Scripture

My Servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about His appearance, nothing to attract us to Him.

Isaiah 53:2, NLT

Quote

God knew that if we had an accurate portrait of Jesus; we would be tempted to worship the portrait instead of Jesus Himself.

~William Franklin Graham

Other than this hint in Isaiah 53, the Bible does not tell us what Jesus looked like; was He tall, dark and handsome or rather ordinary? The truth is we don’t know. Over the years various artist have imagined what He looked like and so we have myriad of portraits but no two are alike. We have the image that the PASSION of Christ planted in our minds and now the image of the CHOSEN series, but these are actors playing the role of Jesus. We just do not know what the real Jesus looked like and that is a good thing. I think Billy Graham is right: if we had the exact image in a painting, we would worship the painting instead of Jesus. Moses was instructed by God to build the Tabernacle, but it was a tent. I admit it was a glorious tent but nevertheless, a plain tent. It was David who wanted to build God a Temple and he planted that dream in his son Solomon. There is no doubt that Solomon’s Temple was a sight to behold but it became an object of worship rather than a place to worship. Sanctuaries do not need to be ornate. Worship centers do not require golden crosses, marvel floors or stain glassed windows. The object of our worship is Jesus, not a building.

We can worship in a tent, bush arbor, gymnasium or an open field. Jesus said, “God is Spirit and those who worship Him, worship Him in spirit and truth.” The Jews were bad about worshipping the symbol or the shadow instead of the substance. The Jews worshiped the Temple, but they rejected the One for whom the Temple was build. Jesus is the real Temple. Don’t allow the devil to divert your focus: keep your eyes on Jesus. He is the Temple, the altar, the high priest and the sacrifice. Jesus is all in all. Every symbol in the Old Testament is pointing to Jesus. We don’t have his picture, but we have something much better; we have His word and His Spirit. Hallelujah, what a Savior!

Extra

We got home about 2:00 am Saturday morning. I took a shower, went straight to bed and slept until noon. Went to my building and did all my devotions, made a couple of visits and went back to bed at 6:00 pm and slept 12 hours. Yesterday was a marathon but I took liberties at GP and shared a word of testimony about the trip. Then I rode to Birmingham with JD and Lori to my uncle’s 90th birthday party. Got back home at 4:00 and went straight to the study. Then I preached last night at DBC. Today I go to the doctor in Athens to see what can be done about the right hand. I love to write but have not been able to do so for a couple of weeks.

Other than being tired and exhausted from the travel: it was a great trip and I made some new friends. Of course I was the only senior adult in the group but everyone was extremely nice to me. A special thanks to Scott Dawson and Tiffany Brown. The most amazing thing to me was the growth. Bethlehem was a village in 1990 and it is a city of 300,000 today. I was overwhelmed by the masses and I am burdened for their salvation. We were told that only 1% of Bethlehem is Christian.

Pray for Sarah Hooper. She is in Decatur General, but I think she is coming home today. Mrs. Willowdean Sandlin may be moving from Summerford’s to the Terrace. It is a good move in my opinion and will make it much easier to keep a check on her. It is good to be home: thanks for all the prayers.