Beautiful part 1
You guys know sometimes I get stuck on something, right? Well, if the last Rant series didn't convince you that since beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, and since God has grace in His eyes, you are beautiful in His sight... then hopefully this Rant series will really bring it home. But I want to start with 1 Peter 3:3-4, "Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." They say beauty is only skin deep. But true beauty comes from within. We're talking about the REAL you. The hidden man of the heart. We're not judging by appearance, by what people look like (or what it looks like they're doing), but we're judging righteous judgment. We're EXECUTING the judgment that was handed down from Father to Son on the cross. We're not looking AT people, we're looking INTO people. The deep calls out to the deep, and the only way we'll every really be able to connect with each other is when we understand that our connection is the Jesus in me connecting to the Jesus in you. The LOVE in me connecting to the LOVE in you. And what's more beautiful than love? Nothing. Nothing at all. The problem is that we are so consumed with physical beauty that we bury true beauty under an avalanche of... stuff. We let anything and everything that our (natural) eyes see distract us from what's really there. I'm telling you: Each and every one of us is beautiful. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. We are special. YOU are special. You're here to do something that only you can do. Let me say it this way: We are all here to be loved and to love each other. But there's a special way that you can love... that only you can do. There's something beautiful inside of you and it's just bursting at the seams trying to get out. Remember our verse from the last series, "And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it" (Psalm 90:17). The beauty of the Lord IS upon us. We just have to let it be. We just have to see it and believe it. Receive it and release it. And isn't it interesting that our verse goes from talking about beauty to talking about the work of our hands? In a sense, beauty isn't just who we are, but what we do. Because what we do FLOWS from who you are. 1 John 3:7 says it like this, "Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous." Doing righteousness doesn't MAKE us righteous, but instead we do righteousness because we ARE righteous! We don't MAKE ourselves beautiful because of what we do. HE made us beautiful (by putting His beauty upon us, or giving it to us, or living it in us and through us and as us) and because we ARE beautiful, the things we do are beautiful!