Chapter 2: Eternal Beauty
True Beauty
Our life in the Spirit far
transcends the aspects of the earthly beauty of our bodies. The physical beauty
of a woman is so often associated with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eyes, and the boastful pride of life. For the devil himself
was filled with pride that led to his fall because of his beauty and splendor: 17 “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor.
I cast you to the ground;
I put you before kings, that they may see you. (Ez 28)”
There is a home of
righteousness that awaits us, and these tents (bodies) that we live in will be
soon tossed aside. The beauty of the hidden person of the heart, with
imperishable qualities of a gentle and quiet spirit is precious in God’s sight
and will remain eternally (I Peter 3:3-4). There is no beauty apart from the
beauty of the Lord which He freely bestows on His people. As King David speaks
“One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I
shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His
temple.” (Ps 27:4). The beauty of our Lord and Savior is
eternal and vastly incomprehensible. No earthly beauty, strength, or health can
compare to His greatness. His throne is eternal. He has loved righteousness and
hated wickedness. His Father and God has anointed Him with the oil of joy above
His fellows. His garments are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. Out of
ivory palaces stringed instruments make Him glad. Kings’ daughters are among
His noble ladies. He tells us as His daughters to listen and give attention, to
incline our ears to what He says, “Forget your people and your
father’s house; 11 Then the King will
desire your beauty. Because He is your Lord, bow down to Him.” (Ps 45). Our heavenly Father desires our
beauty as we leave behind our earthly desires and listen to the voice of our
King. He is the Mighty One who summons the earth from the rising of the sun to
its setting. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shone forth.” (Ps 50:2) Our Master desires for us
to ascribe to Him glory and strength, to bring an offering and come into His
courts, to worship Him in Holy attire, to tremble before Him. What is the holy
attire?: fine linen, bright and clean, the righteous Robe of Christ granted to
us to wear because of Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf. He has borne the just
wrath of His Father and rose to Life so that we may live. Splendor
and majesty are before Him, strength and beauty are in
His sanctuary. (Ps 96:6)
Christ is our wisdom. As we prize and honor wisdom, she will embrace us and
place a garland of grace on our heads. Wisdom presents us with a crown of
beauty (Prov 4:8-9)
God delights so greatly in His people.
They are a crown of beauty in His Hand. The nations will see their
righteousness and all the kings will see our glory. He does not keep silent
until our righteousness goes forth like brightness and our salvation like a
torch that is burning. Surely we are a royal diadem in the hand of our God! (Is
62:1-3). We are as the shoots that sprout from Him, the beautiful olive tree
that smells like the cedars of Lebanon (Hos 14:6). 16 And the Lord their God will save them in that day
As the flock of His people; For they are as the stones of a crown, Sparkling in His land. 17 For what comeliness and beauty will be theirs! Grain will make the young men flourish, and new wine the virgins. (Zech 9:16-17)
As the flock of His people; For they are as the stones of a crown, Sparkling in His land. 17 For what comeliness and beauty will be theirs! Grain will make the young men flourish, and new wine the virgins. (Zech 9:16-17)
There is no true beauty but that which He
bestows to us in Christ. There is no strength or vitality apart from the
Spirit’s giving of Life to our mortal bodies as we put to death the misdeeds of
our flesh. And even as we suffer with infirmities, pain, discomfort, and
disfiguration, His glorious covering is over us. As we look to Him, His
radiance comes into us from heaven and His Light is shone in our faces. Our
faces will never be ashamed when we look to Him (Ps 34:5). No man can judge, no
fellow person can devalue the worth of our infinite beauty and strength in
Christ. He has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every Spiritual blessing.
When the forces of Satan work through the schemes of the world and
worldly-minded people to accuse and judge what is mortal, may we ever rest in
our glorious beautiful one. He is our strength in weakness. He shows us His
compassion when the flesh is stricken. With a single glance of our eyes towards
Him, His heart beats faster (SoS 4:9)!
Eternal Beauty
“No one
can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or
he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. Matt 6:24
Our worship of our own physical beauty is really a brainchild of
the devotions of our heart. The worship of our own beauty includes spending
extensive time, effort, and money on our hair, body, and clothing, being
dissatisfied or brokenhearted about some aspect of our appearance, worrying or
fretting about our appearance, or letting our physical appearance at a
particular instant dictate our confidence and security. These things are
manifestations of a heart that is controlled by the desire for earthly beauty,
and ultimately the heart that does not worship Christ. All of these actions
show that our hearts are captured by the world and worldly men rather than God
the Father. We know that a quiet, gently, pure, and submissive heart is
beautiful to our Lord. If our hearts are captured by Him, then without even
scheming we will tend to seek to be beautiful in His eyes.
To be beautiful in the heavenly Father's eyes we must be clothed
with the righteous Robe of Christ, the fine linen garments that were freely and
mercifully given to us. The mind of Christ bestowed to us that ponders what is
pure, true, noble, just...this mind is beautiful to the Father. Our prayers are
beautiful rising like incense to His heavenly altar. Our humble and broken
hearts are pleasing to Him. Our repentance is beautiful to Him. Sometimes
we are tempted to think of Spiritual beauty as a pleasant imagination that is
worth having for morality sake. This is a lie. Spiritual beauty is the only
true and lasting beauty in all existence. The
very inception and essence of beauty is based on the holy perfection of the
Father with all His loving and just attributes.
If you think of the most beautiful earthly thing that you ever
saw: perhaps a sunset, a flower, a waterful, your child, your mom, etc. The
smallest glimpse of heavenly beauty is infinitely more breathtaking,
captivating, and glorious. If you saw but a fraction of a glimpse, the purest
earthly beauty would be appalling to you. What kind of beauty is His, which
we could gaze on it all the days of our life...all of eternity.
Do you have faith in God's beauty such that you would cover up
your own beauty in hope that the greater beauty will be revealed? The world has
taught use to offer the parts of our bodies to immorality, but God teaches us
to use the blessing of the body He gave us to redeem the time because the days
are evil and to offer them as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God,
which is our Spiritual act of worship (Rom 6:13, Eph 5:16, Rom 12:1-2).
A Characteristic of Eternal
Beauty: Spiritual Motherhood
What are our bodies for? Think motherhood,
even Spiritual motherhood (in the form of using our earthly bodies to serve,
love, listen, and speak God's Word) to those who have yet to be saved and those
who are growing in the faith. There is some innate purpose engrained in women as a suitable
helper and as a follower and companion. And when these drives are not
surrendered to the Father, the good Shepherd, the hearts of woman can go very
astray. We are made to help others fulfill their God-given purposes, but we
must know how we are to help and we must guard our hearts like hawks from the
exaltation of anything, even a human burden, outside of Christ. Only when the
woman has taken on the yoke of Christ and has a single heart’s desire to follow
Christ will she be doing right and fulfilling her God-given purpose as a woman.
10 “Be joyful with Jerusalem and rejoice for her, all you who love her;
Be exceedingly glad with her, all you who mourn over her,
11 That you may nurse and be satisfied with her comforting breasts,
That you may suck and be delighted with her bountiful bosom.”
12 For thus says the Lord, “Behold, I extend peace to her like a river,
And the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream;
And you will be nursed, you will be carried on the hip and fondled on the knees.
13 “As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you;
And you will be comforted in Jerusalem.”Is 66:10-13
Be exceedingly glad with her, all you who mourn over her,
11 That you may nurse and be satisfied with her comforting breasts,
That you may suck and be delighted with her bountiful bosom.”
12 For thus says the Lord, “Behold, I extend peace to her like a river,
And the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream;
And you will be nursed, you will be carried on the hip and fondled on the knees.
13 “As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you;
And you will be comforted in Jerusalem.”Is 66:10-13
God is doing a work to turn our hearts
towards the young people in our midst: both our own children and other children
within our Body of Christ. We are in the midst of the time when people will be
“lovers
of themselves” and ”disobedient to their parents” (2 Tim
3:2). Children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death (Matt
10:21). God is calling us to lovingly embrace the children in our midst. He is
calling us to teach them His Word and to set an example for them to follow. He
is warning us against neglecting them, looking down upon the work of raising
them, and causing them to sin. We are essentially working to obey the Great
Commission among the children. We are to pass on to them the true Light which
alone will make all things clear for them as they grow up among the world of
wickedness. These children will not see the downfall of society as we have. For
they have entered a society that has already fallen to the deception of the
love of pleasure, worldliness, lawlessness, sensuality, and godlessness. They
were born into a lion’s den, a haunt for jackels and every wild creature. As
they strive to survive they will grope in the darkness and they will find no
light wherever they look. They will look but will not be able to find the truth.
For many who are not sincere will have joined us and even those who hold up the
banners of Truth will be quenched with demonic influence. As for our children,
their consciences will be dulled or seared, their eyes will be closed, and
their minds darkened under the influence of demonic oppression. The desire for material
things and the pleasures of darkness will rise within them and there will be no
alternative laid out in their minds. They will have fallen to the spirit of the
antichrist. Their hearts would be ruled by the spirit of the world and they
would be destroyed along with those who hate the glory of God. Indeed this will
be the fate of many of these young ones who recently enter into our present
day. And God is calling you to heed His Voice and pour out His love and Truth
to these young ones.
The important realization for us is that
our ability to bring up this generation will depend on our reliance on His
grace, our walking in His Truth, the removing of our pride, and our denouncing
of the secret sins of the flesh. In this process we will come to find that
before God we stand as equal heirs of the promise with these young ones and
unless we all had seen the glory of God, we would have no hope of passing on
the only true Light. If we did not love God and hold Christ as Lord in our
hearts, we could not love our children.
5 “Behold, I am going
to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day
of the LORD. 6 He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and
the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite
the land with a curse.” Malachi 4
In Christ’s Words, “Let the children alone, and do
not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as
these.”( Matt 19:14), we
acknowledge that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like little
children. We are apt to ask the question, “Are
children more likely to receive the Gospel than adults?” and “What kind of change happens between
childhood and adulthood that renders the latter unfit for acquiring the Kingdom
of God?” Children are by no means sinless. For we know that all humans were
conceived in sin and every inclination of our hearts has been evil since
childhood. But there are characteristics of children that are in most cases
absent in adults. First of all, children may be unlearned with regard to the
hypocrisy and facading that we as adults are prone to show. They have no
knowledge to put forth self-righteous fronts before men which are not based on
the Gospel. As evil as children are, they are sincere, though not necessarily
honest. And they are unable to hide the evil intents of their hearts and the
lusts of their tiny flesh as we are able to. Secondly, children are aware of
their helplessness and neediness. They willingly ask (by word or cry of mouth)
for their needs to be met and they do not feel abased or demoralized at the
concept of receiving help or material items from another. And finally children
long to be loved, cherished, held, protected… To summarize, though children are filled with wickedness, their
innocence of learned evils allows many of them to remain poor in spirit. And we
know that the poor in Spirit will inherit the Kingdom of God.
Just as in Christ the woman is free from
her desire to rule over her husband, in Christ, the woman is free from the
Spiritual agony of raising children. God is calling women to show Godly
motherly authority. He is also calling them to BEFRIEND their children. You
must capture the souls and hearts of your children and you must let them capture
your heart and soul. This bond can only be established when Christ is exalted
in the home and in the heart and when much forgiveness and grace is understood
and shown. A mother must show authority in the Name of Godly discipline, but
she must also be the best friend of her child. Even if her children go astray,
she should be the one whom they would pour out their wicked hearts to. And
indeed the grace and Truth that she is filled with will prove to be healing in
the end. A woman must cultivate the part
of her heart that God created for the bearing and nurturing of children. This
will have profound effects on her own purity. For the heart that cannot love
ordinately will seek inordinate affections, but the mind controlled by the
Spirit is life and peace (Rom 8:6). Much of the energy behind the evil
sensuality in modern women should rather be used for the Spiritual nurturing of
God’s children. Woman were created with intense affectionate hearts to be used
appropriately to portray the love of Christ to these precious ones, for there
are few remaining in this world to love them. May you seek out your children
and the children in our midst whom you have yet to be acquainted with and love
them dearly with the love that you have been shown. And if we have not known His
love, we must seek Him for our soul’s satisfaction.
How blessed is everyone who fears the LORD,
Who walks in His ways.
2 When you shall eat of the fruit of your hands,
You will be happy and it will be well with you.
3 Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
Within your house,
Your children like olive plants
Around your table.
4 Behold, for thus shall the man be blessed
Who fears the LORD.
5 The LORD bless you from Zion,
And may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your
life.
6 Indeed, may you see your children’s children.
Peace be upon Israel!
Ps 128
The greatest thing that we can do for our
children is to teach them the fear of the Lord. We must teach them the truth of
the Gospel and of the infinite character traits of God. We must show them our
own poverty of soul and our own receiving of His grace and forgiveness of our
weaknesses. For when children have learned to fear God, the truth of His
righteousness becomes their anchor and they are unwilling to turn away from the
One whom they have learned to honor and revere.
Many have a wrong perspective that
children cannot understand the Word of God or that their attention spans are
too short to contain such deep information. In my experience children
understand the Word of God to a great degree. While they may not understand
other areas of study, when it comes to the Word of God, many of these children
have the Holy Spirit indwelling them and working for their good. So what would
otherwise be incomprehensible to their small minds become vivid and clear
through the teaching and convicting work of the Spirit. I learn much from
children or rather the Spirit speaking through them.
We are in a world where the Word of God,
the only food by which man can live, is becoming scare. We must impart to them
every morsel that we can before it is too late and the snares of the world have
come upon them. The earlier we start and the more intensively we labor to
impart the Truth to these children, the better will be the state of their souls
in this wicked and perverse generation. The time for us to start pouring the
Word into the children in our midst is today. Every piece of information
that is taught to children shapes their perspectives and attitudes, having such
a profound influence on everything else that they purpose to do, say, or think
with the remainder of their lives. When we teach children the Word of God
they will love us and long to be near us. The teaching of the Word of God
commands the respect, admiration, clinging to us, and love from our
children.
4 “ Hear, O Israel!
The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! 5 You shall love the LORD your God with
all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 These words,
which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them
diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and
when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8 You
shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.
9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Deut
6
The concept of honor, that is, to fix a
high value to someone, is altogether lost from this wicked generation. The
young have neglected the old and the old have not loved the young. The concept
of honor is based on the setting of a good example by the one who is honored.
That is, someone is honored because they have set a good example for others to
follow. Do you see now why this concept has been lost in our society? The older
generation has resorted to apathy and sinful pleasure and so they have ceased
to set a good example. The younger generation has ceased to honor them due to
their own rebellion and pride as well as the failure of the older generation to
set a good example. On the other hand, there is no desire to set a good example
from the older generation’s part because the younger generation has ignored
them. And the older generation’s feelings of uselessness have made them prey to
the demonic temptations of earthly pleasure.
4 And I will make mere lads their princes,
And capricious children will rule over them,
5 And the people will be oppressed,
Each one by another, and each one by his neighbor;
The youth will storm against the elder
And the inferior against the honorable. Is 3
God is calling the older generation to
pursue Godliness and a zealous love for the advancement of the glory of the
Gospel and thereby to set the example of holiness, purity, and truth. The
younger generation is called to show unconditional honor to the older
generation. The younger generation is looking for meaning, purpose,
passion, deep emotion, and zeal. And if the love for our Lord and Savior has
not captured and possessed us, then they will not follow us. But if by the Spirit
of grace, we put to death the misdeeds of the body, and show a holy and chaste
life filled with intense Godliness, and passionate labor, their hearts will
understand. For in the workings of grace that allow us to live a Godly life,
the glory of God is revealed. And these chosen young children, when they see
the glory of God, they will understand.
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