corinthians 3:18 NKJV says, "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."
That's pretty much the thesis of this blog.
We are being transformed into the same image of Jesus from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord.
Or, at least we should be.
At the risk of sounding negative, I want to honestly share what concerns me and what I hope to address throughout the life of this blog.
Christianity has an epidemic of apathy, and I'm concerned that it is far more malignant than we have imagined. On the other hand, there is a rising element of an angry, weaponized faith that is worrisome. Faith has been weaponized in the past, and weaponized faith has never brought glory to the name of Jesus. And as if that isn't enough, there is a third element of appeasement—a dangerously ecumenical attitude that wants to combine all beliefs into one.
In the middle of all of this are the millions of sincere, genuine Christians who are trying to live for God, but who are also being pulled in every direction, battling the temptations of apathy, anger, and appeasement.
It's the middle that I'm writing to.
There will be warnings on this page, and I can assure you that there will be challenging entries as well, but I hope that as you follow along you will find encouragement and strength to push forward.
We live in a perilous world. But the Church was built for perilous times.
We are accosted by images of war, vulgarity, and hate, as well as false hopes, false truths, and false beauty. We are constantly being shown what the world says is worth pursuing, what the world says is true, and what the world says is beautiful.
We are seduced to keep up appearances and to project an image of happiness when the opposite is true. We are pressured to conform to the image of this world—to accept its definition of truth, its definition of goodness, and its definition of beauty.
But we do not have to conform to the image of this world.
There is a better image we are being made into. One that is true, good, and beautiful.
The image of Jesus!
And perhaps one of the best ways to understand this is through something we all recognize: family resemblance.
There is a common family phenomenon that all of us are familiar with. We especially hear about it at the birth of a newborn. It's the phenomenon of family resemblance.
A child looks like his father, or mother, or grandparent. He inherits his daddy's hair, but his mom's nose. And as the child matures, they often grow more into that family resemblance.
In a similar way, the longer we walk with Christ, the more His image should become recognizable in us. His truth should shape what we believe. His goodness should shape how we live. His beauty should shape what we love.
We are transformed from glory to glory.
And the question I leave you with, and the question that will be at the center of many of these entries, is this:
Who do you look like?
Do you look like this world?
Or do you look like Jesus?
In Genesis 1:26, God says, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness...” This was not an afterthought. It was part of God's original purpose for humanity. We were created to bear His image and reflect His likeness.
But something went terribly wrong.
Sin fractured the image. It brought separation where there was once fellowship, disorder where there was once harmony, and chaos into the world God had created. Humanity was still created in God's image, but that image had been marred by sin. The world became filled with broken reflections of what God intended us to be.
Where the first Adam failed, God provided a second Adam—Jesus.
Through Jesus, God is restoring us to the image He originally created us to bear. We are being transformed “from glory to glory”—from Adam's fall to Christ's resurrection, from sin to holiness, from brokenness to wholeness, from death to life.
This is why becoming like Jesus matters.
It's not just about becoming better people, but becoming who God created us to be.
I believe this is especially important in these last days. There is no shortage of voices telling us what we should become, what we should believe, what we should value, and what we should look like. The world is constantly offering us an image to conform to.
But God is still calling us to His image.
Perhaps these perilous times are not merely something the Church is called to survive. Maybe they are an opportunity for the image of Christ to become more clearly seen in His people.
That is the journey I want to take with you.
To become image bearers.
To be transformed from glory to glory.
To look like Jesus.
