The Call

Everything on The Consider Podcast and website has to do with the call for all men and women to repent. Such is an offer of mercy for those willing to follow Jesus by hating their life and picking up their cross. After all, even the demons believe in God, but they are terrified. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that–and shudder. James 2:19

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The Facial Expressions of God

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Text The Facial Expressions of God

Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body is also full of darkness. (Luke 11:34)

Not all voices and words come from the mouth. Just as man was created in God’s image so we know that God communicates beyond verbal ways. We communicate with the ex- precisions, facial movements, hand gestures, and even in the rising of an eyebrow. Indeed, we communicate with our eyes just as a lamp lights a room. What is inside shines out and communicates things hidden in the soul. So it is with God; the face of God through Jesus communicates volumes. In fact, when we finally die and see Jesus, the Bible tells us we shall be like Him because we see Him face to face.

As a pastor and parent, many times it is not what I say that is important, but what I do not say verbally. Many times, my silence communicates more words. Whether it be unspoken love or rebuke, the voice is clear and resounds more than words. Those that I am closest to in the Lord often sense the love of Christ that flows through me to them by what shines out through my eyes. In the same way, those that are stubborn or rebellious, if they had soft hearts would know that God is angry and frustrated not because I rebuke or admonish them, but that my eyes communicate something much more serious than words ever could.

By seeking the face of God, we can grow to become keenly aware of His emotions. As we work out our salvation with fear and trembling, we should become very astute to the emotions of the one we love with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. If we do this, then we can say with the Psalmist, “Blessed are all who take refuge in him,” for they know when God smiles and when He frowns. And at the first sign of frowning, they run to the mercy seat to repent, for they have learned to “Kiss the Son.”

Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. (Psalms 2:12)

Like the burning bush, the majority of God’s children are completely unaware of the moods of the Father. How sad that many cannot even hear Jesus sigh deeply, let alone read His face and so never sense the need to repent from the heart.

He sighed deeply . . . (Mark 8:12)

When we have soft hearts, we will hear Jesus speak to us in ways that shatter the soul or exhilarate the heart. Peter experienced the shattering of the soul. When Peter first heard the call of God to come follow Jesus, he fell to his knees in humility.

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’s knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8)

After many years of following Christ, Peter protested that he would not deny Jesus. Later, after his denial, all it took was a glance by Jesus and his soul was shattered. The mark of a soft heart before God is one that just doesn’t hear the voice of God and respond, but one that picks up on His ever so subtle moods. As with any mature child, what once required a loud verbal command can be communicated with a glance of the eyes. As with any newlywed couple that at first communicated their love with flowers and grand gestures, in old age, they can sit together without saying a word and bask in the love God has worked. See how Peter responds to the look of the Lord. Jesus “looked straight at Peter,” and he went out and wept “bitterly.”

The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly. (Luke 22:61–62)

In the same way, Jesus met Paul on the Damascus road and shouted at him and blinded him. But as their relationship grew deeper all it took for Paul to feel strengthened in faith was to know Jesus stood at his side.

But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth. (2 Timothy 4:17)

May we all be so blessed that all it takes is for the Lord to stand at our side and give us strength. May we sense His presence and feel courageous. All we need is a glance to cause us to weep over our sins.

Paul knew the emotions of God and therefore wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:10, “We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus, may also be revealed in our body.” As a believer and disciple of Jesus, I am keenly aware of God’s emotions toward me. And God communicates both His displeasure (“death of Jesus”) and His pleasure that I am letting the blood of Jesus do its work (“life of Jesus”). I hear much more than words; I feel and sense the emotions of God. Indeed, as He works more righteousness, the working out of His Word occurs more through a quick sense of God’s emotion and heart than a bunch of commands. Though I always strive to uphold the commands of God, the face of God communicates much. This is truly seeking the heart of God. When a man seeks the heart of God, hearing not only the voice of God but sensing His facial expressions, he will be granted a heart like David’s. A heart that’s after God’s own heart and obeys everything He asks him to do.

After removing Saul, he made David their king. He testified concerning him: ‘I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’ (Acts 13:22)

Chapter 14: The facial expressions of God

• Think of the ways facial expressions and body language affect communication.
• Why is it important to read and understand the emotions of God?
• List some emotions, such as love, anger or disappointment. In what ways can you feel these emotions in God?
• How would understanding the emotions of God help you to hear Him clearly?

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Ears to Hear: Chapter 15 | [Continue to Next Chapter →]

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The Consider Podcast
Examining Today’s Wisdom, Folly and Madness
www.archive.consider.info

Former Salt Shaker Bookstore

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The Salt Shaker Christian bookstore, because of persecution by Washington State Authorities, was destroyed and ran out of the town of Enumclaw. Just part of the proof that Sound Doctrine Church was walking the narrow road with Jesus.

For you, brothers became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those churches suffered from the Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to all men. 1 Thessalonians 2:14-15

It was a beautiful store. A result of the hard work of Sound Doctrine Church. In the store was a free rack because, as Jesus said, “Freely you received, freely give.” The following track is a small reproduction of the love that burned in our hearts to give freely.

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