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| Grace Words |
By King Julius Kwedhi
"Enter by the narrow gate.
For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those
who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads
to life, and those who find it are few. (Matthew 7:13-14 ESV)
Who is he that is lost except he
that has gone down the wrong way; he that has gone down the wrong path? And
what is going down the wrong path if not following falsehood? For going down
the wrong path is believing that it leads in the right direction when in truth
it doesn’t. But what makes the wrong way seem like it is the right path if it
is not the pleasure and the safety that it promises? And what pleasure will
seemingly be there if it is not through the outward beauty that that path
portrays itself with?
Beauty is what gets our positive response. What do I mean? We
are designed by God such that if we don’t like something we will not entertain
it. At least not until we change our minds about it. When we find it pleasurable then we will
entertain it. And that pleasure is the beauty that gets our positive response
to entertain a thing or a person.
What is beauty? Beauty is good. What is encapsulated in
beauty that draws us to it? It is the safety, protection, pleasure, joy,
satisfaction and security that we perceive and causes us to want to have and
posses when we engage in that beauty. We can only be captivated by and obsessed
with the beauty that we perceive to be beautiful. Something can be ugly to
someone else yet beautiful in your eyes. It may look as trash in the eyes of
another person but a treasure to you. A log of wood may look as dirt in the
eyes of a certain house owner yet a perfect wood for a beautiful work of art of
an eagle in the eyes of a very skilful artist – woodcarver. It is like God
seeing a “servant and instrument to the gentiles” in Paul when everyone else wrote
him off and only saw a murderer; which he was but not for long.
But that does not mean that we conclude the definition of
beauty as what makes you excited and leaving you wanting more regardless of
what others think and say about it. It has often been said that “Beauty lies in
the eyes of the beholder.” But is that true? I prefer to rephrase it this way;
“Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder as is revealed to him/her by the Lord
Jesus, Who (Jesus) is the definition of true beauty.”
And with that I am stating that there is a standard of true
beauty. That there is nothing beautiful apart from the Lord Jesus. That you
cannot define anything beautiful except by the revelation of Christ Jesus. That
if Jesus does not define anything and anyone as beautiful that that thing or
that person is not beautiful, whether you think they are beautiful or not.
There is a standard of true beauty, and everything that defies or is contrary
to that definition of beauty is not true beauty, although it may look beautiful.
What Jesus defines as beautiful is indeed beautiful and
anything opposed to that is ugly and not beautiful. And we cannot successfully
take to try and make beautiful that which Christ has already placed a curse on
it and has not pronounced it beautiful. That Jesus has the final standard of
definition for true beauty, and in that lens of that definition we are allowed
to call something as beautiful (when it conforms to that standard definition of
true beauty) and call something as not beautiful (when it does not conform to
that standard definition of true beauty).
True beauty glorifies God and is everything truthful about it.
Is opposed to the flesh and is nothing false about it. False beauty puts on the
mask and make-up for looking beautiful but it does not glorify God and has
nothing true about it. False beauty glories the flesh and is everything false
about it.
False beauty has an outward appearance of beauty that it
flaunts to get your attention, confidence and trust in order that you may
follow its lustful and sensual desires. That you may pursue after it. False
beauty looks like true beauty but it is not.
False beauty is like cheap Chinese products that you find in
Chinese shops, in Namibia. Such Chinese products look like genuine products
that are often expensive and indeed of good quality and found in other shops.
But the distinction between the cheap, fake products from the Chinese shops and
the true expensive quality products from other shops is the fact that, though
they are both temporary products, the Chinese products last only for a short
time while the real quality products last much longer. The Chinese products
loose colour quicker than the true quality products and then their fake coating
is revealed to be not real.
The pleasure, good, security, protection, joy, satisfaction
and safety that are promised by false beauty are all fleeting, short-lived,
temporary and disappointing. Just as you think you are getting the best of
them, just as you think you are enjoying it then
it bites like an adder.
“Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man, but afterwards his
mouth will be full of gravel” (Proverbs 20:17 ESV).
“Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the
cup and goes down smoothly. In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like
an adder. Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart utter perverse things.
You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies
on top of a mast” (Proverbs 23:31-34 ESV).
False beauty will cost you your whole life. Avoid it.
Falsehood and deceit take on the superficial face of beauty, which is not true
beauty, in order that it may get your attention and get you to desire it. And
once you are obsessed enough with it and are then drawn to have a bite of it,
it will then bite you in return like a snake and the bread that was once sweet
to your taste becomes gravel in your mouth. Deception. Deception back-fires all
those that go with it, and all those that are blinded by it; those who think
they are on top of the world, when in fact and of truth they are biting the
dust. Dead corpses who think they are full of life.
Deception is not bliss!!!
The wrong path, therefore, looks like, feels like, glitters
like, tastes like, sings like, shines like, and speaks like it is the true and
right path. The true and right path is the path that leads to everlasting life;
the path of true joy unceasing and unspeakable, of peace and tranquillity that
is found nowhere else. The right path is the path of safety, protection and
security. It is the path of true beauty, and the path of rest and pleasure
worth enjoying.
As such, the right path is the path of beauty. Beauty that
you will only be able to hear, see, and comprehend when the Lord Jesus, the
Master of that path, allows you to see, hear and comprehend it.
The wrong
path is hungry for souls, hungry for followers, hungry for disciples. Hungry to
see someone’s life being destroyed. And to accomplish that desire, and to draw
people to itself, the wrong path looks like, feels like, speaks like, shines
like, tastes like, sings like, and bling blings like it is the right path, but
it is not. It puts on a show of some beauty that appeals to the flesh and
promises a quick fix to your desires, so that you will believe its lies. And
believing you will fall for and go down following the wrong path and will end
up being discipled down the wrong path.
Therefore,
who is he that is lost except he that has gone down the wrong path? And what is
going down the wrong path if not following falsehood? For going down the wrong
path is believing that it leads in the right direction, when in truth it
doesn’t.
Further Scripture
Reading:
2 Corinthians 11:12-15 ESV
(12) And what I do I will continue to do, in order
to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted
mission they work on the same terms as we do.
(13) For such men are false apostles, deceitful
workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
(14) And no wonder, for even Satan disguises
himself as an angel of light.
(15) So it is no surprise if his servants, also,
disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to
their deeds.
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