BEAUTIFUL BUT DEADLY
When I saw this photo of the Blue-Ringed octopus, I thought it
was strikingly beautiful. But then I found out that it’s one of the most
venomous creatures in the ocean. When it feels threatened, it strikes and
asphyxiates its victims by paralyzing respiratory muscles. It reminded me of
Satan in the Garden of Eden. Ezekiel 28: 12-15 describes how beautiful he was,
but we quickly see that his ways were deadly to humanity. We can never trust in
outward appearances. Moses and the great Apostle Paul were both murderers.
Peter was somewhat of a bigot. But, in contrast, look at how beautiful and wise
Satan was:
“Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and
perfect in beauty.
Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God;
Every precious stone was thy
covering,
the sardius, topaz, and the diamond,
the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper,
the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle,
and gold:
The workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes
was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast
created.
Thou art the anointed cherub that
covereth; and I have set thee so:
thou wast upon the holy mountain of God;
Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of
the stones of fire.
Thou wast perfect in thy ways from
the day that thou wast created,
till iniquity was found in thee” (Eze. 28:13-15)
If we go one by one through the Bible stories, we see that most
of the great men and women of the Bible had pretty big flaws. Jesus himself
said: “I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). And guess what? We all fall
into that sinner category. “There is none righteous, no, not one”
(Rom. 3:10).
That doesn’t mean we are okay staying sinners.
The goal is to do our best to let the Lord guide us into all righteousness.
Only Jesus can lead us. It’s the way God set it up.
We can’t make up what we think is right. We go
by what the written Word of God says, and we get born again of His Spirit so we
can truly understand the lessons of the Bible and get personal
downloads from the Lord of spiritual understanding and instruction in everyday
life situations.
Our beauty is from within. It’s not in the clothes we wear, the
houses we live in, the great book knowledge we have, or the intellectual
acumen. That’s all fluff—nice fluff—but fluff none the less. And even as
Bible-believing sons of God, we are going to do some things that are not so
beautiful, and we are going to see others do some things we don’t like either.
But the lesson of looking on a person’s heart is never
overstated. God does it, and Ephesians 5:1 tells us: “Be ye therefore followers of
God, as dear children.” One way to pray for ourselves and others
is to pray that the Lord gets to the heart and brings us and others forward
into the things He’s intended. It doesn’t always look sparkly, peaceful or
pretty. But integrity of heart is better than beauty.
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and
renew a right spirit within me.
Love, Carolyn
LIFE LESSONS TO EMPOWER OUR SOULS: WINGS: A JOURNEY IN
FAITH VOL.2
True-life stories showing how we can overcome the predicaments
of life with practical spiritual solutions.
WINGS: VOLUME 2 has hit
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