Biblical Beauty: It's a Heart Issue

      The world's message to young women is pretty basic, "If you want to be valued, you must become something desirable." Maybe this is the reason why, on average, a woman spends $15,000 on make-up in her life time.  Our world is consumed with propping up physical beauty.  Whether it is the latest hair styles, clothing fashions or make-up trends, we can often find ourselves buying into the lies of this world.  I believe this false message of beauty-based value has led and continues to lead many young women astray, even some young Christian women. 

     While we all know that the super models on the front of magazines are airbrushed to perfection, it is all to easy to follow the example that has been set for us.  We want a taste of the beauty that looks so satisfying.  But is it?  Can the make-up, clothes and curly hair satisfy the hunger of our souls?  Are the efforts ever enough, or is the world's version of beauty just an illusion that promises fulfillment but only leaves you emptier than when you started?  From personal experience, I can tell you that seeking after the illusive beauty the world has to offer is a quest which leaves you empty, hopeless, and utterly lost.  It will never satisfy.

“All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. 

The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it;

 surely the people are grass.” (Isaiah 40:6-7) 

     God compares our beauty to the flower of the field. While it may last of a moment, it will soon fade.  As each summer comes and goes, the flowers grow but soon are no more.  We are but a mist and our physical beauty but a passing thought.  It may look pretty for a while, but soon it will be no more.

     While many of us have heard this verse before, let us take a moment to examine it closely.  Deceitful literally means, what deceives, disappoints or betrays one.  Charm at it's roots is a picture to which we are drawn, but soon face the disappointment of it's unfulfilled promises.  In the end, when it has faded and grows old it will betray us, leaving us empty. Beauty is vain/fleeting, it is but a vapor or breath. Here one moment and gone the next.  

I have seen all the things that are done under the sun;

 all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Ecclesiastes 1:14

      However, there is a beauty that never fades, that doesn't need photoshop and that becomes more vibrant and fulfilling with each passing day.  It is the beauty that God offers us, if we are willing to accept it.  

  

Who is this about again?

     If you think about it, the root of the world's beauty is self.  What can I do to draw attention, applause and meaning to me?!  Painting a desirable misleading picture, false beauty takes all our efforts and energies and tells us to spend it on self.  However, God has painted such a different picture for us as daughters of the King.

"Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it."

Luke 17:33

~

“The spectacular sparkle of (true beauty) is found through absolute abandonment 
to the Author of all true beauty. It is found by exchanging a life consumed with 
self for a life consumed with Jesus Christ; by trading the desire to be attractive
 to this world for the longing to be attractive to Him alone. Find a woman who cares 
about nothing but loving, serving, honoring, and glorifying Jesus Christ, 
and you will see who truly is 'the fairest of them all.'”

-Leslie Ludy

     Instead of being self focused, God has called us to loose sight of ourselves in our search for Him.  A truly beautiful woman has her 'sights set' on God. The eyes of her heart are focused on Him. Her life is rooted in the fear of the LORD. She does not desire to live to please others, but desires to live for God alone; for He alone is worth our lives. Her focus is on pleasing her Savior for this is her greatest delight. A beautiful woman is a God focused woman.

A God focused woman - What it looks like:

1. Lives rooted in the fear of the Lord
2. Desire to find fulfillment in bringing honor to Him alone
3. Desires the things of above, that which is eternal
4. Desires to live according to God's word.  
   
   

The Great Exchange:
How do you cultivate this kind of life?  Leslie Ludy sheds light on this subject when she says:

“The first step to discovering true feminine beauty is exchanging all that we are for 

all that He is. If we rely on something that we possess to make us beautiful, 

we cannot receive the supernatural, transforming beauty of Jesus Christ. 

True beauty is impossible outside of Him.”

-Leslie Ludy

 ~

“If a soul has any beauty, it is because Christ has endowed that soul with His own, 

for in ourselves we are deformed and defiled! There is no beauty in any of us

 but what our Lord has worked in us.”

-Charles Spurgeon

 *Make it practical: Pray, surrending your beauty to God and asking Him to give you the beauty of Christ, that it may flow in and through you.  Ask Him to make you into a God-focused young woman. 

What it looks like: A teaser (More to come in following posts)

“Let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty
of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.”
1 Peter 3:4

    

There will come the inevitable day when our hair will turn gray and the wrinkles in our skin will no longer be hidden by foundation. However, the beauty of the heart is not reliable to corruption or decay.  It is never fake, never fading, and never ending.  And in God's eyes, this beauty of is of surpassing value.  To exude a gentle and quite spirit is literally a spiritual act of worship since God is the spectator of such a life lived. Living in such a way as to cultivate and propagate this beauty brings Him glory.

* Make it practical: Write this verse on your mirror or a place where you will see it when you are getting ready.  May it remind you of the true beauty that is of much more value than any physical beauty we could ever possess.

     It is my prayer that God might do a work in my life as well as in the lives of other young ladies.  May He take our lives, conform them to Him and may the beauty of Christ be seen in us!  One day, may the following lines be true of us all:

“They say there is a young lady in New Haven who is beloved of that Great Being who made and rules the world. They say that He fills her mind with exceeding sweet delight, and that she hardly cares for anything except to meditate on Him...She possesses a wonderful sweetness, calmness, and kindness to those around her. She will sometimes go about from place to place, singing sweetly. She seems to be always full of joy and pleasure, and no one knows exactly why. She loves to be alone, walking in the fields and groves, and seems to have Someone invisible always conversing with her.”

• Written of Sarah Edwards by Jonathan Edwards, her future husband

Press On!

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith - that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians  3:7-14

To Know Him More

Learn much of the Lord Jesus. For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ.

Let your soul be filled with a sense of the excellence of Christ.

- Robert M'Cheyne

We must know the Lord Jesus to admire Him, we must admire Him to love Him, 

and we must love Him to serve Him.

- Octavius Winslow

Biblical Beauty - Becoming Captured By HIS Beauty

   What captivates your attention?  Maybe it is your favorite book or movie which rivets your attention until the very end as you are enthralled with the story.  Perhaps, it is a piece of music that you especially savor as the melodious notes flow through your ears into your heart and mind giving you a sense of joy.  At times, I have even found myself curiously meditating on thoughts of the future and what it may be like.  Zoning everything else out, there are many times when we focus solely on the things which capture and captivate us.  In a world where there are so many things vying for our attention I think it is important to stop and ask ourselves, "Are we captured and captivated by Christ?" 

     We all have observed the moment when a groom first sees his bride.  Immediately, nothing else in the world matters as his attention is wholly absorbed in her beauty.  Unfortunately, I have come to realize that I am not as gripped with exploring the depths of God's beauty and being captivated by who He is as I should be.  As I have gained a better understanding of God's beauty, I have come to believe that the beginning of biblical beauty starts with a heart that is eagerly seeking to become lost in the depths of God's beauty.  So without further ado, let us closely examine the foothills of God's beauty that we might become young women who are captivated by our King.

Comprehending God's Beauty: 
     The defining point of God's beauty is not his appearance but who He is.  His character and attributes are the things that display and portray the beauty, glory and splendor of the Lord.  The attibutes of God are what draw us to Him.  His attributes exemplify His beauty.

     However, that is not to say that God has no beauty besides that of who He is.  He is the exact representation of pure, undefiled beauty.  If we meditate on the beauty we see in creation, we come to realize that it is simply a reflection of the nature and beauty of it's Creator.  While we cannot see God now, one day we will have the pleasure of seeing Him face to face. (1 Corinthians 13:12, I John 3:2)
      I believe Paul Washer captured well the understanding of God's beauty when he said:

“Imagine collecting all the most beautiful things that ever existed in the whole world, and putting them in one room. Now, that would be wonderful. You could sit there for days and just look at all the beauty. ...But now listen, If God walked into the room...His beauty would be so great that you would never want to look at those other beautiful things again, because they would be ugly in comparison to God. That’s how beautiful God is.”

-Paul Washer

The Beauty of Christ:

    
“For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; 

he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, 

and no beauty that we should desire him.” 

Isaiah 53:2

      In my short lifetime I have observed many depictions of Christ.  He is always cleanly dressed with a smile plastered on His face showing perfectly straight teeth poking through His nicely cut beard.  This causes me to wonder, "Is that really what Jesus looked like?"

    The verse above tells us that He had, "no beauty that we should desire Him."  So much for a handsome Kingly figure!  Wait, wasn't Christ beautiful?  I believe Christ was the most beautiful person to walk on the face of this earth. However, it wasn't because of His appearance but because of Who He was; God in the flesh.  There isn't anything more beautiful than the God of the universe wrapping a towel around His waste and washing His disciples feet; nothing more dreadfully beautiful than the picture of our Savior dying on an accursed tree for you and me. And yet, there we find the King of kings and Lord of lords, taking the place of the suffering servant so that we might be His.  

     Again, we see God's beauty demonstrated in the Who, not the what. 

A life that is Captivated:

     Is God beautiful to you? The fact that everything that makes God beautiful is everything we are not causes the sinner to run in the opposite direction and the saved one to be captured and captivated by this beauty. How we respond to God's beauty gives us a glimpse into the state of our own heart.

      To those who have been purchased by the blood of the Lamb, God's beauty should cause us to stand in awe of Him every moment of every day.  It should be the driving force of our lives as we seek to know Him more.  However, often times its not.  Following Christ is something we do. Christianity becomes a bunch of rules and restrictions driven by a knowledge of what not to do and in the midst of all our striving we miss the whole point; Christ's beauty. God's beauty must be our starting point. Everything else will fall into place when we are enthralled with His beauty because it is our pleasure to seek Him and no longer our duty.

 So let this verse be our cry and longing:

“One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: 

that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life,

 to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.”

Psalm 27:4

     Oh fellow sister, meditate on who He is!  Become enthralled with learning much of your King. Study His grace, justice, wrath, glory, patience, love and kindness.  Get in His word and come to intimately know and love Him.  Above all else seek Him, His glory, His majesty, His beauty. Allow Him to become the one thing your soul desires. May you taste and see that the Lord is good and may everything else pale in comparison to Who He Is.  Please take a few minutes to watch this video and grow in your love for our great and beautiful God!

    

Wednesdays In The Word - Luke 9:23-27

Remember, He carried it first. 

"And He said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God."

The Call of Christ

“Jesus Christ offers you two things: an eternal salvation in which to hope and a cross on which to die.”

     Leonard Ravenhill

Biblical Beauty - Introduction

   A scantily clad woman plastered on the front of a magazine. A make-up advertisement that promises to make you look drop-dead gorgeous. A diet plan that guarantees to transform you from a size 6 to a size 2 in less than six months.  These are all the voices of the world attempting to redefine beauty.  Every time you walk into a store or expose yourself to secular literature and music, you can hear the voices of the world enticingly crying out,  "This is beauty."
     But is it?  From my point of view, the idea of beauty has become so foggy that it is difficult to perceive what beauty really is. We have all heard the phrase true beauty many times. However, what does it mean to posses true beauty?  What is true beauty and what does it look like?  If true beauy does not consist of making sure to dot your I's and cross your T's when it comes to fashion and make up, then what is it?
     Because the world emphasizes outward appeal and unchaste behavior as the source of beauty, some have gone to the other extreme of despising any type of beauty at all.  While focusing solely on the internal beauty of 1 Peter 3:4, many have let the stewardship of external beauty to go to the wayside. 
      At times I have found myself hopelessly caught in between these two views.  Is beauty a good thing? Is it okay to wear make up and 'adorn' myself?  Is being beautiful simply wearing long skirts and having long hair? Is the desire I have for beauty a good thing or is it a trace of the culture's ungodly impact upon my life? And the question which loomed largest in my mind, "What does God's Word instruct us concerning beauty?"
     After doing an intensive Bible study on beauty, the light of God's Word has made clear to me what was once hidden. He has given me His vision for beauty and it is my desire to me able to share my discoveries with you!!!! I am so excited to have the opportunity to encourage you as you seek to find God's blue print for biblical beauty.  As young women, I believe that all of us struggle with the issue of beauty.  However, when we look at this topic from God's point of view, we can clearly perceive the beautiful masterpiece that He has in store when we seek His best.
    I am looking forward to the weeks ahead as we dive into God's Word to discover the brilliant beauty of  Biblical Beauty.