Matthew Lee Smith
In His Image is the next step for those who have read The Purpose Driven Life. Following the Life Purpose of Mission, this book explores God's great love for humanity from every book of the Bible.
From the creation of Genesis to the culmination in Revelation, God’s love shines through every page. Never is this ever clearer than in the times of Israel’s great betrayal of their God. His passionate pursuit of His children can be heard dripping from his voice as He calls them (and us by proxy) back to His shelter and protection.
This book was written ...
• To convince the reader of God’s intense and immense love for them;
• To encourage the reader to reach out to the God who is passionately in love with them;
• To strengthen the reader’s faith in God’s compassion; and
• To motivate the reader to share the love of God with every person they meet. It is very clear God loves people of all races and ethnicities. Therefore, whenever appropriate to the passage of the day, emphasis is made on the issue of racial reconciliation around God’s love. His love becomes the motivation for evangelism and for community.
In each daily devotional ...
• There is a Biblical Scripture they are encouraged to read;
• There is a passage of Scripture to read in the devotional itself;
• There is the devotional to read which focuses the reader on a single thought, broken into two, three or four practical ideas they can utilize that day in their lives; and
• There is a thought to take with the reader each day which summarizes the theme concerning God’s great love for them.
Matthew was born and raised in rural Wisconsin. He graduated from Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, Illinois and Trinity College in Deerfield, Illinois. He also earned his Masters of Arts in Ministry from Moody Graduate School in Chicago and his Doctor of Philosophy in Christian Theology from California Pacific School of Theology, Glendale, California.
He has the habit of rising early to read the Bible and prayer, enjoying an intimate, spiritual walk with God and enjoying hundreds of answers to prayer every quarter, and hundreds of new insights monthly from God's Word (having read it cover-to-cover 26 times since 1993). Currently he has some 20,000 plus topical observations from the Bible that are a direct result of God’s intimate work during his devotional time.
He is the founder of Eagles In Leadership, a para-church organization which seeks to develop the God-given potential of men and women through a weekly E-letter, conferences, spiritual growth tools and spiritual mentoring and coaching of both individuals, churches and organizations.
For the past 25 years he has had the joy and pleasure of pastoring churches in California, Iowa and Florida serving as a youth pastor, mission pastor, solo pastor and senior pastor. He has taught in seminaries and Bible schools as well as led conferences in both the United States and Mexico. Matthew has been a church consultant in the Southwest United States as well.
Currently he is Transformational Pastor at First Baptist Church of Palos Verdes, CA (South Bay), Adjunct faculty member at California Baptist University, Riverside, CA, California Pacific School of Theology, Glendale, CA and Colorado Christian University, Lakewood, CO. He is a member of Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.
January 1 Read: Genesis 1-3
In His Image
"So God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself; male and female he created them." Genesis 1:27 (NLT)
Who am I? Self-Esteem, self-image and self worth are all key to our value. Here we see that we are very special, of incredible worth! Our worth flows from our unique creation by the hand of God. Every designer has a purpose for His work. You are no exception. You are wonderfully and specifically made by God for His own purposes. We have been created! Stop to think about the myths so prevalent today. Evolution teaches that you are the result of random chance and circumstance. Somehow, over time and genetic mutation, you came to be. God however tells us that we are carefully and skillfully made. He tells us that we were hand-crafted in heaven! The psalmist responds to this thought by saying, “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—and how well I know it (Psalm 139:13-14).”
We have been created in God’s image! Not only are we hand-crafted by God, we have been made to look like the model. That model is God! Contemplate the enormity of that statement. You possess many of the inner qualities of God Himself!
We have been patterned after God Himself! He used His person as the pattern for your being. God loves, so we love. God rejoices, so we rejoice. God communicates, so we communicate. As we walk on this journey this year, we will discover many of the characteristics of God have been impressed upon our being because He is the pattern for our nature!
We, together as male and female, find our fulfillment as His image bearers! God dwells in community. As the Godhead, he communicates and has relationship with Himself. We are patterned after that image and we too find our ultimate fulfillment of His image when we are united together with the opposite sex in marriage. Then the facets of our differing perspectives begin to reveal the complexity of God’s character and the unity of His diversity in personhood.
Thought for today: You were made for a purpose. You were made for a reason. You were made from a model, and that model is God Himself. Today, begin to seek out that purpose and fulfill all that you were designed to be by asking God for guidance to do His will for your life.
