IN THE MIRROR: YOUR SELF-IMAGE

[Terry Scerine]

Nearly everyone has a distorted self-image. We are typically our own worst judges not only of our physical appearance, but also of our character and personality. No matter how much we look at ourselves in the mirror and consider our impressions on others, we cannot see ourselves as others really see us. Mostly, I attribute this to a sort of spiritual blindness.

And our only accurate self-image should be how God our Father sees us.

When we look at ourselves in a mirror, though we may be able to see with our eyes we don't always perceive ourselves accurately. We don't perceive ourselves in the light of reality (reality being God's view).

You should have an anti-virus program always running in your brain, so that as soon as one of those types of viruses (wrong thoughts about yourself) "swims in", your anti-virus program surrounds it, isolates and destroys it, replacing it with what God says is the truth about you!

A person's negative self-image verdict is most always a lie. Our own self-image is generally the product of what we've been told by others since we were children; and we tend to emulate who we've been led to believe we are by others. For instance, If you were convinced by others as a child that you're no good, you will tend to live your whole life in that image of yourself.

The reality about you is God's Word about YOU personally. If you are a true born-again believer in Jesus, you must know and agree that you are a fearfully and wonderfully made child of the King whom He has personally and specifically hand-chosen for adoption for His own good pleasure.

And why did He choose you? Because he foreknew you. How? Because He knit you together Himself. You, like king David (at one point himself even being an adulterer and murderer), are "a man after His own heart".

(Ac 13:22) ...I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart...
(1Sa 13:14) ...the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart...
(1 Kings 9:4) And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart..
(1 Kings 11:4) And his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.
(2 Chron 16:9) For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.

Why Did He Choose You?

No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:44)

God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Cor 1:9)

But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thes 2:13-14)

...for many be called, but few chosen. (Matthew 20:16)

We can be pretty sure He didn't choose you for your sinful past and for your mistakes and failings. So what then?

My own belief is that He has chosen YOU for the particular combination of qualities that are so uniquely yours!

You are a totally unique, one-in-a-zillion to Him. You with your talents and qualities, even with your weaknesses, combined with all your life experiences that have given you the understanding and insights you have, makes you the one-in-a-zillion perfect choice for a position in His Kingdom that no one else could fill. If you didn't fill it, it might have to go vacant.

But it's all about your heart, your heart of love for our Lord, your heart to please Him.

I am pretty convinced that when Our Father and Our Lord "think" of you, they only see your unique strengths and qualities that they love about you. They only see the unique reason they want you to be with them throughout eternity. I really don't believe they see anything other than that, because they know that when you are glorified (which is scriptural), only your Christ-like qualities will remain for eternity. They regard you as who you will be once you're finished.

I personally believe this following scripture is not a statement generalized for a "people", but is speaking about each of us as individuals. Otherwise, it wouldn't say "whom", it would say "those"...

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he (Jesus) might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. (Romans 8:29)

Isn't that awesome? And notice that it is written in past tense, as if it's already happened!

If you are truly a born-again believer in Jesus, you're as good as already glorified, a done deal in God's mind! Those He foreknew, already called, already conformed to the image of Christ, already justified, and already glorified according to Him. How amazing is that?

Here's my own take on "foreknew": God knew way ahead of time that I would grow to become a man after His own heart (loving Him). But that's because I'm convinced He can see the future without being in control of it.

And here's my take on "predestinate": Knowing that I would one day make the free-will choice to surrender my life over to Him, He arranged circumstances to bring me to that point in my life when I would be ready to make that choice. He set me up for it!

God being able to see into my future, to see that I would one day make a freewill choice to accept His free gift of salvation and surrender my life to Him and love Him and devote my life to Him, is beyond the scope of our human understanding, but that doesn't mean it can't be true. And I am not a calvinist or armenianist or anything else - I am purely a Truth-ist, a God's Word - ist.

My Thoughts About Myself

So when I think negatively about myself, isn't that actually sinful? If a negative thought about myself swims in, and I regard it and uphold it, it's kind of like calling God a liar, isn't it? "Yeah, the Bible says I'm a child of God and He loves me and all, but I know better. The truth is, I'm ugly and worthless and no good."

Do I know better than God? Should I feel free to second-guess how He sees me? At the very least, whenever I think poorly about myself, I render myself less effective for God. I bring myself down. It's just not okay.

When I think poorly of myself, it makes me want to sink into it. It's like taking one of God's tools that He's trying to keep clean and well-oiled, and throwing it into the dirt.

But when I regard myself as God does, it makes me want to be a better man!

(1 Sam 16:7) For the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.

You know what I love about myself? I love what's in my heart that is of God, that is from Him. I love how much I love goodness and hate wickedness. And I am perfectly well aware that anything good about me and anything I know of God has been put in me by Him.

(Matthew 16:15-17) He saith unto them, "But whom say ye that I am?" And Simon Peter answered and said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered and said unto him, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven."

Yes, any "spiritual blindness" we have about ourselves compared to how God sees us is of the enemy. We need to keep that anti-virus program running in our brains to snatch those enemy thoughts about ourselves when they swim in, take them immediately captive, and wash them away with some ready scriptures of the truth of how God sees us, and of God's incredible love for us.

Throw away your own earthly mirror you may have grown accustomed to using, and use God's. I don't want to doubt or second-guess God's Word about anyone or anything, whether it's what I've always believed or want to believe or not, including about myself. It's unbecoming of an adopted child of the Master and Creator of the Universe. I must believe only what He says about me and His incredible love for me, knowing He's certainly no fool in choosing me.

Are you a man or woman after God's own heart? Do you love goodness and justice, and hate evil and wickedness? Are you one of His very own King Davids? Have you surrendered control of your earthly life entirely to Jesus, accepting Him as your Lord and Savior?

If so, then be free to live in the Joy of knowing how much He loves you and how special you are to Him, and stay closely tuned to Him for more!

[James Lindquist]

Very good blog Terry. It is on the same theme as mine. Cool. Isn't God neat, the way He does stuff like that.

Couple of spots in your blog that I'd love to comment on but first, I'd like to give you a short excerpt from my second book, The Rose of Sharon. I believe it will coincide with your "foreknew" statement.

"When John wrote about Christ's death on the Cross, those moments in time were preordained before the foundation of the world by the Father when He formulated His plan for His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Before they hammered the first nail, God the Father watched His Son hang on the Cross. Before God created Adam, the Father witnessed the soldier pierce Jesus' side with the spear. Christs' Blood fell to the ground before Jehovah God even spoke the Earth into existence. When you are a transcendental being, time, space, and dimension mean nothing to you."

So I agree with you on your take of "foreknow." God not only can see the future. . .He created it. I also love the "predestinate" take. I agree. He certainly set you up alright, He already knew. I am reminded of Psalms 37:4: "Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." It's easy to give somebody something when He's already given them to us. God gave you the desires of your heart before He said, "Let there be light." How awesome is that!?

I loved the part in your blog when you reminded us of God renaming Peter, Simon Bar-Jona. I wonder how many of us let the enemy name us and not God? I would rather have God name me than Satan. Not only with Matthew 16:15-17 but I am also reminded of Genesis 32:28 when God named somebody else. His name was Jacob. God renamed him Israel. When God names us, things would appear to work out pretty fair and we can be very confident in who we are "in Christ." So when people try and attach a name to us, be it stupid, clumsy, weak, or whatever, we can, with confidence, say, "I am a child of God and He says that I am the apple of His eye and I am confident of who I am "in Christ," to which you've eluded.

Like you say, we need to take bad thoughts captive as 2 Cor 10:5 tells us to do: "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. . ." Spot on bro.

Excellent brother. Have a good one.

[maggie hancox]

There is loads of stuff on Youtube to be found like this. I esspecially like old songs that have the words. Some of them are so powerful still today.
I will be posting them on my videos for anyones perusual.
I only just discovered that ability the other day, that and how to post these on here.
What a marvelous site this is!
Have a great day :)

[Terry Scerine]

Actually, Maggie, it's very much my taste. A great and very, very important message carried along by great music!

[maggie hancox]

Always something interesting to read on your page :)
This came to mind, it may not be your taste but I thought it was wonderful message all the same.

[Charles Burwell]

Dear Terry

I couldn't agree more about your comment on " No man can come to Me except the Father draw him'. 'Therein lies the mystery that we'd be better off not trying to figure out , I suppose."

Some things God want us to accept simply because He said them. I am learning , as mentoned in the comment above that God will help me understand what is important to my daily walk and is allowing me to just let the rest go until it's the time to understand it. And so I will gladly leave discussion of that verse to minds better than mine.

God bless you my brother.

In His service

[Terry Scerine]

Actually, Charles, it doesn't seem to me that we are in disagreement at all. I agree 100% with everything you've written in this last comment, especially the following:

"Actually I believe that establishing this type of relationship with Him is our 'only ' priority and that all our Christian service is a by product ( again for lack of a better word) of that relationship. but that's just my take.

So with this concept in mind I see this scripture as God predestining our ' purpose' as being " conformed to the image of His Son'. Then that leads me to my only real priority as drawing closer to God and He will give me what answers I need and make it ' alright' if he doesn't answer me on other things. In addition to that any outreach of any kind will just naturally flow from that relationship."

You hit the nail squarely on the head in those two paragraphs! I couldn't have said it better myself! And as Paul put it, "I'll show you my faith by my works." As you put it, the works will be a natural by-product of the close relationship, and the close relationship is always the priority. WELL PUT, brother!

I just also know that "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him:" Therein lies the mystery that we'd be better off not trying to figure out, I suppose. But I'm sure He drew you personally, and I just figure He must have had a reason for drawing you that had something to do with you personally, and it must have been something about your heart. But that's not important to know. Just know that you are a special person to Him.

[Charles Burwell]

Dear Terry

Thank you for your attempt at explaining. I guess I have this take on these scriptures is because of a couple of things God has been dealing with me about recently. Strangly enough, or maybe not so strangely, one of the things was from one of you posts. I think it was about Does God have a plan for my life? I don't remember the exact title and if I look it up it will erase what I've already typed.

Anyhow you mention in this letter that you had written to someone, , I think was what you said it was, some of the questions that God had presented to you. The one that really hit home was when you mentioned
" If I never explain what I'm doing will it still be alright?" Imentioned in my comment below that how timely your post was that day and it really was.

Anyhow, that just confirmed to me something that God was dealing with me about and that was that His first priority for me. He confirmed that my , and all other christians , first priority was to establish ( for lack of a better word ) a firm and close relationship with Him. Then He would lead me into whatever He wants me to do. I was kind of getting the cart before the horse, so to speak.

Actually I believe that establishing this type of relationship with Him is our 'only ' priority and that all our Christian service is a by product ( again for lack of a better word) of that relationship. but that's just my take.

So with this concept in mind I see this scripture as God predestining our ' purpose' as being " conformed to the image of His Son'. Then that leads me to my only real priority as drawing closer to God and He will give me what answers I need and make it ' alright' if he doesn't answer me on other things. In addition to that any outreach of any kind will just naturally flow from that relationship.

Anyhow, thats why I see it the way I do. It doesn't bother me that others have a different opinion because I believe the word of God is living and active , and God can use the same scripture to bless different people in different ways as He sees fit. It's all a matter of letting the Holy Spirit lead us into all truth. I'm certain that we can agree on that.

God bless you my brother and I look forward to your posts in the future. I have been blessed by many of them.

In His service.

[Terry Scerine]

Dear Charles, thank you for your comment. I don't think you're being argumentative at all! I know there are many different takes on "foreknew" and "predestinate" depending on who you listen to. Calvinists lean heavily on that verse, but I think Calvinism is a wrong doctrine, to put it mildly.

As I've mentioned, I'm not a Calvinist, I am a Truth-ist. That's not to say I'm right, but I forsake the teachings of others (since there are so many conflicting versions among "biblical scholars" anyway) in favor of what I read combined with the Holy Spirit's revelation of God's Word to me. I needed to understand that whole verse, and so I meditated on it, in context, for probably many days or weeks, praying that God would give me His wisdom to discern the truth of it.

No one ever knows when a person is ready to sincerely surrender their heart to Jesus as their Savior. If you had come and preached the Word to me a few months prior to my salvation, I would not have heard it. I wasn't ready. But I'm convinced that God knew exactly when I would be ready to hear and accept the Gospel, and He arranged for me to hear it at the perfect time for me. All others before that had been just planting seeds in me. They might have walked away thinking, "Well, it doesn't look as if God has predestined Terry, so there's no use wasting our time on him."

This is what I think is so dangerous about Calvinism. If God decides in advance who will be saved and who won't, there's no use at all preaching the Gospel to the unsaved, right? It's funny, because a confirmed Calvinist preacher I once knew, testified to me how his friend had shared the Gospel with him relentlessly until he finally accepted it.

We humans cannot comprehend "foreknew". How could God know in advance that I would one day accept Jesus, without Him actually having to make me do it? And what about "predestinate"? Doesn't that mean that he controlled my destiny and made me do it? I think both of these words are sorely misunderstood by our natural human minds.

Have you read my blog post, IF GOD EXISTS, WHY DOESN'T HE PROVE IT? I believe God wants us to love Him, and love can only be a freewill choice. Therefore, God cannot have any control over that, otherwise it wouldn't be our own freewill choice.

Preach the Gospel to a crowd, and maybe there will be several among them who accept the Gospel and become born-again, right? Can you imagine that for them, God predestinated them to be in attendance there at that exact time that you were preaching it because He already knew they would be ready right then to finally accept it? And as for the rest, maybe some will accept it the next time they hear it, or maybe never. But it will still be up to them entirely. Only God knows.

Some seeds will fall on rocky ground, some will fall on fertile ground, etc. We never know when it will be the perfect time for someone to hear the Gospel.

I don't know if this has helped, but I hope so. Or, maybe I'm all wrong about all of it. But I don't think so. I see the good fruit, and consider it confirmation.

Thanks Charles!



I consider that "predestinated" means merely that He arranged for me to hear the Gospel right at the time I was ready for it. A destiny is an intersection of two things, an event. He arranged for me to intersect with, or for me to be presented with, the Gospel at the perfect time. At least that's what the Holy Spirit gave me about the word.

[Terry Scerine]

Thank you Therese! Judging by the wonderful, good fruit of what those words in this post have done in your heart, I consider that they are from God, maybe specifically for you alone! I think He has shown you some special attention here.

By seeing "foreknew" and "predestinate" the way I have, it has done a wonderful work in my own heart as well! It just makes me love Him more, to think that He has hand-chosen me because of something special about me. And we know He looks at the heart.

I think that He has chosen and drawn you, Therese, because of something so special about you that He wants you to be with Him throughout eternity. I think He looks forward to enjoying your company, just as we enjoy the company of our very closest friends. And this is not too hard to believe for me at all. I already know you are a uniquely wonderful person. Yet, it was your own freewill choice to accept His free gift and eternal life with him. I can imagine why the angels rejoiced over your salvation! I think maybe they're looking forward to meeting you too.

[Charles Burwell]

Dear Terry

As usual you have presented a well researched blog. I do have a couple questions that I would like to ask and please believe that I'm not being argumentative these are sincere questions.

Concerning ' foreknowledge' and 'predestination' . I would like to present the way I was taught and would like your take on it.

Concerning 'foreknowledge' . In the Amplified Bible Rom. 8:29 it does start out saying "For THOSE whom He foreknew...". By this, in my understanding , it referers to God knowing that here would be those who would accept Him without specifically knowing which ones. Though I'm not so foolish as to believe that God doesn't know all things past, present and future. It just confuses me that He would want us to go out into the world and preach to everyone if He foreknew which ones would NOT accept Him. In other words why would He want us to waste ( a very poor choice of words but I don't know how else to present my question) the time talking to those who He KNEW would NOT accept Him.? Again , I'm not trying to be facitious I honestly can't figure that out.

The way I understood ( and I'm not saying whose right or wrong) is as follows. The foreknowlegded ones are ones that God knew would believe without necessarily knowing the individuals. And that the predestined purpose for those who did( again by free will ) accept Jesus was to be conformed to the image of His Son.

The reason for this interpretation ( or more accurately ,opinion ) is because of what Paul said in
Eph. 2:10 - ' for we are His workmanship , created in Christ Jesus for good works, WHICH THE FATHER
PREPARED BEFOREHAND that we should walk therein."

( Capital letters were not that I was yelling at you , they were simply to clarify why I was referencing this scripture.)
Any how , it seems , (again in my opinion) that what was foreknown was that people would turn to Him through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ; and that those who did turn to Him had a predetermined purpose , which was to be ' conformed to the image of His Son. Which is referenced by " We are His workmanship..." In other words I believe that the purpose was predetermined and that the foreknowledge was that there would be those who would accept Jesus as Savior ( once again without knowing specifically which ones.) Jesus did say that the harvest is great and the laborers are few. Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send laborer. So I don't understand why if , as Jesus stated that' the harvesters are few' , would He send harvesters to people who He knew would NOT accept Him?

Again, please don't think that I'm being argumentative I just have a problem (nothing unusual there ) reconciling foreknowledge and free will.

I just realized I'm late to getting to the airport and need to stop for now. Please don't think I'm disputing for the sake of disputing I just need some help in reconciling the 'free-will with the foreknowledge.

God bless you my friend .

In His service