{"id":85942,"date":"2025-03-21T21:37:12","date_gmt":"2025-03-22T02:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=85942"},"modified":"2025-03-21T21:37:12","modified_gmt":"2025-03-22T02:37:12","slug":"defining-ourselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/defining-ourselves\/","title":{"rendered":"Defining Ourselves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p>by David Gibson<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;If we are left to define ourselves, it is impossible to know who we are&#8221; (author unknown).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>How some define themselves<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Many believe they are the product of a long evolutionary development from lower life forms. But soon after creating lower forms of life, God said, &#8220;<em>Let Us make man in our image, according to our likeness<\/em>&#8221; (Genesis 1:26 NASB), and He gave humans rulership over all other living creatures (Genesis 1:20-28).<\/li>\n<li>Some have chosen to identify as the opposite of their birth gender-or as &#8220;non-binary.&#8221; But as Jesus said, &#8220;<em>Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female<\/em> . . . ?&#8221; (Matthew 19:4).<\/li>\n<li>Jesus addressed those &#8220;<em>who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt<\/em>&#8221; (Luke 18:9-14). The parable that follows sets the record straight.<\/li>\n<li>Jesus challenged those who rejected Him while taking pride in being Abraham&#8217;s children. &#8220;<em>You are of your father, the devil<\/em>,&#8221; He told them, &#8220;<em>and you want to do the desires of your father<\/em>&#8221; (John 8:44).<\/li>\n<li>The Laodicean Christians were quite satisfied with themselves, but Jesus showed them how they really were (Revelation 3:14-22).<\/li>\n<li>New Age thinking is one of numerous current influences promoting the idea that we humans can actually become divine beings. What a self-definition that is! Those who believe this need to take a good hard look at how God humbled those who claimed such prerogatives, such as the king of Babylon (Isaiah 14:4-20) and the king of Tyre (Ezekiel 28:1-19).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>The One who defines us<\/h2>\n<p>Shouldn&#8217;t it be obvious that only the One who made us can tell us who we are? He tells us in His word that by studying the Scriptures, we can understand our true identity and what we can become in Christ through His grace and help. Knowing this is both humbling and encouraging. Humbling, in that we have all sinned and fallen short of God&#8217;s glory (Romans 3:23), and encouraging as we learn how His grace can transform us into the image of His Son (Romans 8:29).<\/p>\n<p>What a God we serve!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by David Gibson &#8220;If we are left to define ourselves, it is impossible to know who we are&#8221; (author unknown). How some define themselves Many believe they are the product of a long evolutionary development from lower life forms. But soon after creating lower forms of life, God said, &#8220;Let Us make man in our&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1242,527],"class_list":["post-85942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-character","tag-honesty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25774,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/counterfeit-sexuality-sexuality-as-identity\/","url_meta":{"origin":85942,"position":0},"title":"Counterfeit Sexuality: Sexuality as Identity","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by\u00a0Ethan R. Longhenry Sexuality remains one of the most sensitive and yet \"hot-button\" issues within our culture and among Christians today. Such a controversial issue features a lot of passion and debate regarding the surface level issues of proper and improper forms of sexuality, and in such an environment, digging\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Woman-with-blank-face-300x209.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":78796,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/love-or-hate\/","url_meta":{"origin":85942,"position":1},"title":"Love or Hate","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 16, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton If the Law said to \"hate your enemies\" (via Matthew 5:43), and Jesus was obligated to uphold the Law, then Jesus was obligated to hate His enemies, and He would have sinned if He did not hate his enemies. No! That will not work! Jesus does\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40697,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/let-god-be-true\/","url_meta":{"origin":85942,"position":2},"title":"Let God Be True","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Romans 3:4 gives us this principle: \"Let God be true but every man a liar.\" What does this mean? It means that God is always far more dependable than man. God cannot lie (Hebrews 6:12). Man often lies, misunderstands, gets things mixed up, is easily deceived,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49192,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-god-expect-us-to-do-our-part\/","url_meta":{"origin":85942,"position":3},"title":"Does God expect us to do our part?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When Simon helps carries Jesus' cross in Mark 15:21, does it have any special meaning? I remember a pastor talking about how Jesus told Christians to deny ourselves and take up our own cross (such as in Luke 9:23), but He could not carry His own cross. Simon had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68263,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-deal-with-a-person-with-strange-beliefs\/","url_meta":{"origin":85942,"position":4},"title":"How do I deal with a person with strange beliefs?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 5, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I had a conversation with a person of interesting beliefs. Their beliefs were: The Holy Spirit gave us the name \"God\" to comprehend him. Aliens and other life forms have different religions, like having a different Christ, as we have. The Holy Spirit didn't mean everything literally, like in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48091,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/myth-or-history\/","url_meta":{"origin":85942,"position":5},"title":"Myth or History?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Forrest D. Moyer The Bible is either the product of God or the product of men. Christians believe that the Bible is from the hand of God and that it is to be believed and obeyed in order to have a good life now and in Heaven in eternity.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}