Ready for a Makeover

Dear Friend,

It has been said, “We cannot control the beauty of our face, but we can control the expression on it.”

GiG, we can tell a lot by looking at people’s eyes and faces. We say, “You should have seen the look on their face.” As the old Latin proverb says, “The face is the index of the mind.” It is also true that “The eyes are the windows to the soul.” When we really want someone to listen to and believe us, we say to that person, “Look into my eyes.” The Bible says a lot about faces and eyes. Psalm 104:19-30

“24 O Lord, what a variety of things you have made! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your creatures. 30When you give them your breath, life is created, and you renew the face of the earth.” Psalm 104:24, 30

GiG, there is a spiritual hunger in our hearts, which can only be satisfied by God. When we read the psalms there is evidence they are full of a longing for relationship with God, and a desire to be in God’s presence. However, sin creates a barrier between us and God. When Adam and Eve sinned they could no longer look God in the eye. They were terrified and rightly so. When we are able to look God in the face the opposite is the case, “They all depend on you to give them food as they need it.” (vv. 27). Oh, this is true not only of the physical food being described, but also of the spiritual food which God gives us.

Today, our faces are supposed to shine more brightly than the face of Moses. Maybe you can recall the first time you saw the rendering of this in the 1956 motion picture, The Ten Commandments starring Charlton Heston. Talk about wow!

Second Corinthians 3:9-11 teaches us that the ministry of the Spirit is even more glorious and lasting. The ministry of the old covenant involved Moses wearing a veil. A veil stops people seeing. Yet, we have the glory of the new covenant.

Paul says that even today people don’t really see or understand, “But the people’s minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ.” (vv.14). It is only when we turn to the Lord is the veil taken away (vv.16).

This was my experience and probably yours too. I had heard the Bible being read and I had been in talks with people about Christianity, yet I did not understand what people were talking about. It made no sense to me at all. My spiritual eyes were blind. Inauthentic relationships, fear, and anxiety kept people from seeing the real me and me from seeing the real Savior. But the moment I took my eyes off people, turned to the Lord, it was as if the veil was taken away. I could see and understand. I could be seen and understood.

Paul goes on to write something absolutely amazing: “17 For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.18 So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.” (vv.17–18)

GiG, when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We're free of it! All of us! Yup, there’s nothing between us and God; our faces shining with the brightness of his face. We have our own transfiguration experience, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.

May we be encouraged to embrace our makeover. Without change there is no growth. And we, with unveiled faces go and reflect the Lord’s glory. Let our lights shine! We are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes only from intimacy with the Lord. He alone is truth. He forgives our sins and does not hide his face from us.

Made Over,

DEA

"My situation should not change my praise, but my praise can certainly change my situation!" Semper Gratus—always grateful—my 40 day focus.

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