WORD Study™ - Studying the WORD OF GOD one WORD at a time
WORD Study 2
"IMAGE"
In our WORD Study 1, we started with a riddle form of a puzzle asking what "IT" represented. For this WORD Study, we are going to start out with a different kind of puzzle. These puzzles contain a familiar word or phrase in a sort of code. Your job will be to crack the code of each puzzle. You will have to look carefully at the arrangement and position of each group of words or mixed up letters. The key to solving the puzzles is to read them exactly as you see them. Here is an example.
WORK
TIME
The solution may be tricky, but once you see a few puzzles solved, you will begin to get the hang of this puzzle style. Here is the solution to the puzzle above. Notice that the word "Work" is positioned over the word "Time" so that this puzzle represents the saying: "Work Overtime."
Now let's look at some more examples of these types of puzzles below. See how many you can solve BEFORE looking at the answer.
cyclecyclecycle
(the answer is "tricycle")
G D U R A U R G D
(The answer is "crossing guards")
"ALONG
(the answer is "inch along")
hay hay hay hay hay
(the answer is "haystack")
de cision
(the answer is "split decision")
SOMEDROPTIME
(the answer is "drop in sometime")
I've got my iiiiiiii you
(the answer is "I've got my eyes on you")
b ba back
(the answer is "quarterback, halfback, fullback")
long due
(the answer is "long overdue")
ruplet ruplet ruplet ruplet
(the answer is "quadruplets")
How many puzzles were you able to solve before having to look at the answers! Now let's consider the following question. How does the style of puzzles that we have just solved relate to the "Image of God" and how we each have been made in the image of God?
Each puzzle represented a primary saying or word that we were familiar with and yet the puzzle was presented in a different manner that represented the same saying. We learned in our WORD Study 1 that we were created in the image of God and yet we are not God. We are made in His image, We are His creation. We have things about us that make us like God.
From the word puzzles that we just solved, God is like the answer to the puzzle and we are like the puzzle because the puzzle expresses a likeness to the answer just like we were made in a likeness to God. For example, when we saw "cyclecyclecycle," we figured out the answer was "tricycle." "Cyclecyclecycle" is not the answer itself, but is an "image" of the answer. Similarly, we are not God, but we are made in the image of God.
Let's review some of the various characteristics, or images, of God listed below:
Loving Patient Good Faithful Gentle Jealous Kind Severe
These are characteristics of God and yet we can each cite a way in which we can implement these characteristics into our own lives through our thoughts and actions. We can each be a reflection of God by implementing these characteristics into our lives. When we do this, we are living in God's image and others around us will begin to see God through us just like we could see the answer to the puzzles through another image.
Since we have been made in God's image, we probably ought to get to know God so that we know who we have been made like. Therefore, for the remainder of our study, let's keep in mind the following three questions:
Do I Know God?
Do I live my life in His Image?
Am I in God's Family?
For any of us who have taken a language class, what is one of the first phrases that we are taught to learn in that language?
We are taught to say "My name is _________" or "I am ________."
And that is where we are going to start in our venture of getting to know God. What is God's name? Moses basically asked God this question. Let's review the story and read (in a narrative style) how God answered Moses' question in Exodus 3:7-15.
Narrator: "Then the Lord told Moses,
God: "You can be sure I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries for deliverance from their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. So I have come to rescue them from the Eqyptians and lead them out of Egypt, into their own good and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey. The cries of the people of Israel have reached me, and I have seen how the Egyptians have oppressed them with heavy tasks. Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You will lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt."
Narrator: Moses asked God
Moses: "But who am I to appear before Pharaoh?" "How can you expect me to lead the Israelites out of Egypt?"
Narrator: Then God told him,
God: "I will be with you. And this will serve as proof that I have sent you: When you have brought the Israelites out of Egypt, you will return here to worship God at this very mountain."
Narrator: But Moses protested,
Moses: "If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, "The God of your ancestors has sent me to you, they won't believe me. They will ask, "Which god are you talking about? What is his name?" Then what should I tell them?"
Narrator: God replied,
God: "I AM THE ONE WHO ALWAYS IS. Just tell them I AM has sent me to you." God also said, "Tell them, 'The Lord, the God of your ancestors-the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob- has sent me to you.' This will be my name forever; it has always been my name, and it will be used throughout all generations."
From the above narration, what was the answer to Moses' question, "What is God's name?"
God told Moses that His name was "I AM." He said, "I AM THE ONE WHO ALWAYS IS."
God's answer to Moses should lead us to think about what God's name says about Himself. Let's consider God's answer, "I AM THE ONE WHO ALWAYS IS."
The words "I AM" conclude that God exists and that He is a being with an identity.
The word "ALWAYS" teaches us that God has existed from infinity past to infinity future.
The words "ALWAYS IS" verifies that God is always in the present.
The various words, "I," "ONE," and "WHO" introduce us to a God who is a unique being that we can communicate with and relate to.
Now that we know God's name, "I AM," what does that have to do with us? Well, remember the questions that we asked above? The first was "Do I know God?" Usually we don't really know someone until we know his or her name. Before starting this WORD Study, did you know that God's name is "I AM?" If not, I would like to introduce you to the God who created the universe. His name is "I AM."
In everyday life, we are introduced to people. Do we pursue a friendship or relationship with everyone that we are introduced to? The answer is obviously no, but we do choose whose lives that we will be involved with. My question is now that you have been introduced to God and He has told you His name, will you choose to be involved and associated with Him? Let's ask the question another way in the form of another word puzzle.
2B ? 2B
(the answer is "To be or not to be, that is the question)
The theme throughout the teaching of the Bible can be summarized with the question that this one puzzle presents. "To be or not to be, that is the question." God has given us a choice whether "to be" in His family or "not to be" in His family. That is the question that He asks each of us to answer. What is your answer to God's question? Are you a part of His family?
If your answer is yes, that leads us into the next question that we asked earlier which was "Do I live my life in His image?" If we are in God's family, then we should kind of look like Him shouldn't we? We look like Him by acting like Him. We begin to show His characteristics of love, kindness, patience etc. within our own lives toward others.
I recently received an email at work that gave me a great way to demonstrate the concept of being made in God's image. We are all familiar with the fact that emails end with a "dot something." My service provider is now offering a new "dot something" name. The new name that you can get your own new email address at is called .im
.im
This may be obvious, but what does the im stand for?
"im" stands for "I am" so that "im = I am."
Continuing on, whose name is "I AM?" God's.
So in keeping with our puzzle solutions, we are like little "im" juniors and God is our "I AM" Senior in whose image we have been made.
Let's continue to have fun with a play on words here. If God's name is "I AM" all capitals and I am made in God's image, then my name could be "im" little letters abbreviated which, if you caught, is the first two letters of the word "image."
Now let's take the word "image" and give each of the letters within the word a meaning which will help us remember that we have choosen to be in God's circle of family and friends.
I = I
M = Am
A = All
G = God's
E = Everyday or Eternally
When we remember that we have been made in God's image, we can remember that "I am all God's everyday" or similarly "I am all God's eternally." Once we have chosen to believe in God and have accepted Him to be our Savior, then we will live in a manner to display His image and we will be His everyday forever which now leads us to the last question we asked previously. Am I in God's family? Is your answer the same as the answer to this last word puzzle?
God'sIamfamily
(the answer is "I am in God's family")
The solution to the puzzle is what I also hope that you can say about yourself.
"I am in God's family."
Did you notice that our question started out with the words "Am I" and the answer which I hope that we can all respond with is the reversing of these two words: I am.
When we have believed in God, we can live our lives in His Image and know that:
Scripture quotation is taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996 Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Wheaton, Illinois 60189 All Rights Reserved
May the Lord bless you and keep you; May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace. Numbers 4:24-26