Icon of God

On my computer desktop are little "icons". If I want to access a particular program I double click on the icon. But how does a person access God? The Bible gives us the answer:

He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
Colossians 1:15-18 (NIV)

The above passage was written by the Apostle Paul about Jesus Christ (Messiah). He wrote that "Jesus is the image of the invisible God." Paul wrote in the Greek language. The word translated "image" in English is the Greek word "icon".

Jesus is the ICON of the invisible God. The message of the New Testament is, "If you want to access God you go through Jesus."

People often wonder if there is a god, and if so what is this god like. Some people and cultures believe in many gods. What is true in our time, was true in the time of Jesus. People believed in different gods. People of the same faith tradition argued about what God was like. There has always been much confusion and disagreement.

Jesus came to clarify once and for all what God was like and how to relate to Him. Jesus said, "If you've seen me you've seen the Father." He told us that a soul-satisfying kind of life ("eternal life" He called it--not just quantity life without end, but quality life with purpose and joy) comes from knowing God.

"Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." (words of Jesus as recorded in John 17:3)

Jesus is the ICON of the invisible God. If you are searching to connect with God I believe the fulfillment of your search is found in the person of Jesus. Not the Jesus portrayed by the movies, most TV evangelists, or popular ficticious novels, but Jesus as revealed in the Gospel accounts of the New Testament.

Jesus was, and still is, revolutionary. "This man is not just another revolutionary, he is calling for a revolutionary new sort of revolution." (Brian McLaren, "The Secret Message of Jesus", p. 16)

His radical message and lifestyle have been distorted by culture and the church. Personally, I tried many pathways "up the mountain" to encounter God. Different relgions and philosphies, for me, all resulted in dead ends, short of my goal.

Then I discovered that Jesus had cut a path down the mountain to show me what God is really like! Jesus came so we could restore relationship with our Creator. "God was in Jesus, reconciling the world to himself, not counting men's sins against them..." (2 Corinthians 5:19)
I pray you will give the Gospels a fresh reading and discover the real Jesus, the icon of the invisible God.

~ Father, thank you for sending Jesus to show me who you are and how to have a relationship with you. Amen.