Beauty in the Midst

Song of Solomon 5:16

His mouth is sweetness itself;

he is altogether lovely

.

Love is beautiful, it is undeniable. When something is beautiful we use love to describe it and usually can’t help but keep looking at it. It can be said of a beautiful woman, ‘She looks lovely’. Beauty requires no effort to absorb, no effort to appreciate, it is simply received like a gift as we look at it. The loveliness of Jesus and His finished work on the cross is so beautiful, that there is always something lovely to be seen every time anyone turns to look at Him. The beauty of His person, His love and His grace, brings refreshment and a calm to the soul in fear, stress, doubt, or depression.

John 20:19-20

19

Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when

the doors were shut

where the disciples were assembled, for

fear

of the Jews,

Jesus came and stood in the midst

, and said to them, “

Peace

be

with you

.”

20

When He had said this,

He showed them

His

hands and His side

. Then the disciples

were glad

when they saw the Lord. This act of Jesus melting the fear of his disciples is so loving and so beautiful, that I can’t help but keep turning to look at this picture again and again. He didn’t wait until their fears past and they opened the doors, He knew the answer to their fears was to step right in the midst of it and to see Him – see the love of His sacrifice in the piercing of his hands and side.

1 John 3:16

16

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. This beautiful picture of Jesus is described by Pastor Joseph Prince, in his teachings called The Secrets of the Hebrew letters.  He explains that in the Hebrew word – ‘Lopoxad’ meaning ‘fearless’ – the beauty of Jesus’ loving sacrifice on the cross is right in the midst of the word for fear. Hebrew letters, similar to Chinese letters, have pictures that represent each letter.  5 Hebrew letters spell the word Lopoxad. 3 of the letters of the word spell ‘fear’ [the ones in white in the picture below]. The other 2 letters [in red below] represent pictures of a nail (‘vav’) and the cross (‘tav’).

2 Corinthians 5:21

21

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. How beautiful this is!  The answer to melting fear and being fearless - free from fear of any circumstance, fear of the future, fear of rejection, fear of people’s opinion - is to see and receive Jesus payment for our sins on the Cross. Nothing else can remove fear, but to effortlessly receive His loving payment for our sins through faith in Him, allowing us to become the righteousness of God in Christ.