hello everyone and welcome to cord connect my name is Steve Canard I'm the educational director of C Leadership Center and I'm really grateful to be a part of this grateful for all of you that are joining it I just want to say that for those of you that are young interns studying the ministry really really thankful for what you're doing and for you investing your life and helping other people know about Jesus for those of you that are trainers and facilitators and have spent years and years and years in the ministry thank you for all
you are doing to help train these young people around the world and I'm very excited about this class because it is a g Global class we get to connect globally with one another which is fantastic uh this class is going to be on bean be iing and that is the it's the idea of our identity what is our identity in Christ and you see being identity mentioned at the beginning of the Bible in Genesis it's mentioned in Exodus 3 it's mentioned in John especially with Jesus the I am statements it's mentioned throughout Paul in his
in Christ statements which he says over and over and over again and really throughout the Bible so it's foundational for us as Disciples of Jesus to know who we are and that's what this class is going to be about really grateful for Dr Dr David POA sharing the class with me and he and I will be uh teaching you this semester and really appreciate your curiosity appreciate your desire to know there is no homework you can praise God for that if a facilitators want to do a project you're welcome to do that I even made
a suggestion in the syllabus of what to do and you could do it or not do it the only thing I would ask is that by the end of the class everyone just write a short reflection paper on what you learned in the class and I'll give you a helpful hint okay if you take good notes during the class the paper writes itself I'm just saying it will you'll find that out and so um but that's just a way of everybody being able to reflect on what they've learned and you turn that into whoever your
trainer is wherever you are in the world so today this first class basically I'm doing a couple of short videos and then we'll have the live stream and a longer time of teaching on Thursday this first one I want to do from Genesis chapter 1 something special happens at the beginning of creation and you'll notice that there's something even extraordinary about one part of creation and you could tell even by the structure if you look at Genesis chapter 1 the when the different first five days they're kind of short and very to the point they
all end with God saw the creation and it was good Tove but then when you get to day six it lengthens out a bit especially with the creation of humans not with the animals but then when humans are created there's more that's said about that in fact it's repeated in the second creation account in Genesis chapter 2 and God ends that day by saying he looks out over creation and everything that he created was Tove meod very good so there's something unique and special about the creation of humans what we're going to be studying and
looking at and I just want to quote from Dr Jack Reese in a really beautiful book that he did called at the Blue Hole and he talks about our identity in Christ and he says we need to we need to answer three questions the first question is who are we really the second question is what is important to us the third question is what do we value the most and He suggests that we ask this and answer this not just as individuals but as individuals and a community both I would add two other questions I
think at the beginning the top of all that is who's are we not just who are we but who are we and then I think we should add the question why because why is the key to motivation we need to constantly ask ourselves why about everything that we do who are we why why who are we really why see that why question is super super important so when you get to Genesis this kind of thing comes up who's are we in Genesis it comes up specifically in verses 26 and 27 and Elohim that's God said
let us make humankind in our image according to our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea the birds of the sky the domestic animals and over the whole of the earth and over all the creeping things that creep on the earth and Elohim created humankind In His Image in the image of Elohim he created them male and female he created them now when you reflect on Genesis 1 there's I'm going to mention these Super Fast Five Points okay Five Points first in verse 24 God says let the Earth bring forth living
creatures but in 26 God says let us make humankind you notice the difference let the Earth produce this the second one is when it comes to humanity let us make humans in our image okay second in verses 28-31 God blesses humankind and he did not give this personal blessing to the rest of creation not like he does in to humans and that's important third God says to humanity be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth and subdue it God doesn't say that to the rest of creation only to humans and then fourth when you compare
verses 25 through 31 after creating the the living creatures God says it's good Tove but after the creation of humans he looks back over the first six days and says now it's to meod very good but the biggest distinction between what happened with the with creation of the earth and the animals and everything else and humans is found in the verse 27 and Elohim created humankind In His Image in the image of Elohim he created them male and female he created them I'm sure you've heard of the imod Dei the image of God God has
put his image in us that word image can also be translated stamp God has put his stamp in us it's like icon actually sometimes it's it can you know some Scholars say that Idol is in there that type of image is in there but I think more of that along the lines of God's stamp is on us another way that I would say it is we were created by the hands of God and his fingerprints are all over us maybe maybe I didn't think of that first but I say anyway that's beautiful right his fingerprints
are all over us that's how we need to see ourselves so when we start with identity even at the beginning of the Bible it starts with identity being who are we we are Gods why because he made us who are we really we are God's children we are God's creation we are God's image we are the image Bearer of God why because he made us and then everything else in our lives ought to flow out of that ought to flow out of the recognition and the realization the reality that we've been made in the image
of God and I hope that you will carry that with you throughout the rest of the day and the rest of your week thank you
