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In the Image of Beauty!
Her Eyes see an Ugly Image!
Leola spent one hour in the bathroom, primping and covering, to be ready for work only to walk by a mirror to see what ugly looks like. She sighed and continued on her way to work. As she was driving she is careened back to grade school where she first learned she was ugly. She was one of the only red heads in the whole building. Why did red hair and freckles make a person ugly? Her lazy eye didn’t help either! She didn’t make that decision, someone made it for her and she accepted it based on their opinion. Someone decided she was different and that difference in their opinion was ugly. To be cross eyed with red hair and freckles was a deadly combination to be born with according to that person. Her brain runs over all the words people used to drive her to the conclusion she was ugly. Up until those days she never thought about it one way or the other. She looked in the rear view mirror of her van and sighed. “If I was beautiful no one would take me seriously on my job anyway,” she thought. As a leader in a male dominated field she was comfortable with being ugly.
In spite of her apparent ugliness she had accumulated a few friends in grade school but they lived on the other side of the tracks. They were headed to a different high school together while she alone would go to high school in Belle River, Ontario. She was devastated by this continued slight against her. How in heavens name would she make friends in a new town in a new school? She decided she just wouldn’t go to school so the skipping began. Every class she felt insecure in she wouldn’t go. She hated the school and its pretense but more so she hated her image. The people were beautiful and wealthy. She was ugly and low end middle class. The complete opposite of them and they had no issue reminding her of that fact. Why can’t she hide away somewhere to never be seen by anyone ever again? Sometimes she thought they sought her out just to fulfill their own fantasy of degrading people. Leola even stooped down to bully a girl much more beautiful than her to see what it was like. The act horrified her so much she never did it again and actually apologized to the girl for her bad behaviour. No matter how Leola felt, deliberately demeaning someone was something God never allowed her to get away with. She did not know Jesus during this time but He was working His plan in her life even then.
I spent a lot of my childhood emulating ‘the beautiful’ to be accepted, except it didn’t work. I was called on it constantly. A girl I admired in grade school told me to stop dressing like her to my horror. In high school Farrah Faucet was big so I styled my hair like hers and got bullied by a set of female twins because of it. I did everything within my power to appear beautiful but all of my work was for not because every time I looked in the mirror my eyes saw an image of ugliness. I eventually learned it wasn’t about the outward adorning it was the inward jargon. I probably spent more than one hundred thousand dollars on apparel to my financial peril. I believed my image was ugly from the inside consequently no matter how I changed my outside appearance it would never change how my eyes saw my image. That vision of my image became deeply rooted in me for many years. When I became a Christian I wrestled with the fact God had created me in His image which is not ugly. It would be many years before He was able to convince me I was made in His image and when I called myself ugly I was calling His created image ugly. The concept of that is far reaching and perfectly planned just for me and just for you!
Her Eyes see His Image!
Leola had to become invisible at school so no one would notice she was skipping classes and invisible at home to get away with it. In one hand she wanted to be invisible but in the other hand she wanted someone to see her as beautiful. Was that too much to ask? Not with our Jesus Christ it wasn’t! Jesus Christ had a plan for her and He was going to bring her too it. He gifted her to do things to make her visible even in her ugliness and she worked hard to look beautiful for the masses. It was still very important to be accepted by people to be successful at her calling. Jesus would deal with that too although not in the eyes of people but in His. Leola did not know she was still harbouring the feeling she was ugly to God therefore invisible to Him. How could God look upon her! She was learning her fear of being invisible is tied directly to her view of her image. If God couldn’t look upon her because of her ugliness than she was surely invisible to Him. Leola saw her image completely different than Jesus Christ saw her. He gave her His eyes, little by little, thus she would see she looks just like Him. She began seeing Jesus in the mirror every day and her image began to change until one day she looked in the mirror to see His creation in her image. Her tired old feelings are gone today and she is free to see God’s ‘very good’ creation in her image. She is also free to see His image in all women even when they don’t!
We are created in His image but that is a hard concept to realize when ugly is the image we see in the mirror. Peter tells us our beauty should not come from merely outward adornment because the mere adornment we use changes every single day. God created mankind in His own image both male and female. If we believe what God says eventually our soul will agree with Psalm 139:14 in that we are fearfully and wonderful made and praise God just for this alone. Women are made to feel but we need to feel what God tells us to feel otherwise we could spend our lives a slave to what other people feel. When Jesus Christ comes into our vision He forces us to see what He sees and feel what He feels! We transform from ugly to beautiful without changing our outward appearance at all. Let Jesus have His way in you so you see ‘you’ the way He sees you because beauty is NOT in the eyes of the beholder it is in the eyes of Jesus Christ!
Mediation Verses: 1 Peter 3:3-4; Genesis 1:27; Psalm 139:14
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The Answer to Every Question!
The Question
A question was asked at church this Sunday morning Leola knew right away the answer of or did she! If you could ask Jesus one question what would it be? That was the question? The only question allowed? Her question would be to ask why He waited until her forties to put this dream into her heart. And why can we only ask one question because surely the answer to that question would result in another one? This question bothered her for several days. Is life for him or anyone else about just one question? What if we ask the wrong question? Will it change our destiny? Why are we asking the question we are asking? Is one question better than another or do they all lead to one big answer? Leola thought and thought about what that question should be just in case the first question was the wrong question. She had to decide THE question. If she could come up with the perfect question would the answer be sufficient to answer all of her questions. Is there such a question?
She has been helping women with their life skills for twelve years and knows there is a plethora of questions to be answered but the answer is different for every single woman. You can ask ten questions of one woman to lead them into the answer they are looking for yet it might take one hundred to lead another. Each question depends on our direction and the level of truth we can handle. When Leola designs workshops the questions she asks never have one answer for that exact reason. The questions she asked are design to make women think about what answer they want. Some are even designed to make them think about what they don’t want because they may need to start there to make change. Some questions are designed to draw them directly to Jesus for the answer. How can she help women grow if she didn’t allow multiple answers from just one question? The problem is that question always leads to another one consequently we cannot stop at one question? What is stopping us from asking four thousand questions? Only Jesus knows!
Jesus asked a lot of questions of us in His ministry. He never stopped asking questions. Questions define what direction we are headed in. They help us focus on what is important. John tells us Thomas asked a powerful question after Jesus told us He is leaving to go to the Father. He asked in John 14 verse 5, “how can we know the way?” How indeed can we know the way? Would that question answer all of our questions? According to Jesus, yes. All the questions we ask lead us straight to the Father if we think about them. We think they may be self-serving but each time we allow the answer to come from Jesus it will lead us to the Father. The whole of Chapter 14 has Jesus telling us He is the answer to every question. How do I do this? Do what I tell you and it will happen! How can I do this? Take strength in Me and do can it! Where will I get what I need? Trust Me and you will have it!
The Answer
As Leola ponders all the questions people ask her in her classes plus all the questions she has asked over the years, she comes to the conclusion one question is not enough to fully get any answer. Some questions are relevant, irrelevant, nosey, inappropriate and appropriate but all are worth an answer that leads to another question. Jesus asked a lot of questions of us to help us discern what it is we want. We can ask people questions but we are still asking the questions that help us discern what we want. Our problem is who we are asking answers of. Who should answer our questions? Who can answer our questions? In her experience, only Jesus has been able to answer her questions with the truth she is looking for. No one can tell her where she is going because only Jesus knows that. No one can tell her what direction to go because only Jesus knows that. No one can tell her how to serve His women because only Jesus knows the way to do that. The relevant questions that need answers need to be asked of Jesus because He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. We cannot get to the Father who has all the answers if we do not ask the questions of Jesus (John 14:6). What He tells us is what the Father tells Him based solely on the plan the Father has for us (John 14:24). How wonderful is this to know? Knowing this tells Leola exactly where to go for answers and exactly what to do. The only answer she can rely on is Jesus. He is the answer to every question she has and He is the answer for every woman she serves. Jesus is the answer!
Jesus is the answer because the question leads to the way He wants us to go. Every question we ask relies on what the Father has planned for us. Should I go here or there? Should I do this or that? Here, there, this or that are all part of the grand plan of the Father. You might go here while I go there so you can do this and I can do that then we come together to do thus! Our whole life is planned out by the Father but we have to walk in it using Jesus as our answer to every question about direction. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life and no one comes to the Father except through Him and that is the answer to every question.
Meditation Chapter for this week: John 14
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A Mantra to get into His Will!
By Kathleen Derbyshire
Have you ever noticed that when things are going well our communication with God is so much better but when things are not so well it is hard to pray? I find my mind wondering back to my problem over again. I think about things that will help solve my problem rather than asking the Holy Spirit to give me the way to solve my problem. As a matter of fact I forget to ask Him in the good times too. Revelation is what I need more than anything else so going it on my own looks less and less useful. We know deep down that God’s ways are the best ways so we should just ask God!
Jeremiah 33:3 should be our mantra if revelation is what we want to solve our problems. I love this verse because it tells me how to get revelation. I am not looking for new information I am looking for information I do not know. I am looking for information regarding the salvation of my problems. I am looking for information regarding the building up of my character. I am looking for information to manage with the world and those who live in it. I’m sure that you are looking for the same thing. We need to know how not to make mistakes or how to recover from the ones we already made. This can only be done if we get revelation from the Father. Let’s pick this verse apart and add others to make sure we fully understand what revelation is and how we can utilize it to do what Jesus really wants us to do. In other words we need revelation to remain in the will of God.
Our mantra Jeremiah 33:3 says, Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.
Let us start with the simple but powerful words from our Lord ‘call to Me.’ He says this because He is the only One who can guide us in a direction that will result in solutions for our troubles. I wish that this was my first line of defense but it is not right now. I call on the Lord when I cannot figure it out on my own. My own strength is my immediate resource for issue resolution. If God has gifted you will administration and exhortation as He has with me you are nodding your head right now but if you have another gifting like mercy, compassion or helps you might go to God first and you are finger wagging me. We are all gifted differently and those giftings lead us in specific directions resulting in not really needing God to be productive BUT that is not what He wants from us. He wants us to call on Him because He is the one who knows what our future holds, what our past was and what our present status is. Psalm 34:17 says emphatically, the righteous cry out and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all of their troubles [emphasis mine]. All we need to do is cry out or call to Him to begin the process of Him hearing us and answering us.
Without the hearing He cannot answer us! Our biggest problem may not be the crying out part but the listening part. Three verses come to mind in this stage of our mantra, Psalm 91:1 and Psalm 42:7-8. The former tells us that we need to dwell in His secret place to learn how to hear Him. His secret place is a hard place to find and be inside of. We have to be persistent in looking and resolute in staying, which means we need to be determined to hear Him. My mind is a terrible place sometimes but that is where the secret place is. We can find a place on this earth that makes us happy and peaceful but the minute we leave it our peace and happiness disappear like a puff of smoke. In this secret place with the Father our hope, peace and joy remain and we carry it with us where ever we go because it is in us not in the world. This is also where that latter verse picks up. In the secret place Deep [God] calls unto deep [us] with the noise of His waterfalls. And all of His waves and billows go over us. If we are indeed in the secret place we will hear everything He has to say. We are being called into the deep with the Father and His deep will go over us resulting in us seeing the great and mighty things He needs to show us.
The vision of God for us is what we need to solve our problems. We want to see what He is doing in the World so that we can go in that direction. We need to see, He is doing His works on this earth, and whether we participate or not, His works will get done (Isaiah 55:10-11). All of our problems stem from being out of the will of God so when we are in the will of God we are participating in His works therefore outside of the problems we have created. When He shows us great and mighty things that we did not know it is His workings on the Earth. If we want to see His workings in Heaven look around because whatever is worked out in heaven is now on the Earth (Matthew 6:10). The great and mighty things are happening but we just don’t see them. If we want to see them then we must dwell in the secret place until we believe and trust in Him. Once this process is done He will give us vision of what He is doing, the things which we do not know.
Our mantra from now on should be Jeremiah 33:3 (HCSB). Our first defence with problem solving is to cry out to God and He will hear us and answer us! He will open our eyes to see what He is doing on the Earth today so we can go that way as well. All of this takes time as well as Spiritually enhanced problem-solving skills that we can only be given to us from the Father. He gives us revelation to go in His direction, which in itself is a problem solving skill that we must nurture in our secret place with Him. As we are called in to the deep His Words wash over us with the shadow of the Almighty. God has, over the years, Revealed in Me that getting revelation is a process every Christian needs to learn! I have enhanced my problem solving skills in the secret place and so can you! If you want to move into the will of God get into that secret place with God and see how He moves!
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Our Weapons for War!
We are going to 1 Samuel 17 today to the story of David and Goliath. We think much about this story and the content of it because David is the hero. We love David because he is the underdog in this story but there is so much more to it for us to learn then just that. We are all underdogs compared to God. David displays that we are nothing in our own power but when God sends us to do a job He equips us to do it the way He wants us, in particular, to do it. He gives us our own weapons to fight His battle.
Saul is King of Israel at this time but God has already left him and anointed David to be His King. David knows he is anointed to be King but has become a servant to the man he would replace. God has positioned David into the kingdom but has not moved him into his anointed position. David had gone home to take care of his fathers flock when Goliath becomes a phenomenon to Israel. He comes out 40 days straight and taunts God’s chosen people who respond by allowing fear to overtake them.
Young David is told to bring goods to his brothers and the supply master by his father to the battlefield. Goliath, the challenger, was almost 10 feet tall and the hero of the Philistines but he is no match for God’s man. He was not a hero to David either because he was defying God. Saul, who should have offered himself up to protect his people only offered up his gear and weapons to the man who would kill this hero of Philistia.
God sent David into his battle with his weapons and He sends us into our battle with our weapons. For ten years I heard that our battle should be on our knees but for just as long I had no understanding of what exactly that means. My number one weapon was not prayer it was problem solving. Yours might very well be something else like love, compassion, nail banging or house building. We take what we have as a weapon and use it to solve problems but mostly in the physical world. Our enemy is in the Spiritual world. Once we become Christians we are given a great vision of the Spiritual world and it doesn’t just include God and the angels but Satan and his demons too.
Saul tried to supply David with his weapons to fight but David said he had not tested them but he knew what he had tested and they were tried and true. God gave him the weapons he was to fight this giant with and he gave Saul his. Saul chose not to use his. God gives us the weapons we are to fight with too and they are perfectly suited for us to fight the giant we are fighting at this moment. We are not to use untested weapons of war we are to recognize and use our own weapons because they are what God has given us to fight with. Up until this year I did not fight my battle with prayer nor did I prevent a fight with prayer but I did fight my battles with the weapons God gave me. He has given me a fantastic memory for Scripture! Those were my weapons but now He is giving me a new weapon. This weapon is mine alone and I intend to practice with it and get so good at it that I will be able to knock down any giant.
What is the weapon that Jesus has given you to fight with right now? Do you use it or do you attempt to use someone else’s? Spend the next day or two answering these questions then own the weapon He has given you right now and perfect it’s use just as David perfected the use of his sling. For the battle you fight is the Lord’s and your weapon is from Him so He can deliver your enemy into your hands.
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Focus on Doing My Best
In my quest to become useful in the Kingdom of God I have done a ton of things, some failed, some successful for a time and some never got off the ground. Some I told God I would do and some He told me to do. I am somewhere in between right now. I am working on projects that have been going for a couple of years but they need more of God in them or they need to end. I have to tell you I am a little scared to do anything right now because I am gun shy. I don’t want to give up what I am doing now but I don’t want to start anything new either because I am scared.
I am not allowing fear to cripple me but I am allowing it to stop me from making mistakes – if that makes any sense to you. I think my fear at this moment moves me into the sound mind realm. In my not so sound mind I made decisions that cost me a lot of money and a lot of time only to see them fail. In my not so sound mind I made decisions that cost me emotionally and physically. Each of these has taken its toll on me and made me scared today. As a result my decision-making is much more thought provoking and much more focused. My first thought when I have to make a decision is – what is this going to cost me? I am not just talking about any decision I am talking about all decisions.
My goal daily now is to talk to Jesus about everything. I am trying to focus on doing my best at everything I do. Today was my first day at it and I have failed miserably already. As I was driving home from my day job the Spirit told me to pray before changing tasks from now on so on my way into the house I prayed that I would be a better wife, a better cleaner, better at everything that I do in this house. Then I went to my kitchen and did what I do and forgot to pray but then I came down to write this and prayed. For someone who used to pray once a month (if that) God is really doing a work in me daily to keep me in communion with Him.
Pray for me to continue this goal of doing the best I can with everything I do and to be in constant communion with Jesus. If you want to join me in this task let me know you are coming along by commenting and we will banter back and forth through out this quest. Comment regarding what you are learning and how you are learning it. We are going deeper with Jesus so not all He reveals to you is for my ears but some can be. Ask Jesus how you can teach me and I will ask Him how I can teach you. Enjoy these next couple of days communing with Jesus and expect to be transformed through all He reveals to you!
