_{Are you a Christ Look A Like?}

_{A look-alike is a living person who closely resembles another living person. In popular Western culture, a look-alike is a person who bears a close physical resemblance to a celebrity, politician or member of royalty. Many look-alikes earn a living by making guest appearances at public events or performing on television and film, playing the person they resemble.}

_{It has been reported that today there are over 10,000 Elvis impersonators performing all over the world. These impersonators come in all sizes, shapes, ethnicity and even gender. There is a black Elvis, a Mexican Elvis, a female Elvis,a Greek Elvis an Indian Elvis and even a child Elvis. There are Elvis contests and festivals held in various parts of the world at different times of the year. One can catch a tribute show on the Vegas strip where Elvis lives on portrayed by the various tribute artists who have graced the stage.}

_{Having just returned from Branson, Missouri I too have witnessed several Elvis impersonators during my week long stay. All of these portrayals were intended to be comedic and were not in my opinion doing service to the memory of “the King”. Over acting, poor singing, bad hair and costuming made for great comic relief but failed to bring any dignity or meaning to the now deceased Elvis Aaron Presley. This type of impersonating made a joke out of the life and legacy of Elvis.}

_{One would have to wonder if all these poorly done impersonations have a negative effect on the original? How many poor imitations does it take to devalue the original work?}

 

_{Anyone who has ever made copies on a copy machine knows the importance of using a clean original before attempting to make a copy. Each subsequent copy degrades in quality until a point where it becomes unusable. Making copies of copies would cause you to have a less than pristine finished product.}

_{Graphic artists tell us that in order to reproduce a graphic it is best to start with a large, good quality original in order to provide the best reproduction in a printed work. This article, in order to reproduce properly, is preserved in its original quality via Adobe portable document format. An actual picture is taken of the original and preserved for later reproduction. It is amazing what modern technology has accomplished.}

_{If one is not concerned about quality then any copy will do. Copies of copies are acceptable even unto the third and forth reproduction. It does not matter the quality only the content. As long as the content can be recognized from the original then it is considered good enough.}

 

_{Perhaps this explains the less than quality performances I witnessed from these “Elvis impersonators” in Branson. Perhaps a “good enough” representation of the original was all the impersonator had in mind.}

 

_{When it comes to our Christian worship good enough is not what God is looking for in His representatives on life’s stage. He is looking for EXACT duplications of His life and character. Good enough is not the standard by which God measures our performance as Christians. He looks toward the original as the example. We must model Christ-like behavior and attitudes in order to be true ambassadors for God.}

_{The best Elvis impersonator would make every effort to not only look like but also sound like and perform like the original. He would attempt to accurately represent the original artist. Much time and effort would have to be spent studying the original in order to present a good reproduction.}

 

_{We too must spend time with the original in order to model our lives like Him.}

 

_{Unlike the Elvis impersonators we have a living example whom we can call on at anytime to get performance reviews. Taking time to talk to God in prayer, reading His word and being led by the Spirit of God are all helps to makes us like Christ.}

_{When you know what an original looks like it is far easier to spot an imitation.}

 

_{There are many impersonating the life of Christ but we are called to imitate that life. Taking care to be modeling our life after the author Himself rather than a derivative work of someone else. Let us not copy a copy but mirror the original. Our worship should be an exact duplication of the original Jesus. The author Himself lives within us to work and to do of His good pleasure. He wants for us to become all we can be by being transformed into His likeness.}

 

_{But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit. 2 Cor 3:18 (ASV}

_{Albrecht Dürer, a German painter who was a friend of Luther painted a self-portrait (1500) in which he chose to portray himself in a manner that had hitherto been reserved for devotional renderings of divinity! Apparently the facial features on the self-portrait are his, but Dürer painted himself in conformity with medieval depictions of Christ! His positioning of his hand, for example, is in the style that heretofore had been reserved for the act of blessing used by painters when portraying the “Saviour of the World”. (Scott N. Morschauser, “Created in the Image of God: The Ancient Near Eastern Background of the Imago Dei, Theology Matters, Vol. 3, No. 6, Nov/Dec 1997)}

_{Dürer’s self-portrait is certainly provocative, for while some have derided it as an example of personal vain-glory, others have defended it, saying that “the creative power of a good painter derives from, and to some measure is part of the creative power of God….” Dürer himself wrote, “God is honored when it appears that He has given such insight to a creature in whom such art resides.” Some have said, in Dürer’s defense, that the painting in question states, not what the artist claims to be, but what he most humbly endeavors to become.}

_{WHO ARE WE?}

_{What is a human being?}

• “A prisoner,” answered Plato (428-389 B.C.).
• “A reasoning animal,” replied the first-century thinker, Seneca.
• “Stark mad,” countered Michel Montaigne (1533-1592), 16th century French essayist.

_{What is a human being?}

• “A noble animal,” replied Sir Thomas Browne, 17th century (1605-82) English physician and essayist, allowing us a lot of wiggle-room between nobility and beastliness.
• “Born free,” replied Rousseau (1712-1778), 18th century French philosopher.
• “A beast,” replied Thomas Percy (1729-1811), English poet and bishop, though I’m not sure if he said this while wearing his poet’s hat, or while wearing the bishop’s mitre.
• An American poet (Louis Untermeyer, 1885-1977), on the other hand, said that the essential human being is “great and strong and wise.”
• And “Master of his fate,” added Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892).

_{What is a human being?}

• “Small potatoes,” answered Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936).

_{In pre-Nazi Germany the answer frequently quoted was this: “The human body contains a sufficient amount of fat to make seven cakes of soap, enough iron to make a medium-sized nail, a sufficient amount of phosphorus to equip two thousand match-heads, enough sulfur to rid one’s self of one’s fleas”–a chilling estimation of human worth, especially in light of what transpired in the extermination camps.}

_{A half-century ago American novelist William Faulkner, in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, said, “I believe that man will not merely endure, he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice but because he has a soul, a spirit, capable of compassion and sacrifice and honour… Machines endure and animals survive; but only man can prevail.” (Saturday Review, February 3, 1951) An optimistic post-war view of the human race, but like some of Canada’s submarines, slightly dented!}

_{More recent answers to the ages-old question of our human identity and worth are not inspiring. A college-level textbook says that a human being is “an ingenious assembly of portable plumbing”. The Encyclopedia Britannica (Eleventh Edition) says that a human being “is a seeker after the greatest degree of comfort for the least necessary expenditure of energy.” Then there’s the philosophically-inclined cartoon, Calvin and Hobbes. In one strip (10/16/93) Calvin is standing in front of his bedroom mirror, stripped down, and flexing his muscles while proudly saying, “Made in God’s own image! Yes! Yes!” Meanwhile his sardonic companion, Hobbes, is flopped on the floor beside him, disgusted at Calvin’s self-absorbed preening. “God,” says Hobbes, “must have a goofy sense of humour.”}

_{Created in God’s Image}

_{And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Gen 1:27 (ASV)}

_{The bible clearly states in Genesis that we have been made in God’s own image. Male and female created He them. This is not be accident or happenstance for God was working His desire to have fellowship with His creation. It was for this purpose we have been created to bring glory to God. After the fall of man it was required for Jesus to come and reset the clock so to speak making it again possible for the created to worship the creator in both spirit and truth.}

_{Those who discount the bible account of creation render unto man incalculable hardships and miseries for they remove the God from man and place man amongst the animals. When we know our rightful place in God’s plan then and only then are we able to live above the fray and become children of God. It is this lowly estate that the enemy wants to relegate us to that has brought about all manner of hardships upon humankind. It was for this reason that Jesus came to die to restore the rightful order of things. He made a way back to God. A way for us to be like Him.}

_{The biblical narrative is full of hope and love and joy for all mankind. God wants so much to have fellowship with you and I that He made a way for it to happen. All me must do is believe His story and let Him rewrite our story. Many of us have fallen prey to foolishness of our thinking and we have left the good road for a road far less rewarding. Turn again to the God of our father’s and let Him restore unto you the joy of salvation in your heart. We are made a little lower than the angels created by God in His own likeness in order to bring glory to His name.}

_{This is why it is called the Gospel for it means Good news. The good news is that we do not have to live like animals or in fear and distrust. God has reordered our lives so that we can fulfill the promise of doing good which He Himself has prepared for us to do. After all He did say “It is good…”}

_{Let us allow God’s Spirit to renew us according to the image of our creator, that we might grow in grace and in Christ’s likeness.}