Who Is God, Really? (Part 2)

PART II: You're Pretty

There is something in the human spirit that detests feeling ugly.

We exert much energy and spend a great deal of time and money to fix the things about ourselves that we consider less than attractive. We powder, primp, push-up, pull-down, and cover (or, rather, uncover) whatever we can 

to appear our best.

We long to be attractive and beautiful.

This longing is an expression of God’s genius and personality.

A beautiful God created us in such a way that we long to possess beauty.

To be striking and engaging.

Fit and chizzled.

Hot

Cool

Collected

Pretty

Wanted

Loved

Looked at

and

Sexy.

The secular beauty industry has tapped into this longing in the human spirit and exploited it,

creating

frustration 

and

self-loathing

each step of the way.

Advertising executives set the unrealistic standards by which we judge others and ourselves. Deceived by the airbrushed, computer-generated models in the magazines, and misled by arbitrarily-defined beauty, many people live frustrated lives, because, according to what we are told and sold, we are failing in the race to be beautiful.

But what does God think? 

We've already explored His heart's feelings towards us, but what are His eyes looking at?

One of the many things that makes the true God stand out so far above the false ones is His promise to make us beautiful with His own beauty.

It is an expression of His affection and pleasure.

For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; 

He will beautify the humble with salvation. 

(Psalm 149:4)

God takes pleasure in you. 

God enjoys you.

He looks upon you and is struck by beauty.

That’s a hard concept for many people: a God who takes pleasure in His people. Far from being stoic, His heart is warmed by the very people who come to Him for help. He takes great joy in beautifying them.

God’s beauty in us is a vast subject.

There is physical beauty and spiritual beauty.

There is temporal beauty in this age,

and there is eternal beauty in the age to come.

You will possess physical beauty beyond the angels.

Let there be no doubt: the Godhead is the main celestial attraction, but when He unveils His ultimate plan to present a beautiful Bride to Himself, the angels will gather at the balconies of Heaven and shake their heads in wonder. You will be physically, emotionally and spiritually beautiful forever because of Jesus.

You will have a beautiful face, body, mind and heart. Yes, you will be stunningly beautiful forever.

When God raised Jesus from the dead, He designed a body for Jesus that 

was unlike anything ever seen or imagined. It was both physically and spiritually beautiful.

After Jesus was raised from the dead, He had the ability to walk through walls, yet He had the 

capacity to enjoy a breakfast of fish with His friends(John 20:26 and 21:12-15).

His glorified body was the perfect melding of the spiritual and physical realms, allowing Jesus to partake of 

the best of both worlds.

And He has a body for each of us that is

just 

like

His.

Our resurrected bodies will be the best that God can create, unable to be improved upon.

At the Second Coming, Jesus will combine the natural realm

with the supernatural realm (Ephesians 1:10; Revelation 21:1-2).

Our bodies will be made with all the capacities necessary to express the glory and beauty of God in this new environment.He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of His glorious body, by 

the power that enables Him to subject everything to Himself. (Philippians 3:21)

…When He is revealed, we shall be like Him, 

for we shall see Him. (1 John 3:2)

Our eternal bodies will have the same supernatural properties 

and abilities that Jesus’ body has. For example, Jesus wears garments of beautiful light; therefore, we shall as well.

…Who cover Yourself with light as with a garment… (Psalm 104:2)

So the next time you look in the mirror and see 'ugly.' 

Remember. 

You're pretty.

Those skinny arms are tempory.

That tummy thats not quite sexy enough, will soon be clothed in light.

That chest that needs pushed up, up-sized, separated, and  batted down with skin toner is the perfect and beautiful you. 

When we grasp, even a little bit, God's

unyielding

jealous

zealous

love-sick

butterflied

overwhelmed

heart for us, the mirror can only lie to us so much.

Who Is God, Really? (Part 1)

Forgive me in advance for this feeble attempt of mine to show God in a different light.

A light that I never grew up looking in to. 

A light that changes everything.

Most of us can agree that there is some kind of higher power at work in this world. 

What you want to call Him or 'it' makes no difference to me, or really to Him.

(He's a big guy, He can handle it.)

So whether you want to call Him God, YHWY, Allah... 

Lets just call Him God to make things easier.

(What's in a name...)

Lets look first at what's starring us in the face.

GOD.

The 

uncreated

alpha/omega

beginning end

knows all

sees all

is everywhere

knows everything

creator of the universe

breather of life

author of everything seen and unseen...

GOD.

Loves humans.

Cliche', I know. 

(yeah yeah, nick. we get it. God loves us.)

But really though... He LOVES us. 

And this is what this note is about.

Exodus begins with the God of compassion, the God of justic, hearing the cry of slaves in Egypt and setting ou to do something about it. God sends a man, Moses, to rescue them, and it's through Moses that God makes four promises to these slaves.

"I will take you out."

"I will rescue you."

"I will redeem you."

"I will take you to me."

There's a reason why these four promises are so significant - they're the promises a Jewish groom makes to a Jewish bride. This is wedding language.

And that is what the Bible is all about. Its a love story from the table of contents to the book of maps. 66 love notes from God to humans. 

In the poem called Song of Solomon, God through Solomon shows us exactly how He feels about us. 

"You have captured my heart, my treasure, my bride. You hold it hostage with one glance of your eyes. Your love delights me, my treasure, my bride. Your love is better than wine..." (SOS 4:9-10)

God is captured by us. One translation reads "ravished." 

The maker of heaven and earth is ravished by humans. 

We make His heart beat faster when we look at Him.

When we tell Him we want Him, He gets butterflies.

We so easily get trapped in the legalism of religion. We find ourselves in bondage to Christianity. 

We want so badly to follow all the rules. As long as we don't make any waves everything will be okay.

And we get stuck.

We have no joy.

We have no purpose.

Our eyes look for the next 'God' experience to make everything okay again.

To make us feel alive.

But then we go back to our legalism and find ourselves dead and dry.

Longing for more of God.

So we go to prayer line.

And we get a little touch.

We fall down.

Then it's over.

And your stuck on the ground thinking to yourself

"Should I just get up now? Or should I wait."

And we go about our week and do it all over again.

And then when were asked about our beliefs we say something like

"I don't drink. I don't cuss. I don't have sex. I don't steal."

But Christianity is not just an abstract set of morals.

It's not a list of do nots.

It's an engagement. 

It's a love affair. 

He just wants us to look at Him.

To pay attention. 

To hold His hand. 

But we run away from Him. When we think "maybe there is a God that loves us" we get lazy.

We think "It's just a bunch of rules. I want to have fun."

So let's look at that.

Because, sure, there are 'rules.' Things said in the bible that we as Christians line up our lives with.

Things we don't do. Things we do.  

A couple of close friends of mine are romantically involved and I asked them a series of questions about their relationship. 

Things like:

"Do you both have expectations for the other to meet?"

"Do you expect each other to behave in a certain manner?" 

Both said yes.

The boy expects things of the girl.

The girl expects things of the boy.

We all have these expectations.

I think we'd all agree on that.

And that is how God is. 

He expects things from us in this relationship.

And we expect things from Him.

It's healthy. But it's not make or break.

If we fail to meet His expectations all the time He doesn't dump us.

He doesn't give up on us and move on. He is a strong lover. Nothing can quench His love.

The same couple had an issue where the boy had sinned against the girl by looking at pornography.

This hurt the girl, obviously, and embarrassed the boy.

I asked the girl how she felt when it happened.

"Betrayed" was her reply.

Then I asked her if his confessing that to her made their relationship stronger.

"Yes." Was the resounding answer.

It was always a yes.

She felt closer to him through that situation. She went so far as to say that though it would be best for them to never betray each other, every fight, every struggle, every betrayal has brought them closer together in the long run.

This is the exact same way with God.

Unconfessed sin is a secret kept from the heart of God. A betrayal undealt with. A secret love-affair with someone else's lover. 

Unconfessed sin is a cheating on God.

But when we come to Him...

When we speak up...

When we admit our failures and weaknesses God draws us closer to Him.

Because this relationship goes two ways.

In Song of Solomon scriptures says "I am my lover's, and He is mine."

We are God's.

and God is ours.

We can expect Him not to cheat on us.

He can expect us not to cheat on Him.

But when we do, though it would be best not to, it brings us closer.

God is love.

He is affection.

He has nothing but love for us.

He is not an angry father waiting for you to mess up.

He is not an upset coach yelling from the sidelines.

He does not expect the worst in us.

He just wants us.

He wants us

Unadulterated

transparent

gross

disfigured

bleeding

bruised

heartbroken

confused

insecure

thirsty

hungry

bashful

sinful

naked

ashamed

US.

Let's want Him back.