My wife and I, while on vacation, were assigned a nice hotel room wherein we discovered pornographic magazines. Both contained photos of unclad morbidly obese women. That was our perception. Apparently the person who perused those magazines perceived the women as beautiful. Nowadays, the Twiggy-type female is considered beautiful whereas in earlier periods even the art-masters preferred those Rubenesque. My intent is not to demean overweight people. In fact, it is the opposite as they may indeed be truly beautiful! Why so? Beauty in the eye of the beholder.
When we think of beauty, most people have pictures of those society has made "beautiful people". Like the Pavlovian dogs people are, we are conditioned to see people in light of what is in vogue. Most of us are guilty of that. Why do "ugly" people attract other "ugly" people and get married? Because, to them, neither of them are ugly. Society has stereotyped beauty. Society doesn't look at the whole, but only looks at their mold. The entertainment industry are they who stigmatize "ugliness" and fortify what is considered beautiful.
My wife laughs because I see Mennonite women as beautiful. Their manner of dress is intentional so that men don't admire their appearance. What I see in them is natural beauty, bright eyes, and a righteous disposition. For me, there is much beauty in those characteristics. Admittedly, I do enjoy imagining their long silky hair when it's not bound and covered. (Yes, I too am weak). However, that hair is long because scripture teaches that. Part of the beauty of a righteous woman is her long hair - not for beauty but to honor God.
Where is this headed? My friend saw a television interview, and said this: "How can anyone watch the interview of Barack Obama and David Letterman and not consider him decent individual? Political beliefs aside.....really..." This is not to belittle that person because most would think that way. It got did get me thinking on the difference between perception and reality.
I was astounded! Of course, she negated the importance of "political beliefs" but unfortunately moral beliefs cannot be ignored. When I look at Obama, I see a very "ugly person" because of what is inside. "Beauty" for most is much in appearance, grace, speech,, mannerisms , and disposition. Obama was apparently groomed for the job because in the eyes of those who "make people", he had all those characteristics.
God gives to Christians what was called in days past "bright eyes" - the ability to see holy things. Along with bright eyes comes the ability to discern between what is dim and what is bright. Those with bright eyes could see the angels and God, and Lucifer as well. After the fall of mankind, the vision of mankind was clouded, thus hardly seeing spiritual things at all! If one recalls scripture, cherubim appeared to be scary beings. However, since they were holy, the two with bright eyes had no fear. Beauty was in the eyes of the beholders.
After the fall of mankind, beauty took on a new meaning. Appearance meant everything. Satan knows that, and uses beauty to deceive people. Most people fall into sin because of a misconception of what is beautiful. Obama seems to the world to be among the "beautiful people". Most stories site his humor, mannerisms and suavity. They even drool on his appearance, but that too is debatable!
Lucifer was at one time a beautiful angel. He could have been a creature like the seraph. We don't know because beauty in the eyes of God is not what we see as beautiful. However, Lucifer (aka Satan) can appear to mankind as God, an angel, a man, a woman, or even a serpent. Usually, to appeal to us, it is a beautiful person. Writings refer to Satan as "hideous" when his true nature is exposed. However, before one can see his hideousness, the person must have bright eyes!
I've already mentioned my ability to see beauty in Mennonite women. On the other hand, I see ugliness in beautiful people. To me, Jennifer Lawrence, Ashley Judd, George Clooney, and Barack Obama are all "ugly people". None of them fit the biblical example of beauty. Although we all sin and disappoint God, iniquity is "grossly sinful". Most of how those people live is wrong in God's eyes, and as such, should be in ours!
"Christians" can be spiritually ugly as well. Satan often appeared as the angel he once was. He was a beautiful thing. I put quotes around Christians because some of those who merely proclaim faith fail to have the bright nature - the ability to see true beauty and actual ugliness. "Positive Christianity" is for those with an ugly nature. Obama projects that type of positive Christianity. He seems to do be sincere with a desire to do what is "good". I know it seems an unfair comparison, but even Hitler was voted "good' by most of the German people as they voted him into existence!
To many in Germany, Hitler did good things. Because the times and styles are no longer in vogue, Hitler no longer looks beautiful to us, but his charm and appearance swayed people by the millions in his day. In fact, he was known to be quite personable and an entertainer. Children were said to love him, and him the little children. We now know that inside Hitler was an ugly man. Dietrich Bonnhoeffer saw his ugliness while his beauty was still in vogue, and died trying to eliminate that hideous little self-indulgent man.
Of course, the caricature of Hitler is so often used, that people just ignore it. After all, how can a nice person like Obama be a Hitler? It's obvious that he is not that bad. Few are! However, people with spiritual discernment - having bright eyes, can see the similarities in the values (or lack of values) of the National Socialists and the Democrats in America. The victims of Nazis were the Jews, true Christians, and the infirmed. Jews were considered sub-human parasites.
Obama, a proponent of abortion, and even killing after the abortion fails, must consider unborn babies little more than sub-human parasites. While all the Jews were far from innocent, all babies are indeed innocent. Like the Jews, they are just a little inconvenient! Therefore, when I look at Obama, I see the same ugly features which I see in the photos of Hitler.
Despots usually either use their Christianity for bad, or disdain Christians altogether. In the 2008 and 2012 elections Christians were deceived. We were told, for instance, that Obama was against same-sex marriage. He lied! Rick Warren is partially responsible for giving this deceptive little man a forum to espress his views. Then even after condemning his own religion in policy and speech, Christians continued to support him, and polls show that most still do!
True Christians look at true beauty. Evil in fine dress and manners is merely a way we are deceived. Before I admire anyone, I look at their beliefs and compare them to Holy Scripture. Unholy beliefs reveal hideous people regardless of their acting performance and appearance.
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