A – Admit my helplessness (John 15:5)
P – Pray for help (Psalm 50:15)
T – Trust a specific promise (Isaiah 66:2)
A – Act with confidence in God (Isaiah 55:11)
T – Thank God (I Thessalonians 5:18)
http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/a-tool-to-help-you-live
I reblogged “Beastly and the Beast” awhile ago, but I had some thoughts how the issue of the beauty in substance and in form.
I thought of this in the thinking of music. Specifically of how they relate to each other. The substance (typically lyrics) and its form (all the music and such), both can be seen as beautiful, but the true beauty I would say is in its substance. Even if it is strictly without words, the substance would be the purpose and the intent of the piece. When the song is Amazing Grace, we don’t set it to a tune like Yankee Doodle or something. The form must match the substance. And God made us, and his creation is beautiful. So we are all ugly inside, but should our form match our substance in Christ? That could easily slip into some legalistic craze, but I think God kinda works it out for us. When we begin to see Christ in others, we consider them beautiful inside and out. Especially when that comes to spouses. They view each other as more and more beautiful over the years as their loves grows for one another.
The point is that beauty from the view of eyes is not evil, but, as knowing that this world is passing away and we are looking to the New Heavens and Earth, then it should be of incredibly lower importance compared to our beauty in Christ. Balance ‘form reflecting substance’ and “[we] who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:4b ESV). Read Romans 8 and that helps clarify things.
Beauty and the Beast is a wonderful story. A beautiful girl learns to see past herself to see the inner beauty of another. Very Poetic. Then she kisses him and he becomes a handsome prince. I think Shrek is more poetic, though. A beautiful woman falls in love with an Ogre, then turns into an ugly ogre. I mean our world is full of ugly people, loved by God. I think life might seem more beautiful if we raised our children on stories that would teach them that love creates beauty, not the other way around. Would you still like the story if it was Beastly and the other equally Beastly Beast? My thoughts on the damage done to beauty.
I am riddled with everything, especially about myself. I started creating a list, but I didn’t know where to end. When I receive a true compliment I really value, I don’t know if I am truly humbled or not. I don’t know if I feel guilty or pleasure (or both?). I am often brought to just thanking God that he accomplished something out of this nothing. Maybe it is embarrassment. I was mentioned in a blog post that also contained a beautiful reflection on our God and also the beautiful truth of God’s grace flowing through Jesus’ death and resurrection on the cross. I felt incredibly unworthy of being even mentioned in the same post. I think I uncovered two things (well if anything is truly uncovered, then it is only the working of the Holy Spirit).
…even the small examples of it, which are present everywhere, after all, He is sovereign.
"When [Barnabas] came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose” (Acts 11:23 ESV)
Listen to this sermon if you really want to hear this scripture elaborated on. The context of the scripture is specifically that Barnabas saw God’s grace in seeing a church rise up and grow out of persecution. God took what was rough and made it into good.
My now friend Cole is so super great. I love seeing him love Jesus so much. I am excited to see what God is going to do with him. He reminded me how we used to not really like each other, which I nearly forgot about. Maybe he was more apathetic towards me early in high school, but for a reason completely unbeknownst to me, I had a dislike for him freshman and sophomore year. It wasn’t until either late sophomore or sometime in Junior year that I recognized this is a problem since he really didn’t seem to be too shabby. Got to know him, enjoyed him, and let my random dislike fade away. We had more of an acquaintanceship than anything, but in seeing his passion for Christ I saw him more and more like a brother. It is truly a small display of God’s grace, but it makes me glad. I think it is also a decent display of what the body of Christ should be more like. You see somebody who is passionate about Jesus and you should get thrilled and embrace your family member. Nothing else matters after all! It is His blood that matters, not the blood running in our veins. The blood that was spilled for the atonement of our sins. Praise my gracious God who gives me what I need even when I don’t know it.
Beauty and the Beast is a wonderful story. A beautiful girl learns to see past herself to see the inner beauty of another. Very Poetic. Then she kisses him and he becomes a handsome prince. I think Shrek is more poetic, though. A beautiful woman falls in love with an Ogre, then turns into an ugly ogre. I mean our world is full of ugly people, loved by God. I think life might seem more beautiful if we raised our children on stories that would teach them that love creates beauty, not the other way around. Would you still like the story if it was Beastly and the other equally Beastly Beast? My thoughts on the damage done to beauty.
… I’m writing to men. See, most girls don’t actually want to feel beautiful they want to feel lovable, but men can’t seem to love something that they don’t think is beautiful. Thus, beauty equals love. …
