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"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it."
~Matthew 10:34-39

The common misconception in the world and in Christendom today is that trusting in Jesus Christ will make you "a better you", or make the life you’re already living better than it was. But that simply is not true.

This is what God calls false doctrine as the Holy Spirit instructed the Apostle Paul and the Apostle John to write:

"If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness,"
~ 1 Timothy 6: 3

"Jesus said to him, 'I am the Way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.' "
~ John 15:6

"The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned."
~ 1 Corinthians 2:14

Now, what I'm about to say, may make a lot of people angry, but as I stated in my latest post, I do all this out of pure love for God and for you also; therefore, I am fully committed to preach the Good News of Christ in accordance with God's holy word, regardless of the praise, or rejection of man. I am determined to speak this way until God grants me my last breath. May the Lord our God be glorified and may He pierce your hearts with His truth that you may share it with others and prevent the delusion that has overtaken the masses.

God is clear in His word, that we are to warn one another of false prophets and teachers that rise in order that the lost may remain utterly lost and depraved; and even the elect (God's children) may be led astray and deemed ineffective for our Lord's Kingdom work. Joel Osteen is among the many false prophets and teachers of our time.

In an interview with Border's Media in 2007, Joel Osteen continues to deny the supremacy of Christ, His word of truth that only Christians can understand and apply to their lives through the Holy Spirit and most importantly, that the destiny of all man is to know God the Father through faith and trust in our risen Savior, Jesus Christ alone. Here's an excerpt of this interview:

Interviewer: You also talked about though, finding your destiny. And that's obviously a path that so many people think about every day. And in that regard, this book has absolutely Christian foundation to this book. The themes though of self-improvement and getting better are completely universal. I mean it seems to me, there will be a connection in this book to people, regardless of their religious faith or belief. In here, there lies a lot of guidance for better living.

Joel Osteen: I believe that, you know, what I'm good at is taking principles in the Bible and putting them to teaching us how to live our every day life. But the principles I believe in God's word, help anybody [Osteen is wrong, read Hebrews 11:6].

We have people sitting in the audience today that are of different faiths. That doesn't bother me [it should, read Romans 9:1-3] because our goal is just to help anybody from any faith to improve their life. And so, I think you're exactly right on that they're universal truths to me. If you give, God's going to bless you and it's going to be given back to you [out of context, read Luke 6:34 and Matthew 6:19-21]; it [God's Word] doesn't say if you're a Christian and you give.

So, that's my whole thing is to just present this to people. I like it to be as broad [contradicts Christ read Matthew 7:13-14] as possible because I feel like we're not supposed to reach just our one group [yes he is, read 1 Corinthians 1:17-19].

According to God's word, He gives instruction for godly living only for those who belong to Him; for without the indwelling of His Holy Spirit, God's word is foolishness to those who have not put their trust in Jesus. While we are also commanded in God's word not to stay in a "holy huddle" and never leave our Christian bubbles, we are commanded only to leave in order that we might preach the Gospel of God's salvation through Jesus Christ alone. We are clearly instructed in Scripture that the reason why Christians meet is to exhort one another in our faith, and not to invite unbelievers among our midst so that our fellowship may remain holy and one in Christ (Hebrews 10:24-25).

If Joel Osteen is reaching the masses so that they foolishly and wrongly believe that they can understand the holy and profound words of our Father, and also apply them for godly living—that is, without faith in Christ, then Mr. Osteen is most certainly leading the masses, not to Christ and eternal life found only in Him, but to Hell, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Do I say all this to start an argument, make men angry or to puff myself up? By all means, no. I do this out of the deep abiding love of Christ in me for our Lord God Most High and for those who are utterly lost without Him and moreover, for the saints of God who unknowingly have supported or perhaps remained silent as this ravenous wolf, Joel Osteen is used by Satan to desensitize God's people, while he leads the blind to a black chasm that has no end.

When I heard the Gospel, repented and trusted Christ as my Lord and Savior, I didn't merely become a better me nor did the circumstances in my life improve. Instead, I became someone I could have never been on my own…a new creation, a child of the Lord God Almighty.

I want this for everyone. And my heart is grieved for all those who do not know my Jesus. It disturbs me that Joel Osteen calls himself a Christian and has no compassion for the lost and the fact that they are enemies of God; instead is more concerned with them enjoying life, in the here and now.


When Jesus' salvation came to me, my circumstances stayed the same, my eyes were opened to see my circumstances and those around me the way God sees them, in Spirit and in truth. I saw the people who hurt me not as people who ought to be hurt in return, but people who were just as wicked as I was, just as blind as I was, just as much of a lawbreaker as I was (God’s laws that is) and just as desperately in need of a Savior. In essence, my present life didn't get “better”, instead I was given a new understanding and new desires. I was transformed from the inside out, not the outside in. I was given a brand new life, not just an improvement on the old one.

When Moses asked to see God’s face, God said that no man could see His face and live. So God showed Moses where there was a cleft in the rock and God put Moses there. Then God covered Moses with His hand and allowed His glory to pass by. From this, Moses' entire face was glowing, his skin was radiant, just from God’s passing glory. Imagine how utterly destroyed Moses’ body would’ve been had he actually been in the full presence of God’s glory while still in the flesh, in his sin.

“From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

~ 2 Corinthians 5:16-20

When you come to know Christ, not merely come to know some facts about Him, but become involved in an intimate relationship with Him, you’ll come to realize He has provided you a way to be something more than merely a better you.
Wow! Many of you may have heard of Penn & Teller, the comedic, magician act. Penn has always been very open about being a devout atheist.

But still when someone, filled with love for God and men who were created in God's image gave this outspoken atheist a Bible, this is what happened.

May the Lord our God find all His children this obedient and full of compassion for the lost.


Before I share this teaching on how God created man in His image, I want to thank those of you who contacted me and let me know that you were praying for God to give me wisdom from Heaven. I cannot adequately express in words what it means to me that you would go before the throne of God on my behalf, for my edification and growth in the faith. You are more precious to me than you will ever know.

Last week I was inspired by our Father God's Holy Spirit to make a Scripture-picture for our weekly WFW based on Psalm 23:3. And although I had read Psalm 23 in its entirety about a gazillion times (much like everyone else), God revealed to me that I needed to meditate on it once more...so I did.

This passage is so familiar that even unbelievers know and chant it as if it were some holy rabbit's foot that will save them when they're scared or overwhelmed. And sadly, as a child of God, I've misunderstood this passage to mean only that - that God is with us in our times of trouble and will bring us comfort. While this is a true fact about our God, I discovered this passage is not referring to God's comfort here on earth, but for something much greater. It turns out, it's a prayer that only believers would be able to say. This famous prayer of King David is a prayer of confidence in God's ultimate work of salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord.

When the Holy Spirit inspired King David to write verse 3, He inclined David's heart to express the immeasurable peace of God that comes to a soul that is once again restored (brought back to its original state, brought back to a former or original condition). For the soul that is restored, is saved by God's grace, through faith/full trust in Jesus Christ alone. King David then ends this Psalm stating that he is confident he will dwell in the house (Heaven) of the LORD forever.

I was very excited, to say the least, to discover such an awesome truth about our infinitely glorious, holy and righteous God. So much so, I wanted to share with everyone how we were first created in God's image, how we separated ourselves from His holiness and how God Himself, saved us from our fallen state through faith in His Son Jesus, who became the propitiation for our sins; thereby initiating the process of sanctifying (restoring) our condemned souls, so that we might once again partake in holy communion with our Creator by the indwelling of His Holy Spirit.

But as I began to draw pictures to depict this miraculous phenomena of God - creating man in His image, I began to realize that all the teaching I had heard on this subject, didn't work. For years, I was taught to believe the trichotomist theology that man was made in the image of God in that God is a Triune God; therefore, man is a triune man (body, soul and spirit). I never really thought about it very much, but there were lots of great arguments for it and it all seemed to make sense - until of course, I tried to make sense of it all.

I found myself in quite a conundrum when trying to make this theology of trichotomy work. When I first drew it, it seemed odd to me that God is a Triune God, greater than man, yet man was equal to God in being made as a trinity? Somehow, that didn't sit quite right with me and I had a very difficult time trying to draw man and his essence, just like I drew the Trinity of God below with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, three in one, and equal.


As my Favorite and I looked and looked over these pictures, we realized that further study was necessary, as there was no way that man is in any shape, way or form just like God. To be made in one's image, does not automatically denote that the image is an exact replica of the original.

I then pulled out Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine by Wayne Grudem, confident that a book about biblical doctrine would include the theology of man and his essential nature (being made in God's image), as well as Scriptures that would prove what is true versus what has been passed down from generation to generation (traditional theology) without question and without Scriptural proof. And sure enough, there it was! [By the way, I highly recommend this book, I use it quite often in my study of Scripture].

I must admit, it was quite taxing to look up all the Scriptures that were referenced and the laziness in me wanted to find a short cut. But I realized that this matter was far too important (really, anything about God is) for me to only read over what I might think to be necessary. I wanted to know the whole truth and earnestly asked God to help me and give me wise counsel through His Holy Spirit. Every time I was tempted to skip a Scripture/passage or favor a conclusion (which was to hold on to what I had always believed), God's Holy Spirit was ever so faithful to continue to remind me:

"Thus says the LORD: Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD."
~ Jeremiah 9:23-24

"If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame."
~ Proverbs 18:13

These words from our Lord Jesus were a great encouragement to me to continue on and finish studying and meditating on every passage noted so that I might not have an "answer" (come to a conclusion) before I finished listening to the full counsel of the Lord.

After much prayer and meditating on God's holy Word, I realized He provided no biblical reference for the trichotomist theology, but only that of the dichotomist theology which concludes that the the essence of man is in two parts (body and soul/spirit) and not three parts (body, soul and spirit). I won't get into all the nitty gritty details, but I will sum up my study on this topic with the following pictures which portray that being made in God's image does not mean we physically look like God or are made equal with God, but that we are an image of His character and nature.

The picture above depicts the essence of man, being created in the image (not exact replica) of God, with body and soul/spirit which are in perfect harmony with one another and more importantly live in harmony with God the Father.

In the picture to our left, we see what happened to the original design of man and his fallen state. The soul/spirit of man is no longer in harmony with the body as God created it (with the soul/spirit governing the actions of the body) because the soul/spirit is now dead to God and corruptible. The death of the soul/spirit also led to the death and condemnation of the body. The body and soul/spirit of man is no longer blessed by God, but is under His curse due to man's rebellion and willful act in the attempt to usurp God's authority and become his own god. Due to this atrocious rebellion, one day, those who have not been made alive in Christ, will suffer the second death, which is, the lake of fire.

Jesus said, "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell." (Luke 10:28)

In the picture to the right, we see how God is in the process of restoring man back to his original state for those who have trusted in the name of His Son, Jesus the Christ. But due to sin's corrupting affect on man's flesh, the final restoration will not take place while we're here on earth, but will be fulfilled when our bodies are redeemed. Until then, God uses His Holy Spirit to begin that sanctifying (or restoring) process and we begin to see the soul/spirit gaining victory over the sinful flesh that continues to war against the man's soul/spirit that has once again been made alive by Christ Jesus our Lord.

Can you see that the essence of man - being made in the image of God will once again be fully restored to its original state when those who have trusted Jesus with their lives will one day live in Paradise with Him? Just as God intended from the very beginning.

By the way, perhaps many of you already know this, but for those of you who don't, both Eden and Paradise mean: a garden or a pleasure ground.

I truly pray that this study of man being created in God's image, will cause you to give glory, praise and honor to our Father God, increase your gratitude for the long-suffering of God by which He patiently and sacrificially gave His one and only Son, to pay a debt He did not owe in order to restore our souls to its original state before the Fall of Man. And may your immense gratitude and love for what our God has done for us, burn your heart with passion to do what Jesus came to do: spread the Gospel so that condemned souls (like yours and mine used to be) may find salvation in the only name in which all men are saved, Jesus Christ our Lord.

"How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Good News!' "
~ Romans 10:14-15


He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake.
~ Psalm 23:3


One of the things I love most about God and His word is that He never gets old! He makes all things new, just like He's making me new every day!

Like many of you, I've read Psalm 23 in its entirety, probably about a hundred fifty million times (as you know by now, I like using LARGE numbers ☺). But today, God showed me something new that I had never seen. Before today, I've always looked at this particular verse as looking to God for rest, my hiding place, my source of comfort when I am weary, discouraged or afraid.

As I meditated on this Scripture today, I realized I didn't fully understand what the word restore means. This is what I found on Dictionary.com:

restore v.
1) to bring back into existence, use, or the like; reestablish: to restore order. 2) to bring back to a former, original, or normal condition, as a building, statue, or painting. 3) to bring back to a state of health, soundness, or vigor. 4) to put back to a former place, or to a former position, rank, etc.: to restore the king to his throne. 5) to give back; make return or restitution of (anything taken away or lost).


God alone is my Savior. He alone can and will make me new in Christ and give me life. I was once dead and useless. But now, I am whole, alive and created to be one of God's ministers of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-20)....just like all of you! ♥

I realize now that Psalm 23 is not about personal comfort, but about our eternal salvation. In Psalm 23, God is telling us that He alone is the Good Shepherd, who will feed us Bread from Heaven (Jesus Christ), allow us to drink from the from the Living Water (the Holy Spirit) and will restore our souls, by saving us and making our spirits that were once dead in sin, alive in Christ Jesus. And why has He done all this? Because we are good people? Because we do nice things for each other? No, because of His righteousness and for His name's sake (Deuteronomy 9:5).


For those of you who are visual, come back tomorrow. I'll have a picture to demonstrate how we are made in God's image; we'll talk more about what that really means and why it's possible for us to be alive in Christ, and dead to our flesh.

for more inspiration from God's word today please visit Amydeanne at:

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