Through the Lenses of the Creator: A journey of finding purpose, identity, and worth in Christ Jesus

By Marie Ketlie Isidort

Discover who you are and how to view yourself through God's own lenses.

Have you ever felt like taking a break from the demands and expectations of life and sit alone with yourself? Wondering who you are, where did you come from, and where are you going in life? If so, you are not alone. In this book, the author shares her own story of str

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Jan 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9781637696651

Book preview

Isidort_FrontCover_Version1_10.11.21.jpg

Through the Lenses of the Creator

A journey of finding purpose, identity, and worth in Christ Jesus

By

Marie Ketlie Isidort

Though the Lenses of the Creator

Trilogy Christian Publishers A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network

2442 Michelle Drive Tustin, CA 92780

Copyright © 2021 by Marie Ketlie Isidort

Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 2015 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org. Scripture quotations marked ERV are taken from the Holy Bible: Easy-to-Read Version, International Edition© 2013, 2016 by Bible League International and used by permission. Scripture quotations marked EASY are taken from the EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.TM Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.TM. Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from the MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Scripture quotations marked TPT are from the Passion Translation®. Copyright © 2017, 2018 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked TLB are taken from the Living Bible copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. ThePassionTranslation.com. Scripture quotations marked TLV are taken from the Holy Scriptures, Tree of Life Version*. Copyright © 2014, 2016 by the Tree of Life Bible Society. Used by permission of the Tree of Life Bible Society.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without written permission from the author. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA.

Rights Department, 2442 Michelle Drive, Tustin, CA 92780.

Trilogy Christian Publishing/TBN and colophon are trademarks of Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Cover design by: Grant Swank

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Trilogy Christian Publishing.

Trilogy Disclaimer: The views and content expressed in this book are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views and doctrine of Trilogy Christian Publishing or the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN: 978-1-63769-664-4

E-ISBN: 978-1-63769-665-1

Dedication

To my dearest friend, the Holy Spirit. When you confirmed it to me a few years ago to pick up the pen and start writing, I struggled to put down the words on paper the first year around. I now believe that it was due to my not knowing how to work with you yet. I attempted to carry out the task of completing this book on my own strength; it only led to fears and frustrations. When I finally mounted up the courage to invite you in, you came in like a rushing wind and filled me with the right inspiration to continue the journey of completing this book. When procrastinations, sicknesses, and spiritual attacks knocked on the doors of my heart and mind, you reminded me that I was writing answers to prayers that had not even been prayed yet. That in itself motivated me to keep going. You are my greatest encourager and helper. I don’t know the purpose behind that book yet, but I do believe there is someone out there going through the same experiences that I went through who is currently praying to King Jesus for deliverance from identity issues. My heart’s deepest desires and prayers are that you will place it in the hands of the people whom you desire to give it to and use it to remind them that they are known, loved, and accepted by the King of kings who is constantly pursuing them even to the point of death on the cross two thousand years ago.

Acknowledgments

This book writing process has been a journey, but it was all worth it. Three years ago, the Lord confirmed it to me at church to start writing this book, and He gave me His Spirit and strength to complete it. I am grateful to Him for entrusting me with this assignment.

To my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ: eight years ago, I was this feared-bound little girl who opened up her heart and let you in. You changed my life. I never knew there was an actual book inside of me, but you did because you placed it there. You made my heart, and you knew what I was capable of. You made sure to bring it out at the proper time. For that, I am beyond grateful to you.

To my parents, Joseph and Marie, thank you for your prayers and for the values you have instilled in my siblings and me. To my siblings, Will, William, Marcus, and Sylvania, thank you for believing in me and always investing in me. You all are the greatest siblings and friends in this journey called life which I am called to walk through with. To my mentor, Chantel, thank you for taking me by the hand and teaching me how to pursue God relentlessly when I was away in school in Miami. To my dear friends Ana and Beth, when we first met at orientation in the nursery at Christ Fellowship, I was in a dark place in my life. You two have been the greatest gifts from the Lord to me. To the Young Women in Life’s Group, thank you for your weekly prayers and encouragement. The Lord used you over the years to speak life over me and encourage me to keep going because God is in control of everything. To my high school teacher and math coach, Mr. Lee, when my brother Marcus and I crossed paths with you, we did not speak a single word of English, but you saw the potential in us and invested in us. To all my relatives and friends, if I were to put down every single one of your names and how much you have been a blessing in my life, this page of this book would not be enough to contain everything. I am grateful to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for allowing me to cross paths with every single one of you. I am blessed beyond words to have all of you in my life.

Introduction

In a world where every single one of us is looking for our own little niche, a habitat where we can fit in with no judgment, an environment where we can flourish and blossom into our best selves, Through the Lenses of the Creator invites the readers to filter life and everything in between through the right lenses—those of the Father. In this book, we will discover that we all have been charged with the task of answering the purpose and identity questions that the world has been striving to answer for centuries past: Who am I? Where did I come from? And where am I going? None of us are exempt from answering them. Not even myself.

We all are looking for a place where we can call home. A place where we are known, accepted, and loved in spite of ourselves. Such a place does exist, and that place is in fellowship and complete dependency on the Father in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior through the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus modeled this example for us when He journeyed the earth two thousand years ago. There are many instances in the four gospels where Jesus would withdraw from the crowds and went away to be alone with the Father. But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer (Luke 5:16, NLT). The Father is constantly beckoning us to come away with Him and breathe the fresh air of His glorious presence and peace in Christ Jesus.

I am an immigrant, meaning that I am not a native-born of this country. I was born in another country. My entire family and I relocated to the United States of America over a decade ago. That relocation took place because my parents envisioned and prayed for God to place them in a place where my siblings and I would flourish and blossom into God’s purposes for our lives. God answered their prayers. We found our little habitat here in this country. Since then, we have been flourishing and blossoming into who God has called us to be after revealing Himself to each and every one of us individually.

Just like many others over the years, I struggled to answer the purpose and identity questions. I struggled with knowing who I was, where I came from, and where I was heading in life. That failure to answer these questions resulted in my own struggle with the identity crisis. From struggling with identity issues, heartbreaks, and chasing the winds to finding a place where I belong in Christ Jesus. I invite you all to journey with me as I share my own experience of finding purpose, identity, and worth in Christ Jesus and God’s pursuit of us throughout history since the fall of mankind.

All of us are familiar with some forms of crises of some sorts. A crisis can best be thought of as an event that has the potential to affect the fundamental structures of a social system. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a crisis is defined as an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs in which a decisive change is impending. When a crisis occurs, it always leads to some form of disruption in the normal way of life. There are several different types of crises that exist in our world today. Some examples include financial, natural, technological, existential, and so on. A crisis can be caused by both human activities or simply by natural causes. Throughout history, the world has faced several different crises, and the aftermaths of these crises usually last for decades, if not centuries. One of the biggest crises that humanity is facing as we speak today is the identity crisis. The best way to actually understand that type of crisis is by asking the appropriate questions. In the same way that asking questions helps to gather the right information regarding the understanding of a crisis, applying the root cause analysis system is another great tool to get to the root cause of the crises that we are facing today.

Questions open doors to information; with this information comes knowledge, and the application of this knowledge is wisdom. Questions like Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? have dominated the minds of every human being on this planet since the fall of mankind from the beginning. So far, there is only one person who has successfully answered them. Regardless of who you are, where you come from, or your religious background, whether you grew up in a Christian home or not, you are not exempt from asking yourself these questions. Regardless of your race, gender, or socioeconomic status, you are not exempt from asking and answering these questions as well. Failures to asking and answering them normally result in a purposeless life. We were all created to walk through this life with a purpose and for a purpose. Leading a life with purpose is our greatest success, whereas one without purpose can be our greatest tragedy. Everything we do and everything we desire is driven by those three questions. Scientists over the years have come up with multiple theories to explain them; however, there is only one person throughout history who has successfully answered all three. I am always intrigued by science; as someone who majored in biology back in college, the more I studied about nature, the more the parallels that exist between the natural and the supernatural become visible to me. In other words, it is undeniable. What if the questions like Who am I? Where did I come from? or Where am I going? were only meant to stir up our inner curiosity about God the Father? What if the sole purpose of Him engraving these questions in our minds and in our hearts was meant to wake us up to the reality of who He is? What if every conflict and dilemma we ever faced were all rooted back to the loss of the identity and dominion that we once had in the Garden of Eden—the presence of God. What if the answers to these questions are directly correlated to our purpose, our identity, and our worth? In that case, the identity crisis which our world is currently experiencing can best be defined as the misplacement of one’s true identity. The first man, Adam, sinned and lost his identity—since every human being descended from him; therefore, the identity crisis is, in fact, hereditary. As in spiritual hereditary. The spiritual genetic makeup of the human race has been affected by sin, thereby resulting not only in our natural death but also in our spiritual death. Therefore, the root cause of the identity crisis is, in fact, sin. Now, what is sin? Sin basically means to miss the mark. All of us have missed the mark. The Hebrew word for sin is chata which means to miss or go wrong. All of us have transgressed as a result of the first human being’s transgressions. In a world where many if not all of us are struggling with some form of identity issues, Through the Lenses of the Creator invites the readers to journey back to the origin of everything to find a fresh perspective on the outlook of life’s purpose, identity and worth through the lenses of God the Father. As each of us has been tasked to ask these questions of ourselves, we must all take a moment and answer them not only for our sake but for the sake of every heart we have been entrusted with. For the sake of our legacies and the generations that will come after us. One of the greatest gifts we can pass on to those around us and those who come after us is to be whole, healed, and complete. As we embark on this journey of seeing ourselves, others, and life itself through the lenses of the Creator, we must remain attentive to and be alert of the Father’s pursuit of every single one of us throughout history. The Father’s ultimate plan has always been for the redemption of humanity. As we journey through each chapter of this book, we will find that the only person who has successfully answered all three questions is really the one who laid down His life for us on that cross two thousand years ago—King Jesus, the Son of God. Thereby making Him the supreme example of who we are called to be like. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters (Romans 8:29, NLT).

Chapter 1: Identity Crisis

God first made one man. From that one man he made all the different groups of people. He caused them to live in different places all over the world. He decided where each group of people should live. He also decided how long they should live in each place.

Acts 17:26 (EASY)

As a little girl, I was always curious about how the mountains came to be or how the moon and the stars stationed themselves in the night sky, the sun at noonday, and the birds in the air. There was