You're His Child

Read Genesis 9-10
 
Gen 9:6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.”
 
MOST people cannot understand that capital punishment originated with God. A primary reason for the Great Flood was mankind’s growing tendency to murder one another. Remember, too, Cain’s murder of his brother Abel is mankind’s first sin against another person. Murder is a direct assault on God and his children. Thus, we can see this post-flood command in the light of God’s love for you.
    Thus, he made a rule. We don’t like it, but history and the daily news tells us how vital this rule is. As a parent loves a child who has come from the parent, God loves you because you have come from him. His will is to protect you from harm and murder because you are created in his image. What does that mean?
    It means you have many of his traits. A child has his parents’ traits. And you have the traits of your Father in heaven. He’s given of himself to you. For example, you have the ability and desire to love and be loved. That comes from your Father God, the One who is love and the one who loves. You have the ability at some level to create. That comes from God. When you forgive someone, that is God’s forgiveness reflecting in you. And there are more. Knowing the profound truth that God has intimately given of himself to you and all people, your only response is to love God and love one another – to honor, not destroy, another’s life.
    Know, also, good parents will do anything to protect their children who are “made in their image”. Your Father God enacts a deep, eternal love to protect you from Hell. When you believe in Jesus’ crucifixion, death, resurrection and ascension, you are his child. He has saved you from sin’s death. No power apart from God will change that.
    In what seems to be a harsh command, see the love and mercy of the one who has created you in his image.
 
See and Know: You carry God’s image; let the world know His tender love.