In His Image

In today’s day and age when many of my peers are choosing that the veiling is a relic from the past, I wonder if they know what they are casting aside, or is it just an indication of where their hearts are really headed.  For many of the people my age, and yes, even those older, the veiling has always been taught as a headship covering showing to the world that the wearer was in submission to her husband, parents, the church, and hopefully, to God.  And while that is a very valid and important part of the veiling, I also firmly believe that there is such a beauty we miss if we don’t look beyond I Cor. 11 for what else the Bible might have to say.

I am thrilled to be married to a woman who is veiled, and here are the reasons why!

To understand the basis of the veil, you need to understand a bit of Glory.  From Genesis to Revelation, Glory was always veiled.  Adam and Eve were created and both were in the glory that God intended for them to enjoy, but when sin came into the world, then God “veiled” them in goat skins, and they were “veiled” from the presence of God.  They could no longer see His face!  Then when God’s glory came down to the Tabernacle, once again, it was not there for everyone to see, but only for one person, and that only once per year.  God’s glory was hidden from the public by a veil, and that veil was never removed until His Spirit no longer dwelt there and then it was rent in two.  Even today, God’s glory, the Church, is hidden from the world.  To those who are without, the church seems ridiculous for the weird ways we worship God, yet for those of us who walk in His Spirit, God’s promises and truth, are precious and literally life and peace!  But it sure doesn’t look like that to those who walk in the flesh, because the Glory is still veiled from them till His return!

So what does this have to do with women and the veiling?  In the Bible we are told that a woman’s long hair is given to her for her glory.  It is part of the feminine beauty that God has given to her.  But here is where the problem comes in.  You see, back in Genesis, when God was done with creating the world, He said it was good.  And when the God who can breathe out the stars, says that something is good, you’d better believe that it is knock your socks off, good!  But Satan cannot stand anything that God has designed to be glorious!  Because he knows that it reflects the beauty and image of his arch enemy, God!  Everything that God designs to be glorious, Satan will do his best to make it common place, or even distasteful.  And the vice versa is also true, everything God warns against and says to avoid, Satan will put all the shine and luster on it he can, to convince you that that is what you really need to be happy, fulfilled, or in this case, beautiful!

And so Satan starts to convince men and women that her hair is not really all that glorious, especially when it is bound up and hidden, but would look better exposed and hanging!  And for a while, people were askance at the shamefulness of walking around in public with your hair exposed!  But after a while, that which God wanted to be glorious, became common place, and even bothersome!  So Satan continues to lead us into his viewpoint by telling us that the long hair is not really all that glorious, in fact it is a bother, and why not cut it shorter?  It will surely be easier to take care of that way, and besides, it will make you look better!  And so the lie goes on.  Satan is not really concerned about her beauty, he just wants to steal her God given glory away from her!

If you think I am being far-fetched, let me use this same mentality on a different area.  In Ontario Canada, it is now legal for women to go topless in public.  Now Solomon, in all his wisdom told his son to always be ravished with his wife’s body, but only his wife’s body!  Including the parts that Ontario now says can be freely viewed and enjoyed by all!  Now let me ask you, if you were to go to work tomorrow and see a woman walking topless along the road, would you think “There is a woman of Godly beauty?!”  Of course not!!  It is shameful for a woman to go about so!  Even disgusting!

Ladies, God has given you so much beauty, that you can drive men crazy with it!  But it needs to be kept for your husband so that you can enjoy it together!  Otherwise, it becomes cheap and common, almost totally lacking in glory, and you will have given away a precious treasure that God meant for your enjoyment!  Remember, Satan is trying to tell you that you are not beautiful unless you expose your beauty for all!  Don’t buy into his lie!  God has given you women a tremendous privilege in gifting you with so much more beauty then us men!  When God was trying to describe the beauty of His Church, He didn’t compare it to a man, He compared to a beautiful bride adorned for her husband!  You are beautiful just the way God made you, and if you keep those treasures hidden for your husband, they will be so much more precious than if treated carelessly or with little worth.

But here is the best part!  If you are a single lady who is modestly dressed and veiled, you are telling those around you that you, that when you get married, the best is yet to come!  It is hidden for that day!  Oh Glory!!  Ladies!  You have the privilege of telling the world that the beauty that the Creator has placed in you, is just a foretaste of the beauty that is to come!  And just as you cannot see the glories that God has in store for us, so you cover your glories for the day when you will be married!

Yes, the veil is also a sign of being submissive to the role God has for you, but I see it as so much more than that!

Men! What does this have to do with us?

First of all, if we want to see our wives and children living in submission to us, we need to examine if we are setting a good example of being in submission to the authorities God has placed in our lives.  Our church leaders, parents, local authorities, are just to name a few.   But we also need to choose which standard of beauty we want to see in our wives and children.  Do we want to see one that upholds God’s standard of purity and chastity?  Or the one in the world that Satan wants us to see, of distorting God’s beauty into an unachievable lie?  We as men set the tone of how privileged our wives feel in this role through various ways.  Do we give them ALL of our “attentions” or do they see us glancing lustily at the billboard or jogger along the road?  Do we affirm them with words of encouragement and cheer when they feel a little less than glamorous at times?  Do we remind them that just as Christ only has eyes for his bride the church, we also pledge to only have eyes for her, and are satisfied with her?  And even on our own standard of dress.  Am I willing to dress in a way that doesn’t draw attention to my body?

Most importantly men, am I so enthralled with my Divine Creator, that she also feels excited about being a part of this preparation for the marriage supper of the Lamb, or does she feel that she has to bear this burden alone?

It reminds me of the lady who requested that when she died, that she be buried, holding a fork in her hands.  When the pastor asked ‘why’, she told him that whenever the main course was finished at a luncheon, and the servers instructed people to keep their forks, you knew that something really special was coming for desert!

On the day I got married, I knew that the best was yet to come!  So it is with God’s glory!  Let us affirm the beautiful plan that He has given us, and practice it with JOY, not woeful resignation!

We do not like to think about pain, we run from it! But what is God’s heart feeling right now as He looks at this world? We say we want the heart of God? Do we? Are we willing to feel His pain?

This has stirred my heart in a way I cannot express. Below is the excerpts from one of David Wilkerson’s Messages. This is the man who wrote “The Cross and the Switchblade.” He is a much older man now, but his message for us is one that comes out of years of ministry, and a brokeness seldom seem today.

If you want to download the entire message, I have included links to the mp3 files at the bottom.

These files are split into 5 parts to make it easier to download.  If you want to download it for future listening, just right-click on the link and then click “Save As” and put it in a file of your choosing.

A Call to Anguish – Part 1
A Call to Anguish – Part 2
A Call to Anguish – Part 3
A Call to Anguish – Part 4
A Call to Anguish – Part 5

As I sit here this evening, I must confess that I am somewhat disturbed in my spirit and some feelings are welling up inside me in a way they never have before or at least for a long time.  I struggle to grasp the significance of what is going on in the lives of those so precious to me.

As you can read in the post before, my little niece, Regan, at the ripe old age of 4 develops a tumor on her brain that turns out to be, larger than a golf ball but not quite as large as a tangerine.  They had surgery today, less than 36 hours after it’s discovery.  The ongoing treatment and what caused it are unknown at this point.  She made it thru the surgery safe and for that we are most grateful!

Then we heard from my Grandfather that my Grandma’s bone that broke was caused by her having bone cancer.  Yet the doctors are unable to figure out were it is coming from so right now, they are unsure how to proceed with treatment.

I talked to a good friend of mine in Ohio who knows of two children close to them there, who have come down with cancer and the one is given a 25% chance of survival and if he makes it thru the first year, they raise the odds to 50%.

I have put up a sign at my store that reads thus;

#2 Question:
“Is today the day
I die?”

I am slowly coming to grips with the fact that life and what we we know of it here, is so short lived.  To see these loved ones face the ultimate trial of life, to stare death in the face and realize that we have no promise of tomorrow, brings home the reality that this life is only the prep course.  We were born to die.  The only difference between those who have cancer and those of us who are “healthy” is the fact that they have a better idea of when they might die.  We both will, it’s just a matter of when. 

Our greatest fulfillment will never happen on this side of the grave, but will happen when we see our Saviors face.  I long in a greater way tonight for the rapture.  To see my loved ones suffer, makes me long for the day that there will be no pain, no more cancer, no more life and death struggles!  I long, not for my own comfort this time, but because so many around me are hurting.  Like the saints under the alter I ask, “How long?”

So to conclude, the young lady asked me the other day, “If that’s the number two question, what is number one?!” 

“Am I ready to die?”

During my growing up years, my father and I would have these discussions about whether something new was “right” or “wrong.” I would inevitably ask, “What is wrong with it?” to which he sometimes did, or did not have an answer. Now I have come to realize that the whole premise for the question is wrong.

To ask “what is wrong with it” is to imply that if it cannot be proven detrimental to me, then it must be ok for me. But let’s take that premise and look at it from a different perspective. Most of us have been to a hospital and to the pharmacy counters. What if these doctors and nurses looked at the patient with an infection coursing through his body and then walked over to the list of medications and asked themselves, “what won’t hurt him?” If that were the only standard for choosing the medication, there would be a host that they could prescribe! But their goal is not just to avoid harming the patient; they are going to try their best to get the right medication that’s going to destroy the virus that is causing the patient the trouble. With that in mind, the list of medications is much smaller, but is made up of ones that will help bring the patient to the goal of restored health!

We are all born with the infection of a sin nature. When we accepted Christ into our lives, a terrible battle ensued between the spirit of our flesh and the implanted Spirit of Christ. Paul talks of this so eloquently in Romans 7
19For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 21I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Paul knew that this was not a hap-hazard conflict, it was a serious infection! Yet so often I have looked at the state of my heart, and instead of trying to do that which strengthens the Spirit of Christ and puts down the spirit of the flesh, I have simply tried to avoid damaging the Holy Spirit’s presence by asking, “what is wrong with ‘it’.” To my shame, for many years I walked in lukewarm Christianity because I was unwilling to do that which conquered the flesh, seeking only that which “was not detrimental to my spiritual health.

Now I realize that my goal of becoming in the image of Christ will not be achieved by doing whatever I want that does not directly conflict with His spirit, but will only be reached as I look ahead to that goal and do only those things which strengthen His spirit and do the most damage to my fleshes desires. Thus I willing take the counsel of my parents and church leaders, since God has placed them there for my spiritual growth; and I choose only those things which strengthen my relationship with Christ and those I see setting a good example.

Why? Because 1There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8

Praise God!!

Sunday morning, we were on the way to church and to pick up Aimee’s brother who cam to visit for a week.  Our boys had been ecstatic with anticipation of all the fun times with their Uncle Skyler.  However it had been almost two years since they would have seen him so I asked Japheth Jr. if he still knew what Skyler looked like.
     “Yes Papa, I know what he looks like!”
“What does he look like?” (I, who never misses a chance to learn better how to describe one’s looks
“Oh Papa, he has a round head just like Jeremiah’s!”

Oh how the laughter rolled.

Japheth was only trying to find words to describe his uncle so he compared him to someone he knew.  The thought came to me later, what do people compare me to when they try to describe my physical features, or more importantly, my spiritual features!  Truly, “by their fruits ye shall know them.”