DARK DAYS ARE FOR HIS GLORY!
(by E. H. Maze)
Epitaph
Beauty for Ashes
After the last chapter of
“Dark Days,” I thought it would be good to include this brief study on God’s
beauty. I left you dying in the spider web because dark days cannot be
expressed any better than to see yourself in a lonely place wrapped in terror
and inevitable doom. The Bible speaks plainly about the dying of
self. This book started with the idea that God first created darkness,
then He created light. The book ended with man, through sin, creating his
own darkness and needing God's light to, once again, chase away the dark shadow
of death. Like a seed must die before it can grow, so must we, if we try
to live separated from His will. My testimony is true: I died there
in that web. God rescued me only after it was over. Thankfully, I
was resurrected. God called me from the domain of darkness and into His
marvelous light. He chose me to be an example of His power to turn ashes
into something beautiful. He chose you, too. That is why you made it
all the way through (this book) to the end.
My wife had an upcoming
keynote spot the weekend coming and she asked me to help her study for it. We started studying the phrase “beauty for
ashes.” She wanted to know why the word
“beauty” was sometimes translated as “garland” and we discovered some pretty
marvelous things about how God sees things - and, how we see things - and, how we can
get the two (man and God) to agree.
First of all, we discovered that when the Bible says that God will give us “beauty for ashes” He does not mean that He will make us beautiful (as if we were not already, from His perspective, beautiful, or that we ever will be from man’s perception). Instead, in the case of the verses quoted above, it says that He (or we) will put beauty on us (like a garland). In other words, beauty is a noun; it something that we wear.
Well, that thought alone, opened up a
one-hour conversation. We discussed the
difference between “what we wanted God
to do for us” and “what God really wanted to do for us.” What a difference!
Let me back track for just
this paragraph. After the Dark Days of
my life were over, it was refreshing that my wife and I, both very dominant
personalities, could have a little Bible Study without one of us insisting that
our own interpretation was the correct one.
We have both grown so much through those dark days; so much so that
without noticing it immediately it made the sunlight brighter, more
refreshing, clearer and sensible; traveling through dark days and getting
through to the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. Did you know that
there really “is” a light at the end of the tunnel?
We found that there are 2 types of Anointing.
When the anointing is upon us it changes our countenance. The anointing is a supernatural inner event that triggers an outward expression. But, the anointing can be a bad thing, as well as a good thing, according to where the anointing comes from.
Anointing of the Flesh
There is an anointing of the
flesh. That is the reference to
ashes. The Old Testament folks would
adorn themselves with ashes to represent their mournful state. It was totally of the flesh. In fact, the ashes not only represented the
flesh, often the ashes were flesh - animal flesh mostly. Not always, of course, sometimes the ashes
would be burnt trees, leaves, whatever.
Even that is appropriately “of the earth.” People could see inside you if you were
wearing ashes. They could tell that
something tragic had happened. They knew
the moment they set eyes upon you that something had changed (or not). People who wear ashes are self-anointed. They have prepared themselves to meet
you. They are instant witnesses of how
their life is going. Do you know anyone
who wears his or her life like ashes?
For the most part, they are always depressed or sad.
Anointing of the Spirit
This is the beauty, put upon a
person like garland. God says (in order to speak
into people’s lives) that we should put on beauty instead of ashes.
Beauty is referred to as “garland” because it is something that God “puts upon” a person so that others can see His beauty. The garland represents the process of making one more beautiful than can be seen without it. If I can use an earthly example (for clarification only, because the anointing of the Lord is so far above the earth that it falls short of His glory to use earthly illustrations, but that is all we have) it is like a beautiful Hollywood starlet. Without her jewelry and low-cut dress and strapless, uplifting bra and the rest of the “garland” used to make her beautiful in front of the camera, most models/actresses are merely common-looking (although probably very pretty in the natural) people like you and me. The garland reveals to everyone the possibility of how outwardly beautiful a person can be if they work at it hard enough.
Thankfully, we don’t have
to work at His beauty. If worn properly,
we reveal His beauty almost naturally.
The Hollywood starlet wearing
the “garland” doesn’t always like to reveal the source of her beauty, but
sometimes, if you listen, you will hear her give thanks to Faberge or
The garland the Lord puts upon
us is called the anointing! See
In the first chapter I spoke about John the Baptist’s
father who couldn’t speak until he obeyed God by naming his son John? Unfortunately, the Lord doesn’t shut our
mouths often enough. He leaves us to our
own ignorance and we insert our foot in our mouth at each opportunity. That is because we don’t speak with the right
anointing. We either have the anointing
of ashes upon us that speaks death, despair, loss, hopelessness and darkness or
we speak with the anointing of beauty that speaks life, faith, blessing, hope
and light. Which would you prefer?
What am I suggesting? This:
The Lord has anointed YOU with His Spirit. His Spirit is upon you and it is beautiful. The anointing has made you beautiful. When people ask me how I am on any given day,
I tell them, “I’m beautiful!” Not only
do I believe it, but I think some of my closest friends are beginning to
believe it, also. Because I am. The anointing will make you believe it for
yourself. With the beauty of the Lord as
your fashion statement, you will outshine anything
Either we have the anointing of ashes, or, we have the anointing of beauty. Which would you prefer?
Now that God has said, "Let there be light," then, let there be light!
YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!
the end
Thank you for taking the time to finish this book.
Please let me know if you have read (and enjoyed) this book by sending me a quick email to: ehylandmaze@aol.com
end of Book (click here to go to my homepage)
bless you.....................................Eugene H. Maze
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