Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate.  Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach.  For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.

 
 
 

Going to Jesus

Daily Thoughts

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Thought for Today
Jul. 23

HOW JESUS LOOKED

Isaiah was moved by the holy Ghost to prophesy many things about the coming Messiah. Amazingly, one of those things was a description of Jesus' physical appearance. According to Isaiah's prophecy, the Lord Jesus was physically unattractive. This is what Isaiah prophesied: "He hath no form or comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him" (Isa. 53:2). Movie makers cast no one but handsome men to play the part of Jesus in their movies, but that is just to attract people so that they will pay to watch them. But in his lifetime on earth, Jesus' physical appearance attracted no one. Those who loved Jesus could only have loved him because of the goodness and wisdom and power of God that he possessed in his soul.

Jesus was born in a stable, and his first bed was a feeding trough. That was the only place that this world had to offer him the night he was born, and this world has never been any more receptive than that of the real Jesus. Whenever large numbers of people get excited about "Jesus", it is wise to step back and consider which "Jesus" it is that the multitudes are following.

It is Satan whose physical appearance is lovely. Through Ezekiel, God revealed to us that this fallen cherub was "perfect in beauty" (28:12). The devil does not want men to know that what he is, pleases them. Satan's ways please mankind so much that Jesus called him "the prince of this world" (Jn. 14:30), and Paul called him "the god of this world" (2Cor. 4:4). Men will refuse to worship the true God, no matter how holy He is, unless He measures up to their standard of beauty. But they will follow the devil himself, and do, as long as his ways please their physical senses.

Satan does not want people to discover that the dashing, debonair Jesus of the movies is more nearly a picture of him than of the real Jesus. If people ever learn that, they might start seeking to know the real God instead of serving a god who looks good but isn't good, one who sounds holy but is very wicked. If people ever find out that the devil is the handsome one and that Jesus was actually kind of ugly, they might start wondering if their sense of good and evil is twisted, and they might sincerely begin to ask God to reveal Himself. That is what Satan fears because he knows that God loves people and that if people ask, they shall receive. Jesus knows that, too. And that is why he encouraged everyone to "Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that seeketh, findeth; and every one that asketh, receiveth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened."

That is what the real God does because the real God is really good, and He really loves people.

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