Beautiful

 "O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness..." Psalm 96:9...."O Lord, You're beautiful. Your face is all I seek." Lyric from Keith Green's "O Lord, You're Beautiful."

One of my favorite scenes from the movie, The Lord of the Rings: The Return Of The King, is when Frodo and Sam are deep in the darkness of the realm of Mordor. It was the hardest part of their journey thus far, and despair was gnawing at their hearts. In the midst of it, Sam looked up and saw a parting of the thick darkness that was the sky above them. For a moment, he saw the beauty of the shining stars and said, "Look Mr. Frodo, there's light and beauty there that no shadow can touch." I think that's an attitude that the church, that we, are in desperate need of today.

There are times I am overwhelmed by the depth of darkness in our world today. Evil and wickedness are growing by leaps and bounds throughout the world, let alone in our nation. The human race seems to reach new depths of cruelty and hatred by the day. We live in the day where Scripture said good would be called evil and evil good. There is a murderous spirit loose in this world and it comes from the depths of hell. Like Frodo and Sam, the reality of it all can drive us to despair.....unless we, like Sam, dare to look up.

In the devotional I was reading today, writer Chris Tiegreen said, "Wherever Christ went, circumstances had to bow to His authority." We are faced each day as to what we're going to look upon; the circumstances surrounding us, or the Christ who is very real and present in their midst and Lord over them all. We live in a fallen world where sin and evil rage against His creation and the human race He loves and sent His Son to redeem. We can choose to look around at all that is happening around us, or we can choose to look to Him, the One who's beauty and holiness no shadow of darkness can touch. For Sam, the horrors of Mordor could not block out the beauty that was before them. Neither can this present darkness extinguish the Light that is found in Jesus Christ. Not His Light, not His Beauty, and not His Holiness. The beauty Sam saw was more real than the terrors of Mordor. When confronted with the beauty and reality of Jesus Christ, despair, fear, and hopelessness must flee from His Presence.

King David wrote, "I would have despaired if I had not believed that I would see the salvation of the Lord in the land of the living." He is a Savior, Lord, and Light that no amount of darkness can touch. Press on. Look not at your circumstances but to His face. Discover how truly beautiful and mighty He really is.

Blessings,
Pastor O