Welcome to another day the Lord has made that we should rejoice and be glad in. (Psalms 118:24)

Today we’ll look at God’s ultimate inversion.

Genesis 1:26‭-‬27 (NLT) reveals we’re SELECTED by God to be like Him…
Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

John 3:16-17 (NLT) reveals we’re given God’s Son to SAVE us…
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

And Ephesians 1:13‭-‬14 (NASB1995)

reveals we’re given God’s Spirit to SEAL us as His…
In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

Consider…
This week we have bore witness to a few of God’s Kingdom inversions:

• The greatest shall be the least
• The humble shall be elevated
• The excluded shall be included
• Loving and blessing our enemies
• Overcoming adversity with less of me to reveal more of Him

Today we’ll close the week with His ultimate inversion, God Himself!

In Psalm 8:4‭-‬5 (KJV), the Psalmist wondered aloud…
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, And hast crowned him with glory and honour.

Have you ever taken time to meditate on how special you are to God? 🤔

Today’s scriptures provide just a glimpse of what we mean to Him.

First, He SELECTED us human beings, out of all creation to be like Him. Our first scripture points that out…
God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us.” 🤯 Let that marinate in your spirit for a moment.

Up to this point in creation, God used ‘Let there be’ to speak things into existence. However, with human beings, He changed His verbiage to ‘Let us make’. There’s a level of intimacy in making something that is beyond comprehension. Because, making something is a very hands-on experience. Pay attention to the unique wording used describe how humans were created…

Genesis 2:7 (ERV) says…
Then the Lord God took dust from the ground and made a man. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nose, and the man became a living thing.

And Genesis 2:21‭-‬22 (NASB1995) says…
So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.

These two verses show that we were so special to God that He not only used His hands to make us, He breathed His life into us. That shows we were hand SELECTED to be made into His image, as the end of our first scripture says…
So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Unfortunately, although we were hand made and had the Life of God breathed into us, we chose (and still choose) to disobey Him, which is sin. Because of our choice, we replaced God’s life within us and His presence with us, with the inverse, which is death.

Yet, what was God’s ultimate response, after initially evicting Adam and Eve from His presence in the garden? According to Romans 5:15 (ERV), God’s inverse response to man’s sin was grace and the gift of new life…
But God’s free gift is not like Adam’s sin. Many people died because of the sin of that one man. But the grace that people received from God was much greater. Many received God’s gift of life by the grace of this other man, Jesus Christ.
🤯

Ephesians 2:8‭-‬9 (NLT) explains God’s gift given by His grace this way…
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

God’s inverse response to our sin, was to SAVE us through His Son. 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

God gave us a second chance at life with Him! That’s better than we deserve and that’s grace!

Yet, as incomprehensible as God’s grace is, it’s even more mind-blowing, when we think about the fact that before Christ died for us, He lived with us. John 1:14 (NLT)
says…
So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

Now that’s important because of Hebrews 4:15 (ERV), which says…
Jesus, our high priest, is able to understand our weaknesses. When Jesus lived on earth, he was tempted in every way. He was tempted in the same ways we are tempted, but he never sinned.

Like the song lyrics say…
Jesus knows all about our struggles;
He will guide ’til the day is done:
There’s not a Friend like the lowly Jesus:
No, not one! no, not one!

God loved us so much that He became one of us, to better understand us, and show us the way to live victoriously, on our way to eternal life with Him. He also showed us how to die, so that we can live in and through Him. Galatians 5:24‭-‬25 (ERV) explains…
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their sinful self. They have given up their old selfish feelings and the evil things they wanted to do. We get our new life from the Spirit, so we should follow the Spirit.

The main point for us to take away, is that God’s inverse response to our wrong was to come down in the flesh and make us right. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NLT) says it this way…
For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

Lastly, we know Jesus was resurrected from death and has ascended into Heaven, where He currently sits on His throne with the Father. However, God again loved us so much that He gave us His presence in the person of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that the Spirit will be with us forever, in John 14:16‭-‬18 (ERV)…
I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever. The Helper is the Spirit of truth. The people of the world cannot accept him, because they don’t see him or know him. But you know him. HE LIVES WITH YOU, AND HE WILL BE IN YOU. “I will not leave you all alone like orphans. I will come back to you.

We also see that truth declared in Romans 8:11 (NLT), which says…
The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by THIS SAME SPIRIT LIVING WITHIN YOU.

Let’s recap our thoughts thus far…

• God SELECTED us and breathed His life into us
• We chose the inverse of His life and chose sin, resulting in our death
• God’s inverse response to our choice was His SAVING grace. That grace was expressed in the gift of new life through His SON.
• His SON went home to Heaven, but left the Holy Spirit to SEAL us as His for eternity.

Not sure if I have painted a clear enough picture, but we’ve been selected, saved and sealed by God for Himself.

God wants us to know that…

• We were created by and for Him
• He came to us, in response to our leaving Him
• And His Spirit camps within us, to seal us until His return.

God created us, came for us, and camps with us! Let that marinate in your spirit! 🤯

Still, my words feel woefully inadequate in expressing our importance to God.

How special are we to God? Ephesians 1:3‭-‬5 (ERV) says…
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ, God has given us every spiritual blessing in heaven. In Christ, he chose us before the world was made. He chose us in love to be his holy people—people who could stand before him without any fault. And before the world was made, God decided to make us his own children through Jesus Christ. This was what God wanted, and it pleased him to do it.

We’re so special that He elevated us from being made like Him, to becoming His children through His Son. If we have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we’re God’s family now. Why would He, did He do that? Because He wanted to and it pleased Him! 🤯

In this week of exploring God’s inverse perspective and handling of things in our lives, we’ve been alluding to His ultimate inversion all along. That inversion is simply, God Himself.

Therefore, it seems fitting to close with this. God’s ultimate inversion is His presence…

• His breath in our lungs
• His Son’s life giving blood coarsing through our spiritual veins
• His life giving Spirit, living in and through our dead bodies. Sealing us as His for eternity.

Truly everywhere we look, we should see God’s inverse response to our sin reality, which is the presence of the Lord is here!

Today’s song is…
The Presence Of The Lord Is Here
https://youtu.be/kwQah89a-8A?si=H3K9IOUBEEP-3bVW

Blessings 4HG (1 Corinthians 10:31)