God created man to worship Him.
He created us because He wanted us.
“Worthy are You, our LORD and God, to receive the glory, the honor, and the power, for You created all things, and because of Your desire they existed, and were created!”Revelation 4:11
God created man in his own image. In God’s image He created him; male and female He created them. Genesis 1:27
I believe as an artist that all that the Lord makes must in some way bear His image, or stamp of ownership.
In fact, the Lord has so made His children, that each creature presents some individual characteristic all its own.
John wrote, “ ”All things were made through Him (*Christ) Without Him, nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it.“~ John 1:3-5 WEBUS
That spark of wisdom, brilliance of intellect and creative gifts, even diverse abilities and natural instincts of varying strengths, even among all the myriad creatures of the earth; these then I believe are that Divine spark the apostle is referring to that are woven into every creature that is born.
This “light” is perhaps the very DNA of our Creator’s Authorship reflecting His own character. “For God is light, and in Him there is no darkness.” ( 1 John 1:5)
John wrote, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t *overcome it.“ John 1:3-5 WEBUS
The note in my Bible that accompanies this verse is interesting. From the World English Bible: “[The word translated “overcome” (katelaben) can also be translated “comprehended.” It refers to getting a grip on an enemy to defeat him.] it.”
The Bible reveals that there exists a war between good and evil.
God is good, He is love. 1 John 4:8.
God is merciful. See Psalm 36
God forgives our sins. See Psalm 103.
But the devil is the father of lies, he is a thief who comes to steal, kill, and to destroy. Jesus, the Son of God said this about god of this world, who is evil.
All a person has to do to realize that there is a war between good and evil is to look at reality. Study history. Human nature is fallen. If made in Gods good image, how was it shattered?
The prophet speaking for Yahweh wrote:
“Behold, all souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine…” Ezekiel 18:4
God’s Image
Every created thing bears God’s image stamped upon each of us, written in our DNA code. Now we may not be able to see this, but God does. We will all meet Him face to face when we leave our earthly bodies. But we will not all be able to spend eternity with Him in His Kingdom. He has revealed in His Word the reason why.
For the last several years the Lord has asked me to use the copyright symbol as a watermark on the works He inspires me to create for His glory.
This watermark He revealed to me is a metaphor to teach His people an important spiritual truth from His Word.
In authorship the term copyright refers to a legal right of ownership to the works a creator makes to use as they wish or to assign others the legal right to use it, perform, publish, etc.
Metaphorically, visualize God as owning the “Copyright” to all He creates the instant He makes every soul.
In this country an artist owns the copyright to a work he or she creates as soon as they make it, plus seventy years beyond their lifetime. However, God owns His copyright forever for He is eternal.
Just as on earth there is a way that a copyright can be transferred to another owner or sold, there was a way that God’s copyright to His creation of man could be transferred, even lost, even stolen, through both the cunning work of the devil and the disobedience of the humans God had made to love, honor and obey (*worship) Him. Worship is love in God’s eyes. For Jesus said,
“The one who loves Me will keep My Word and He who does not love Me will not keep My Words…” (*See John 14:23-24)
Adam and Eve, knew God, they saw Him every day, they heard His voice, walked with Him in Paradise, and God had given them dominion over the whole earth.
They were acquainted with His character and were aware that God was love~had He not given them everything to enjoy? They knew God was faithful, had He not provided them with everything they needed every day? They should have believed that God could not lie.
So when a total stranger, slithered into the Garden in the form of a subtle serpent while the humans were at work one day, and challenged God’s command to not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they should have rebuked that evil voice at once and said “Begone!”
But they did not. Instead, they listened as the devil, or God’s enemy, who as a master of deceit and father of lies as Jesus called him, subtly redefined God’s command, changing the truth into a lie, and introducing doubt into their minds as to God’s character and trustworthiness.
The Devil was successful because he was simultaneously getting God’s children’s eyes off the command (The truth) and fixing it onto the thing ( the tree) whose fruit is forbidden and is making it seem not bad, but in fact a good thing. He repaints what she clearly has been told will lead to death, it is not good, now the devil with his mastery of deception, transforms it in her mind into a thing she desperately wants because it is something she didn’t have in her collection, which amounts to all the trees in Paradise but this one. He is appealing to her greed and Covetousness.
There are few who have everything and lack but one can bear it if it’s pointed out to them under certain terms and conditions. Especially when that scoundrel implicates that it’s God who has all of it and is hoarding it from her! It is that one tree whose fruit will not in fact kill her, but will make her as wise as He. It His own private stock of wisdom in fact.
The idea!
The idea!
Covetousness and greed cannot bear it. She must have that tree as well as all the others in Eden too or none of the rest of the trees will matter, besides she’s sure Yahweh would give it to her for a blessing if He were here and could listen to this gentleman put it like this. For she was certain that the Lord who was her particular Friend would withhold nothing from her ~ He’s so very dear and kind. He would give her anything she asked of Him.
With such reassurances I can imagine Miss Eve would have justified her disobedience to God’s command.
For we never outright give in to temptation to sin without dressing it up in the most upright clothes. We give the devil a respectable honor not due him and pretend that the Lord would also be fooled by his dissembling .
But God sees that serpent has a hook and he’s seeking for a human to enslave.
Satan is trying to get the woman to disobey God so he can swindle God’s copyright away from Him . He must get the parents with the dominion over the earth to obey his voice and disobey God’s voice, to trust him over God, then God’s copyright to His creation will all be transferred over to the kingdom of darkness. The humans will be enslaved by sin and death and come under Satan’s dominion.
“ Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?'”
2The woman said to the serpent, “Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'”
“ The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened,and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:1-5
When the humans listened to and believed in the creature’s voice, giving it more value in their heart and mind over their Creator’s voice, God’s copyright over them was transferred through their disobedience to the god of this world, and they immediately began to die, for what happens in the spirit eventually works itself out in the physical realm.
Where Adam and Eve had been naked and not known it before, they now saw flaws and faults, motes and beams everywhere and particularly in each other. They could now hate and abuse and fear and see ugliness, where before they were creatures of the light who walked in love and joy and peace.
They had lost paradise and could not find their way back to the beautiful light.
For the Lord had meant what He said about that Forbidden Tree, it would lead to death in the end in everything they ever did. All they ever accomplished on the beautiful earth would ultimately crumble in a heap of dust, as would they.
God never lies.
They could choose either to love Him, believe Him, and obey Him. Or to not believe and disobey Him.
When tempted we tend to redefine God’s truth to justify our sin, we make Him seem like He will change His mind and say it’s ok and we can do this thing He’s forbidden.
We will alter His truth to believe any lie to suit whatever purpose that justifies whatever scheme the devil is tempting us with to enslave our souls away from Christ.
Little do we realize, it has been forbidden for a reason to save us from becoming enslaved by evil. “
(Take a moment to read what the copyright holder is permitted to do, while always keeping in mind we are using this symbol as a metaphor to explain a spiritual reality. But it is a good one for it goes a long way towards illustrating why there is so much evil in this world.)
The good news is that our loving God did not want His souls to remain under the curse of death and Satan’s dominion.
For God made a way that people could be saved by sending His only Begotten Son Jesus Christ to (regain God’s copyright so to speak) so that people who wanted to be saved, could be redeemed by His blood, be reborn into the family of God, *their copyrights metaphorically would then belong to God under a new covenant and they would be given eternal life when their earthly bodies died. They would go to that Paradise Adam and Eve had lost. Jesus said,
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.
He who believes in Him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. John 3:14-19
Who Owns The Copyright To Me?
Jesus said, Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will still live, even if he dies.
Whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this? John 11:25-Who owns the copyright to me?
When God asked me to write
Copyright © Suzanne Davis Harden, Through the Indwelling Risen Lord Jesus Christ, Inspired by His Holy Spirit, To the Glory of God the Father, In Jesus’ Name, Amen,
The Lord told me that I was making a public testimony that Suzanne is Copyrighted by her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and in doing this I was not ashamed to declare my name alongside my Redeemer’s .
Christ’s name is not popular, it is not politically correct, it brings a stumbling block, it costs followers, and when one links their name to an unpopular name they instantly become just as unpopular.
However, Christians must not be afraid or ashamed to link our names with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, though it makes us very much a loser in the eyes of this world.
Jesus declared in the latter days, ”“…you will be hated by all of the nations for My name’s sake.“ Matthew 24:9 WEBUS
But Christ said His disciples nevertheless must practice love~
Jesus said,”A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35
My watermark God told me to use reflects a spiritual reality demonstrating that Christ owns the Copyright to me and to all He creates through and in me. For I have surrendered myself completely to the Lord and devoted my life and all that I am and have and create completely to Him.
My watermark proclaims to the world that God’s redeemed child, Suzanne Davis Harden was purchased by the spotless blood of her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who lives inside of her through His Holy Spirit who inspires her according to God’s word, the Almighty, our Creator, and all to God’s glory, in Jesus’ name, amen.
Prayer
Heavenly Father,
May You use this message to inspire and encourage those who read it, and guide Thy children to seek You in their heart for wisdom for Thy Word promises You speak to Thy sheep and Your Holy Spirit will lead and guide us into all truth for Thy glory, thank You Lord, we love You, in Jesus Name, amen.