The fairest of them all

Deep in the heart of every young girl and every woman is a lingering question: Am I beautiful? Am I worthy of pursuit? Is there one who will see me and be captivated by my feminine qualities? Woman have the desire to be seen as beautiful. It has been describes as the feminine ache. It aches because women rarely feel that way.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NLT) 11 God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end.

Everything has a time to be beautiful. And every woman has the opportunity to reflect God’s beauty. Beauty has incredible power both for good and evil. One woman’s beauty was said to be so powerful that an entire war was fought to win her heart. She had the “face that launched a thousand ships”. In our movie “The Incredibles” we see two young women: Violet & Mirage. I say we see them-sometimes we do and sometimes we don’t. Violet’s super power enables her to become invisible if she wants. And at first that is what she wants. But it is not from a place of strength but weakness. Like many girls, she insecure about her appearance and often hides who she is out of fear of rejection. Mirage shows you an exterior quite confidently-or so it appears, but what you think you see is not real. It is more a sudective and manipulative exterior designed to get men to look at her and be brought under her power. Both women have power and both struggle with how to use it.

Beauty is powerful. Physical beauty has its power but inner beauty is even more powerful.

1 Timothy 2:9-10 (MSG) 9 And I want women to get in there with the men in humility before God, not primping before a mirror or chasing the latest fashions 10 but doing something beautiful for God and becoming beautiful doing it.

Violet's beauty emerges when she is released to be who she is and makes a significant contribution to the fight. I believe this is true for women in real life as well. Gifted, confident women who cloth themselves in the purposes of God are the fairest of them all.

incredible weather-incredible times?

Has anybody taken note of all this weather? A cyclone kills 100,000 in Myanmar, tornados bring death to the midwest, floods on the east coast, wild fires on the west, and a devastating earthquake in china with a rising death toll over 10,000-all happening in a week. I've not even mentioned the financial storms or the potential storms of violence/war/terrorism that could happen at any moment. These are at least interesting times. I wonder about these times and the potential correlation to things written by the prophets and apostles. I wonder about the world my son will grow to be a man in. I also wonder about the church and whether she is prepared to stand and be the light of Jesus through these times. Maybe this season of history will call forth something incredible from us-maybe like generations past we will answer the call supernatural love of Jesus Christ. May we be empowered for these days!

Ephesians 1:19 (NLT) 19 I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him...