Flawless Beauty
One Year Bible (June 14)
I Kings 12:20-13:34
FLAWLESS BEAUTY
When you can’t get your beauty sleep or caffeine and those puffy “Bags” are “Front and Center”, What you need is a good “CONCEALER”. $25.00 and up should do the trick! After all, basic make-up can only go so far as to hide those bags, circles, and dark spots.
However, if you want your skin to have an “all-over glow” then what you need is an “ILLUMINATOR” which is a make-up that highlights your beauty while your “CONCEALER” hides your “places that you want to be concealed”. (See how delicately I put that!)
Once you get done with this little process and a zillion other tricks you have “up your sleeve” you will have “FLAWLESS BEAUTY”. You can then “Morphe” your “Glossier” self into a “Lush” “ColourPop” existence! If you have no “LipSense” of what companies I am referring to, you can just call SeneGence and my daughter-in-law can help you out with those dark spots, wrinkles, and more… much more.
Here is the thing, my dear “Color Girls”, we live our entire lives “Concealing” what we do not want to see and “Revealing” the image that we want to put forth…. Can I hear an “Oorah” from our “Beauty Bootcamp Babes” out there today?
Don’t even get me started on hair coloring! My roots are so resistant that they refuse weekly to be “Concealed” and choose to “Reveal” themselves making me “live up to” the image of Solomon’s wisdom. Who wants to be that wise???
So, let me get politely to the point today… Many people will tell you, “I prefer the New Testament to the Old Testament”. After all, the Old Testament is about “Law” vs. “Liberty” and “Rules” vs “Redemption. God seems so “angry” in the Old Testament and there are so “many wives”, “too much killing”, and they “sacrifice babies” and kill entire families. Who wants to read that kind of stuff? Just give me the life of “Graceland”...
Trust me, I get it! I like to wear my “CONCEALER” too. I would also prefer my roots to be “Nice ‘n Easy” as well. To tell you the truth, I would like for the Old Testament to be “Nice ‘n Easy” as well, but it isn’t at all!
What is “the deal” with all these kings' struggles, and battles? Bingo!!! Now, we are talking? What is the battle in today’s passage really all about? What are they fighting to stop, and why does it matter who God’s chosen people are in the big scheme of things? Now, we are getting warm!
This is what the great theologian Augustine once said about the Holy Scriptures, “In the Old Testament the New is CONCEALED, in the New the Old is REVEALED”.
The Old Testament is NOT there to “CONCEAL” man’s sinful nature, mistakes, or the wrath of God. (Like we like to hide our blemishes.) All of that is printed on each page for us to realize the need for a savior.
Just consider all of the Old Testament holidays, “Passover, The Days of Unleavened Bread”, “Pentecost”, “The Feast of Trumpets”, “The Day of Atonement”, The Feast of Tabernacle”, and “The Last Great Day”. All of their holidays “foretold” of Jesus! He was the fulfillment that was NOT revealed until the New Testament.
The Temple and the “Mercy Seat” proclaim the need for a perfect sacrifice.
We read of how “The Cloud” or “Presence of God” filled the “Holy of Holies”.
However, God could not RESIDE with HIS People until Jesus came to REDEEM HIS People.
How could such great men as David and Solomon fall in such devastating ways?
They lacked what we have today; God living and dwelling in us through the Holy Spirit!
Without the Old Testament, we can’t understand the New Testament, and without the New, we have a very incomplete understanding of the Old Testament.
The Old Testament is part of the entire series. We can’t choose Season 12 and skip Season 1. The Bible is like a powerful epic movie series that is moving us from “DEATH TO LIFE”.
Adam and Eve went from “LIFE TO DEATH”. Through Jesus’ death, mankind will now go from “DEATH TO LIFE”. Now, can we see why there is such a fierce battle going on in the kingdom?
As we read through the Old Testament together we know how the war ends. Help is on the way!
May we read with expectant hearts and eyes that seek to see, “The New Revealed in the Old”.
From “CONCEALED” to “REVEALED”...
Oh Lord, ILLUMINATE our hearts to see YOU as we watch YOUR Salvation unfold!
“Do not think that I came to abolish the LAW of the PROPHETS. I did not come to abolish but to FULFILL.” (Matthew 5:17)
FLAWLESS BEAUTY…
The journey of being changed from “The Old” to “The New”!
