Greetings from Austin St.

Blessed Sunday to you all!

Isn’t fall wonderful?! I know it was wet today, but I got to wear a sweater today to church and have laid out another one to wear to school tomorrow. I love fall!

Isaiah 53:2 “He hath no form or comeliness; and when we shall see Him there is no beauty that we should desire Him.”

Psalm 27:4 “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord.”

What attracts us to someone? Okay ladies, what first attracted you to your husband or boyfriends? Was it how he looked, how he walked, the way he talked or what he was doing? Gentlemen, I could ask the same questions of you and the women to whom you were attracted and (if you are married) eventually married. As for me being attracted to Bruce; he (and my daddy said it so well) Bruce was the first person I dated with whom I could be totally myself. Yes, I liked the way he looked, loved the way he sang, and he made my heart sing. But as we get older, looks change as does eye sight and voices begin to lose their strength, but he will always make my heart sing. I fell in love with Bruce the first time I saw him.

Isaiah tells us in this verse that there was nothing unusual about the way Jesus will look when He came to earth. There would be nothing overly attractive about Him that would attract others to Him by His physical presence. Jesus did not speak from a huge arena church with cameras and a teleprompter script with a make-up artist to cover the flaws and a wardrobe person to make an appropriate clothing selection. I have heard that if there was a crowd of people you would not be able to distinguish Jesus as being any different than any other Jewish man. So what is it that attracts us to Jesus?

I think for the people in the time when Jesus walked and with whom He came in contact the first attraction was that He spoke with authority. He spoke with the authority of the scriptures about the One who sent him. And when He spoke He did not speak words of judgment. Jesus spoke of the love of God for them. He spoke of forgiveness and how to treat others as they would like to be treated. He spent time explaining to the disciples and crowds of listeners and individuals about the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of God here on earth and the Kingdom of Heaven after we leave this earth in death. Jesus explained if we live a godly life with the love of God in your heart and are guided by the Holy Spirit that we all will experience a physical bodily death, just as He, Himself would, but we would live again with Him in heaven. Those who have Jesus in their heart would see Jesus illuminated in their hearts because they are now guided by the Holy Spirit; the very essence of the Master Himself.

God calls us into relationship with Him. He wants all who believe to draw very near and we will see Him as He really is. We will experience joy in finding Him in our hearts as claiming Him as Master, Lord and Friend.

In these days of “looks are everything”, if we don’t like how we look we can get some doctor to change our looks or use enough make-up to cover the flaws, remember that what we look like on the outside will fade and how we look is not what is important to God. What we look like on the inside is what God wants to see as beautiful. God wants us to look like His Son on the inside. He wants us to glow with love, forgiveness, tender mercies and kindness for everyone we meet. For when we meet God face to face He will not ask why we are not wearing Armani, but he will ask to see your heart.

Take joy in the journey. Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.