Fr, 03/27/15, "Day of Praise"
In honor of my wife Amanda's birthday today.
"All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel." - Acts 6:15
Hey! You're better lookin' than ya think.
Ya see, that's part of your problem. You think too much. What ya need to do is stop thinkin' about how ya look and start believin' how ya look...
...in God's eyes.
I mean, c'mon, you look in the mirror, and what do ya think? What ya think is what ya see on the outside.
But God is looking at something else as He says to Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:7, "The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
Whatever it is you might be lookin' at in the mirror and whatever you might be thinkin' about what you see in the mirror, here's the truth. You are the apple of God's eye (Psalm 17:8). (In case you're not up on Bible-speak, to be the apple of God's eye means that you are beautiful in His eye. Totally handsome.) And you are the apple of His eye because He created you and crafted you in His love, which is a choosing, sacrificial, unconditional love.
In Deuteronomy 32:10-11, God declares His love of your beauty and handsomeness in this way because you belong to Him. He says that he shields you and cares for you; he guards you "as the apple of his eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft." It's like a 30-year old dad smilin' and pickin' up his 4-year old child and raisin' you high above his head and swingin' you in the air and tellin' you how wonderful you are and how much you mean to him.
You don't think about that as a 4-year old. You just soak it in and enjoy the ride and the words and the love. You don't even think about believin' it. You don't think at all. I'll say it again; you just soak it in and enjoy the ride and the words and the love.
It just is. And there ain't no arguin' about it.
You are beautiful.
You are handsome.
It's the beauty and handsomeness and attractiveness and radiance that overflows from a child that is being loved with such a grand and uplifting love that all they can do is laugh and smile and enjoy the breeze in their face as the Strong One lifts them high to the heavens.
That's what was goin' on with Stephen long ago as spoken of in today's Bible verse, "All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel." (Acts 6:15)
Did ya' catch that? "[Stephen's] face was like the face of an angel." (Acts 6:15)
So what do you think Stephen really looked like?
Eh, eh, eh! Stop! Stop thinkin'!
Stephen was so enjoying the love of God for him in Jesus Christ that he didn't give a second thought to what he looked like. My goodness, he didn't give it the first thought.
He just enjoyed.
That he was the apple of God's eye.
And so are you! You look, well, you look like an angel!
Believe it! Because God says it's true!
Praise God!
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