Cedric Pisegna - You Are God's Image (01/24/2026)
Hi, I’m Father Cedric Pisegna, the host of «Live with Passion». I’m so glad that you tuned into the program. I want to share with you from the beginning of the Bible, that’s Genesis chapter 1. «God created people in his own image. In the image of God, God created people. Male and female, God created them. God blessed them and he said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.'» This series is called «Be Fruitful,» and here we see, in the first chapter of the first book of the Bible, God says, «Be fruitful and multiply».
And you can be fruitful in many different ways. I already talked about in one of my other episodes, I talked about how prayer, connecting with God, is the foundation of being fruitful. In this particular episode, I want to talk about being fruitful as reaching for the stars, being creative, and realizing your potential. You see, God has created you and me in his own image and likeness. We have the stuff of God in us. We are a chip off the old block, if you will, and God’s nature is in us. And because God’s nature is in us, we have this desire to express ourselves, to realize our potential, to tease out the gifts and the talents that are within us. If you remember, Jesus preached a parable about talents, and he said, «To each person a certain amount of talents had been given».
Everybody has talent. We even have a show on television called «America’s Got Talent». Everybody’s got talents. They vary in difference, in degrees, but everybody’s got a talent. Speaking of chip off the old block, I wanted to tell you that I studied in Rome for a while, and one of my side trips was to go to Florence. In Florence, there is a beautiful museum called The Academia, and in the The Academia, my favorite artist did some work there, Michelangelo. You’re struck by David, that he sculpted the big tall David, but what I wanted to share with you is four sculptures that he did that not many people know about. They’re called the Unfinished Sculptures. And if you look, there’s a block of marble.
Scholars, or at least historians, have talked about that, and some people think that Michelangelo just didn’t finish those four blocks of marble, but some think that he did that purposely. He was trying to depict the human condition being made in the image of God. That all of us have this desire, this craving, this need, if you will, to to reach, to express ourself, to become our best. I always say reach for the stars, and at least you’ll get the moon. But if you don’t reach for something, you’re not gonna get anything. I remember it was Gloria Estefan, back in 1996 I believe it was, she sang a song that they used as the theme song for the Olympics that year, and it was simply call «Reach».
And it showed runners reaching for the finish line, or pole vaulters reaching to get over that bar. You have to understand that there’s… God’s stuff is in us. I know that’s kinda crass, but it’s true. We are a chip off the old block. We are like God. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. And God is creative, we just heard it in the first chapter of Genesis. God created human beings, male and female, in his image and likeness. That’s the first thing God does is create. We have that creative, innate desire, if you will. God is Father, mother, many of you are mothers. You have that desire to create, to be fruitful and multiply. That is in us, and I wanna proclaim that to you. That Michelangelo’s statues, those four statues that I saw really touched me, because I believe in artist form, it depicts the human spirit. We have soul. We’re created to become, if you will. We want to get out of slavery. We want to get out of just staying sedentary and stuck.
You did not just happen to be. It wasn’t because your parents dreamed you up. It wasn’t because of chance that you came to be. It wasn’t because of happenstance. Rather it says in the Scriptures God had you and me in mind, get this, before the world was created. Do you know that the world is 14 billion years old, scientists tell us? I read that the odds of us being born, get this, the odds of us being born are 140 trillion to one. The odds of you not being born are greater than the odds of you being born. This is the God we serve, and this is one of the reasons why you must spend time in praise and thanksgiving. Because God has done wondrous things. And he didn’t create us robots, he didn’t create us puppets.
Of course we have free will, that’s part of being in his image. We have intelligence, part of being in his image. We have soul, spirit, it says in the book of Ecclesiastes that God put eternity in our hearts. That’s part of being in God’s image. And as I said, we have this thrust, if you will, to want to realize our potential and become. I call it living with passion. You are rare and distinct. There is nobody on the face of the earth, and there are 8 billion people on the face of the earth, and nobody is like you. You’re rare and distinct. For example, nobody has your fingerprints, nobody has your toe prints, they’re all different than everybody else’s.
Psalm 139 says that we’re wonderfully and fearfully made. Your voice is distinct and different from everybody else. You have 80,000 miles of blood vessels and capillaries inside of you, 80,000 miles. That’s three times around the earth in you. Your nose can recognize a trillion different scents. Can you imagine that? And your tongue has 8,000 taste buds on it. Study the brain sometime, and you will have a religious experience. These are some of the characteristics and the qualities that God has given us, and we are in his image.
In other words, we are fearfully and wonderfully made, wow. Albert Einstein, one of the greatest intellectuals who ever lived, put it this way. He said there’s two ways of looking at life, as though nothing is a miracle, and a lot of people look at life that way, you know, they just take things for granted, nothing’s a miracle. This is the way things are. Things just kind of evolved that way. Or, everything is a miracle, and that’s the way I wanna live. I want to live with wonder, with awe, and just looking at my body and who I am, and really the unlimited potential and the untapped potential.
That’s why I’m always pushing you, because I want you to become all that you can be, not just some of what you can be, that’s tragic. Many people live without developing their potential, and I think that’s tragic because life is such a gift, and God has given us such wonder. This is how we thank God, by developing, by becoming, by realizing. Reach, reach, reach. Get out of that block of marble. Become all that you can be. Live with passion. I wanna continue by talking about a nine-year-old girl that I heard about. She was in science class, and they were talking about the wonders of the world, and they had a surprise test. And most, the majority of the class, answered this way.
The wonders, the seven wonders of the world, The Great Wall of China, Coliseum in Rome, Taj Mahal, Great Pyramids of Giza, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Stonehenge, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon. That’s what most of them said. But this one little girl, nine years old, came up with something totally different. She said to the teacher, The seven wonders of the world are this. «To see, to hear, to feel, to think, to laugh, to have relationships, to love». That is so true. That little girl is pretty wise. Isn’t that what God put in us? The ability to enjoy our life. The ability to perceive. The ability to love. The ability to have relationships, why? Because this is who God is. He has put his stuff in us. We are his image. And I don’t know how you can be bored with life when there’s so much going for us. And I want you to become.
You see, the image and the likeness of God is in there, but that’s potential, oftentimes potential unrealized. We are a diamond in the rough. In other words, there’s a diamond in there, it just needs to be formed. And a diamond, as you know, has all kinds of different facets. You are God’s image. You have his blessing in you. It was God, not happenstance, not even your parents. It was God, Psalm 139, who knit us together in our mother’s womb. God was the one who determined whether you were going to be a male or a female. God determined what you would look like. God determined your nature, your DNA to some degree, and all of us have that likeness, that image of God in us. We see in the book of Genesis that God is Father.
Remember the instinct of a father to create, to give life. And the book of Genesis is broken into seven days, creation is broken into seven days in the book of Genesis. And we see things like God creating the heavens and the earth. God creating light. God creating vegetation, animals, the oceans, the mountains, the stars, the sun, all the variety of life. And there’s so much variety. And after each day, it says in the book of Genesis that God said it was good. And then the second day, it was good, and third day, fourth day, fifth day. And then after God creates, as we just heard, he creates men and women in his own image and likeness at the end of that day, and I think you know what I’m about to say.
God says it was very good. Not only are we God’s creation, we’re the pinnacle of God’s creation, because we are in his image, and we are very good. That word «very» means exceedingly, abundantly, more than good. And I want you to understand that about yourself. You are very good. I’ve seen this saying, and you’ve probably seen it, too, «God don’t make junk». You are in God’s image. You have dignity, and honor, and value, and worth, not just because of what you do, or your money, or who you know, or your education. Your dignity, and value, and worth comes from the fact that you are a daughter of God, a son of God, made in his image. Made in his likeness. I want you to reflect on that, because our culture tries to find its identity in things, in the way you look, in who you know, in your bank account. Your net worth isn’t your total worth. Your self-worth comes from God, not your net worth. Your dignity and value comes from the way that God has created you.
And we’re all different, yet we’re all similar. It was John Dunne that said, «We’re not islands unto ourselves, we’re part of a continent». We’re humans, we have the same stuff, but we’re all a little bit different as I delineated a little bit earlier. Granted we have fallen from grace, but we’ve been redeemed. Now, I go like this because Jesus redeemed us on the cross, and we will be resurrected, and what God intended for us in the beginning will occur when heaven is restored, and every tear will be wiped from our eyes. Talk about more about what it means to be God’s image. We have intelligence beyond any animal. We have free will. We can make decisions about our life. God didn’t create us puppets or robots.
As I said, we have free will. We have eternity in our hearts. We have soul. You ever see a singer that has soul? They do something. You ever hear a preacher that has soul? It does something for us. It moves us, it inspires us and lifts us up, because we have that connection. And then to be in God’s image is to have… we’re vivified, we have energy, we’re not dead, we’re alive. We have passion. I’m always trying to get people to live with passion. I want you to be fruitful, and you can be. Then we’re created to be related. This whole thing about being born, we’re born connected to our mothers. I go like this, an umbilical cord. We’re connected to a family. We’re born into a family. We’re not just born, we’re connected, we’re related. We have communities. We have friends. We have all these menagerie of relationships, why is that? Because we’re in God’s image.
God is Trinity: Father, Son, and Spirit. It says in the book of Genesis, «Let us make people in our own image,» and that word «us» is plural, not singular. That’s one of the images in the Scriptures that we know God is Trinity, of course, there are others. The Scriptures never tell us that God is Trinity, but we hear about Father, Son, and Spirit. «Let us make people in our own image». We are made in the image of God for relationship. I put it this way. We are created to be related. That’s one of the ways that we are in God’s image. And then of course, as I’ve been talking about, this series is about being fruitful. We hear from God the first command, «Be fruitful and multiply».
He meant that in terms of having children, but he also meant it in terms of realizing your potential, becoming the best that you can be. God puts talents in everybody. Maybe you don’t realize what your talent is, but you have it. People are songwriters, musicians, storytellers, writers, artists, sculptors, painters, producers, dancers, carpenters, engineers, designers, architects. Dream dreams, see visions. I remember I used to watch this program on television that was on PBS. It was about a painter named Bob Ross, and he had this program, the name of it was «The Joy of Painting».
He had such a talent. And he would sit there, first of all, it was an empty canvas, and he would sit there and he would just start to paint, and he would form all these different things, and you’d get this mountain scene, for example. And then he’d say, «Well, what about we put in a few trees»? And you know, the paintbrush would make a sound, and there’s a few trees. «What about we put a rock over here»? There’s a rock over there. And I’m thinking as I’m watching Bob Ross paint, that’s the image of God. God said, «Let there be light,» and there was light. «Let there be the stars,» he spoke and it came to be. We have that in us, that creativity, that potential, that image of God. And don’t let it lie dormant. If you have a gift, develop it.
I think about golfers, for example. Golfers that have that talent, especially the pros, they don’t just go out and golf, they practice. Practice doesn’t make perfect, but practice helps you to develop. And in the same way, I practice preaching. I evaluate my preaching. I try to get better with it. I develop my talent at writing. And you do it by doing it. You don’t just sit still, you reach. You get out of that block, because you’re a chip off the old block. You are in the image of God. Remember, Air Jordan flew through the air, defied gravity, inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, and at his induction ceremony, this is what he said. He said, «Limits, like fear, are just an illusion,» he said. This is Air Jordan who defied gravity, and you can defy your limits, too, your self-imposed limits.
John Paul II, now a saint, he said, «We are not the sum of our failures, we are the sum of the Father’s love for us». I want to wind this up about energy, passion, fervor, using that life God has put within you, and not just staying sedentary and staying put. I heard this little prose that I wanted to share with you. «Life shouldn’t be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty, well-preserved body, but rather, life is about skidding in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, loudly proclaiming, 'Wow, what a ride.'» God has created you, you didn’t just happen to be. He created you with purpose, with potential, and he created you in his image and his likeness. The way you thank him, the way you praise him is by reaching. Reach for the stars, and at least you’ll get the moon. And using the energy he gave you, and proclaiming, «Wow, what a ride». Don’t just live, live with passion.