True Beauty and Making Ourselves Beautiful

by Bernadette Gomez

What is true beauty? How do we make ourselves beautiful? There is a saying, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” We each have our own unique tastes and preferences regarding beauty. What appeals to me may not appeal to you. What I find attractive and desirable, you may view as unimpressive or perhaps even unattractive. Our standard of beauty is influenced by various things including our cultural background, our values, and our personal preferences.

Did you know God has a standard of beauty? God also has certain tastes and preferences regarding what He finds attractive and beautiful. Would you like your heavenly Father to see you as lovely? How would it feel if God looked down on you with adoring eyes and bragged about you, his “beautiful daughter”? Let’s look into the scriptures so we can learn how to be beautiful to God.

Proverb 31:30 says that “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” When a person is charming they are using their physical graces to allure and attract. They may also use a certain talent they possess in an effort to appear fascinating. What is really happening is that the person is trying to assume another persona to appear to be something they are not. That is why God tells us that charm is deceptive! We are not to use charm! Delilah, Jezebel and Vashti are examples of women in the scriptures who were charming to their man, but certainly not beautiful to God.

Regarding our physical beauty God tells us in Proverb 31:30 that beauty is fleeting – it doesn’t endure. God also mentions in 1 Peter 3:3 “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment …” such as our hairstyle, jewelry and clothes. Yes, we want to make ourselves attractive and choose a hairstyle that complements us, perhaps wear some jewelry to adorn ourselves and choose modest, flattering clothing to dress ourselves. However, please understand that these things can never make us beautiful.

The first clue to making ourselves beautiful is found in Proverb 31:30 “a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” To fear the Lord means to have a profound reverence for Him. How do we show God the honor and respect we feel for Him? First and foremost we need to examine our quiet times and prayer times. Can you truly say your time reading the bible is fulfilling? Is it a source of joy and nourishment? Do you feel a deeper respect or appreciation for God when you finish your studies? What about your prayer time? Are you seeking to draw closer to the Lord in prayer? Do you adore Him in your prayers and thank Him for your many blessings? Are you being real with Him and confessing those hidden sins of the heart? Are you praying on behalf of your brothers and sisters and the lost? Personally, I had to take a long, hard look at my lifestyle and I didn’t like what I saw. I needed to be honest with myself and the Lord and I realized that I was putting other things in my life before my time with the Lord. I had to humble myself before God and confess that I was not trusting in Him the way I needed to and was giving way to fear. Do you feel good about your time spent with the Lord? Let’s repent and start anew. Praise God for his love and mercy!

Another clue to making ourselves beautiful is found in 1 Peter 3:4 “Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.” What is a gentle and quiet spirit? A person can have a gentle and quiet personality, but not have a gentle and quiet spirit. A gentle and quiet spirit is one that submits their will to God and His Word above all else – above their desires, above what those in the world expect. Are you willing to submit your will to God? Let’s examine ourselves further. When are you tempted to be unkind? When are you tempted to be disagreeable? In what situations do you tend to be harsh? In what areas are you not easily taught or led by God, your husband, or your older sisters in Christ? When are your tempted to complain? When are you tempted to raise your voice? These are the times we need to apply gentleness and quietness! Over time, through obedience we are developing this character trait and making ourselves beautiful in the eyes of our Lord.

1 Peter 3:5 “For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.”

As You Go

Brothers and sisters, most of us live very busy lives with full schedules. It seems that we always have somewhere to go or something to do. Traveling to work everyday, grocery shopping, laundry, doctors and dentists appointments, along with kingdom events such as bible class, mentorship meetings, and devotionals are some of the things which can keep us busy. As we go about living it is important that we keep our focus on those things which are important to God.

Let us look at Peter and John’s example in Acts 3 – “Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, "Look at us." And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, "I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!" And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.”

Peter and John were on their way to the temple to pray, and they were on a time schedule but they didn’t let that stop them from taking the time to serve someone in need and then preaching the gospel to the crowd that had gathered. Unfortunately sometimes we are too busy living and we miss out on opportunities to serve someone or preach the gospel. Eph 5:15-16 says that we need to make the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. No matter how busy we are we must take the time to impact those we come in contact with for Jesus Christ! So whether it is the cashier at the grocery store, or the bus driver, or the person sitting next to you on the train, or that person who stops you to ask for the time or directions, slow down and see the situation as an opportunity to share the love of Jesus with someone. Let us not be so busy with life that we miss out on what living this new life is really all about!

Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Kevin Booker

Faith or Fear?

by Claribel Gelabert

As a single lady I showed my faith by how I served and helped the church in love. At times I began to be fearful because I did not have interpreters at my college. Being deaf, I was able to do well in math but it was very hard in other subjects. The teachers turned their faces when they spoke so I couldn’t lip read. Interpreters were scarce. I was afraid I was not going to be able to graduate. I almost gave up! What did I do? I prayed and asked God for help. My dad encouraged me to stay the course. There were more interpreters and I learned better sign language. I eventually graduated!

Fear also gripped me in the church. I did not have an interpreter at church and therefore I couldn’t understand anything that was going on and was very discouraged. What did I do? I prayed and asked God: “Can you find an interpreter for me at church? Please help me because I want to know more about You.” So in a few months God gave me my husband Pedro! He was my new interpreter! Praise God!

I found proper encouragement in these scriptures (ASL version): Psalm 146:5 But people who ask God for help are very happy. Those people depend on the Lord their God. James 1:6 But when you ask God, you must believe. Don’t doubt God. The person who doubts is like a wave in the sea. The wind blows the wave up and down. The person who doubts is like that wave. 1 John 5:14 We can come to God with no doubts. This means that when we ask God for things (and those things agree with what God wants for us), then God cares about what we say.

I learned to trust God and not fear. As my faith grew I feared less. As a married lady I began to be fearful because: I was very responsible in my work for 8 hrs a day. I then had to come home and cook, wash laundry, wash dishes, etc. I also had to help and support my husband in all he did. So I asked my Pedro about this and he taught me about Proverbs 31. Wow! Then as a mother I began to be fearful because I did not want to discipline my first baby boy. I felt sorry I had to cause my boy some pain. Scriptures like these helped me trust the Lord and not myself: Pro 22:15 Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him. Pro 23:13 Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die. Pro 13:24 He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.

I learned fear is a sign I needed training and experience; I needed to conquer my fear! The more I trusted God and lived in love, the less I feared: (Pro 29:25 Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.)

The woman who fears wants to control her husband and children. She doesn’t trust anyone and that is why she is fearful – reacting instead of thinking and planning. She can show her control by outright manipulation of her husband and children through her controlling (lion) personality or by playing herself as a victim and helpless person, wanting her weakness and addictions enabled by pity.

The woman who submits to her husband as to God is not fearful because her trust is in the Lord and in His guidance. She has no need to control and does not see herself controlled (victimized) because God is her strength. God will take care of you! Don’t let trouble stop you! Don’t let people try to control you and don’t try to take control of people! Be controlled by the love of Christ!

1 John 2:20

But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.

LISTEN TO THE HOLY SPIRIT

We have received Him (the Holy Spirit) as our anointing (Acts 2:38; 5:32; Romans 5:5; 1 Co 6:19; Eph 1:13; 3:16; 4:30; 1 The 4:8; 2 Tim 1:7, 14). I put many scriptural references since so many who profess to having obeyed the Gospel do not believe the Holy Spirit lives in those who have been baptized for the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus! For this reason Jesus provided purification from sins (through baptism – Romans 6:3-4), so that God may dwell in us by His Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38) and provide the transformation that needs to occur in our lives now so we can have the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:4-7)!

Whoever believes the Gospel of Jesus and resists this truth resists the Holy Spirit Himself just as the stiff-necked people of old did (Acts 7:51). Not only that, they are in danger of committing the unpardonable sin (Mark 3:29; Luke 12:10) unless they repent and accept the truth from God's word: that God desires to dwell in us by His Spirit. How can you have the hope of eternal life if you resist or deny He who is the only One who can prepare you for eternal life?

We are identified with Christ by the Spirit living in us (1Co 12:3, 13), becoming part of His body – as the church (Eph 5:23; Col 1:18). We have streams of living water coming from us (John 7:38-39)! Christ in us, the hope of glory (Col 1:27)!

Those who do not believe we have this anointing have reduced the Holy Spirit to something they can try to understand or predict by saying He is just the Bible, the words we read on a page – or that He just works through those words as some impersonal, unseen force. Some want to try and define how he lives in us – saying it is not bodily, or personally but by membership of the church. They even go as far as to restrict God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) to only dwelling in Heaven! That’s very presumptuous being that the Word of God does not specify any one of those things when it comes to the Holy Spirit living in the disciple. Check out the verses I listed and see if you can get that from those verses. Those things have been added and the interpretation restricted by man’s limited understanding and desire to manipulate. How different is that from what Jesus said concerning those who are born of (the same nature as) the Holy Spirit:

John 3:8 NIV The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

The Spirit is not humanly predictable. He does as He wills and we’re either with Him or He will pass us by. If God wants His Spirit to live in us, can He not send Him to us? And that is what He has done! We will either keep up with the Spirit (in step with Him – Galatians 5:25), or go with the flow of the world. To keep up with Him you need to be living by the word of God, following the footsteps of Jesus, walking by faith and not by sight, leaning on the Lord’s wisdom by His Spirit and not on your own understanding or on someone else’s!

If the Spirit were just a divine impersonal force, how then could He be grieved (Eph 4:30) when we stumble or fall? This is why so many “Christians” live powerless lives, unable to rely on the Spirit because they do not believe He can be in them if they truly have obeyed the Gospel and have embraced the Spirit that gives life to our mortal bodies (Rom 8:11)!

The Bible is clear that we have Jesus in us, by the Holy Spirit! Check all those scriptural references if you are not convinced. God’s love is in us by the same Holy Spirit (Rom 5:5) and He is the reason by which we speak the words of God with power, not just with talk, persuasion or personal opinion as Paul says:

1 Corinthians 2:4-5 NIV My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

And again here:

1 Corinthians 4:20 NIV For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.

What is Paul talking about? We are not just about preaching and knowing the word but true disciples live the word of God and are transformed by the Spirit, able to impact the lives of others and even the world. This is what it is to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Without the Spirit you are just another religious person speaking religious propaganda:

1 Thessalonians 1:4-6 NIV For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. 6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.

Deep conviction means believing the Spirit is in you and letting Him transform you, conforming you to Jesus (Rom 12:2; Titus 3:4-7; Rom 8:28-30) as you study the Bible to obey Him more and more! There are no excuses from those who truly give themselves to the Spirit, as Paul indicates in his encouragement to the Thessalonians in the above passage. Some study the Bible just to gain knowledge, but knowledge puffs you up and gets you entangled in opinion and disputable matters eventually, when you are devoid of love and filled with pride. The power of the Holy Spirit is in the love of God – which needs to be our reason and motivation to do anything!

I honestly think some reject the Holy Spirit because they don’t understand Him or get confused and don’t want to identify with those who believe in false miracles like speaking in tongues, which is really gibberish. The Spirit is to be accepted, not understood. Do you only accept gifts you can understand? Will you only believe in God if you understand Him? How presumptuous and arrogant if you do!

It is not hard after careful Bible study to understand the difference between the indwelling of the Spirit and how the Spirit empowered people in the first century for the purpose of confirming the word:

Mark 16:20 NIV Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

Hebrews 2:3b-4 NIV This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. 4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

2 Corinthians 12:12 NIV The things that mark an apostle--signs, wonders and miracles--were done among you with great perseverance.

Acts 2:22 NIV "Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.

Now that the Gospel has already been confirmed by the Holy Spirit through Jesus and the apostle’s work the Spirit of God has no need to continue its confirmation and thus the “miracles” or “signs” you see today, in this day and age, are totally false. These false miracles are really a confirmation of the work of Satan:

2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 NIV The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, 10 and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

It is important to understand that those who fall prey to the false miracles are those who have ignored what God says in the Bile or those who are poor students of God’s word. They end up believing any Joe Shmo instead of believing the Sprit’s words spoken in Love through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Not believing the truth in the Bible will result in your condemnation. This means that believing anything else apart from the Bible will seal your condemnation. This is not what God wants for people! God wants to dwell in you! He wants to save you but you must accept His gift of eternal life (Rom 6:23) and the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).

Many professing “Christians” claim that they are being instructed and led by the Holy Spirit apart from the Scriptures:

• They use 1 John 2:20 as their proof text, saying they have knowledge apart from the Scriptures! Key word: apart. If it’s not from the Bible it’s from man or from demons (1 Tim 4:1-2)!
• Notice the following discrepancies in those who claim to be led by the Spirit:
• They claim to be taught and led by the Holy Spirit yet deny baptism as being essential to salvation
• The Holy Spirit, however, says you must be baptized to be saved (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:39). Will you believe people or what Jesus said?
• Some who claim to speak on behalf of the Spirit deny the deity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit Himself; calling it a concept of the Devil (Oneness Pentecostals)
• Other Pentecostal groups who claim to be taught and led by the Holy Spirit believe the deity of the Spirit and the Son to be true. Who is right?
• In the first century, the Spirit taught exactly what is written in the New Testament.
• Today, many teach and believe doctrines that are contrary to the Scriptures, yet they refer to their beliefs as being “Spirit-taught”. Who will you believe?

If we are identified with Christ we recognize we have this anointing (The Holy Spirit) because we believed the message of the Gospel and we obeyed it, having been baptized in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and having received the Spirit as God promised (Acts 2:28). We therefore do not walk by our own confidence but we walk with God’s power. His power is at work in us, not our own power! This is because we are holding onto our own ideas or notions but we have died to them and have accepted God’s word! This is exactly what Paul is saying in 2 Co 4:1-12. Read it and discern it spiritually if you indeed have God’s Spirit in you.

By God’s power we can understand the words that have come from the Spirit. We do not care for words (wisdom) that come from man. They are foolishness to those who live by the Spirit! God's words are spiritually discerned. They are foolishness to those who are perishing but wisdom to those who are being saved (1 Co 1:18; 2 Co 2:14-17; 2 The 2:9-12)!

This is what John is saying in this verse (1 John 2:20): because we have been given the Spirit we have knowledge! How do we have knowledge? Instantaneously without studying the Scriptures? No! Not in these latter days anyway. In the first century some had the gift of knowledge by the Spirit, being able to discern prophecies and know many things just because the Spirit miraculously revealed it to them (1 Co 12:8-11). In these days the knowledge we have is by spiritual discernment as Paul explains in 1 Co 2:6-16. In these verses he points out:

1. Our message is for the spiritually mature
1. a. It is not according to the wisdom of the world – not for the worldly (carnal man) to understand
2. b. It is a deep wisdom revealed and understood by those who are obedient and like minded with God
3. c. It is for those who study the Bible to please God more and more – not just for those who study the Bible for knowledge only
4. d. Maturity comes by the practice of the word, not just by the reading of it (Hebrews 5:14).
2. We express spiritual truths with spiritual words
1. a. Those without the Spirit look at spiritual words as foolishness
2. b. Spiritual truth only comes from the Bible
3. c. Man cannot fabricate or produce spiritual truth
4. d. Man can discover some truths
5. e. Spiritual truth is revealed by God in His Word
6. f. It was revealed by prophets and in these last days through Jesus. We have it in the Bible (Hebrews 1:1-2)
3. The man who is secure in Christ knows he is instructed by the Lord Himself
1. a. He will not accept his own opinion as fact nor anybody else’s
2. b. He doesn’t allow anyone to judge him
3. c. He will not be convinced by his own security
4. d. He himself judges everything, especially his own thoughts (2 Co 10:5).
1. i. He will demolish any contention that presents itself against the wisdom of God
2. ii. Hi will capture any thought and make it obedient to Christ
5. e. He does not need to be taught through books
6. f. He matures by the constant practice of the truth to train himself to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5:14)
7. g. He accepts sound doctrine from those appointed by God to teach and admonish the church (Eph 4:11-14; Heb 13:17)
1. i. Evangelists
2. ii. Elders
3. iii. Bible Teachers

1 John 2:19

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

Antichrists come from within the church. When they leave (and how they leave) makes it plain they were not real disciples but antichrists. There are many reasons for leaving a congregation. John is not talking about that here. He is talking about leaving Jesus and pursuing your own virtual reality – your own god. Some who leave a congregation for the wrong reasons and go to another in fact have left the church. Their leaving makes it plain they were not part of the church of Jesus. To leave the church is to defect from the truth. To be hostile to truth and to the church is to be an antichrist.

No matter what congregation or church they may join themselves to they continue to be antichrists unless they repent and embrace the truth they learned from the beginning. What other characteristics identify antichrists?

1. They tend to be popular (well-liked by all) – Luke 6:26
2. They are men-pleasers – Gal 1:10; 1The 2:1-4
3. They teach a ‘grace’ that overlooks immoral behavior – Jude 1:4
4. They use the Bible against itself – Satan in Matthew 4:6-7
5. They distort the truth, drawing disciples to themselves – Acts 20:30
6. They are smooth-talkers – Rom. 16:17-18

Antichrists also:

1. Disguise themselves as religious leaders or authorities (2 Co 11:14-15; 1 John 2:19)
2. Form new groups around new theology – tend to be exclusive to certain think tanks
3. Bring or “discover” new “truths” that the NT writers have missed

Acts 20:28-31 NIV Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.

Some say this verse supports the “once saved always saved” antichristian doctrine. They say people who leave the church or begin teaching false doctrine were never really saved to begin with. John is not saying that here. These people went out from us. So they were a part of us but by going out they showed they didn’t belong to us anymore.

There are plenty of other verses in the New Testament that show you can lose your salvation, including the one quoted above. Why all the warnings from Peter and John about false teachers if the possibility doesn’t exist of you joining in the antichristian crowd and losing your salvation?

1 John 2:18

Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.

Beware of the antichrists who masquerade as god’s children

Imagine! If it was the last hour when John was writing this, what is it now, the last second?? The point being, time is short. We know the Gospel message is urgent. We know Satan is bent out of shape because he knows the time is short (Rev 12:12). What confirms this truth is the presence of antichrists. That is what John says. “Many antichrists have come. It is the last hour!”

“Hour” can also have the meaning of “time”, as in these are the last times, or the last period. (Greek: Ora) With that in mind we can then understand that John is talking about the last dispensation, that is, of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the New Testament period. This is it! After this period time will be no more. Are you ready for the next event? Judgment Day!

Antichrist is more of an “attitude” than a “person”. John said there were many – many who had adopted an anti-Christian spirit or attitude. The false teachers he and Peter spoke of definitely qualify as antichrists. The antichristian spirit was already at work when John writes this and many more would be coming, indicating that it was only going to get worse. We see that today this antichristian spirit is still at work and still multiplying! It is a reminder to be faithful to Jesus and not to man-made teachings.

“Nothing blinds the mind to the claims of Jesus Christ more effectually than a good, clean-living, upright life based on self-realization. For a thing to be satanic does not mean that it is abominable and immoral. The satanically managed man is moral, upright, proud, and individual; he is absolutely self-governed and has no need of God”
– Oswald Chambers

1 John 2:17

And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

The world and its agenda are passing away. The world and its ways are passé, old news, boring, obsolete… Why get caught up in it? Why be swayed by it? It has nothing to offer! Those who are born again have been identified with Christ! We have died to the world, recognizing we have nothing there for us. We now look forward to everything new in Jesus! We are joined to Christ and look to receiving our citizenship any time soon! We will abide forever with Jesus because He abides forever!