Beauty For Ashes

1. Beauty For Ashes. One day long ago in Old Jerusalem a young man of about the age of 30 stood up and read, echoing the words from the Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah61:1-3:

   “And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, 

   "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 

   "And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.“ [Luke4:16-21].

   So, for the next two millenniums Jesus of Nazareth (the Christ) has been blessing those who dared to come to Him in childlike faith with exactly what the prophet of old had prophesied:

BEAUTY for ashes, the OIL of JOY for mourning and the GARMENT of PRAISE for a spirit of heaviness!

2. The Ashes of Atheism. Atheists complain for hours on end that the Cosmos offers no ‘design, meaning and purpose’ and instead, only ‘pitiless indifference’ (Dawkins). But, however, no wonder … they have rejected the King of Glory and holy Heavenly dispenser of Beauty, the Oil of Joy and Garment of Praise ... what else did they expect? When the atheist rejects Jesus Christ as Saviour & Lord, he is for all intents and purposes rejecting (i) Design (‘Beauty’), (ii) Meaning (‘the Oil of Joy’) and (iii) Purpose (‘The Garment of Praise’).

   We see Beauty in the way the majestic and unfathomable Universe was Designed, Meaning since without the prospect of Heavenly Joy (in this life and the next) life will never have meaning and Purpose since the prime reason for man’s existence is for the donning of the Garment of Praise in worship of the Creator. 

    Without these priceless gifts from God, life in the Cosmos will inevitably prove forever without design, meaning and purpose, i.e. Dawkins’ bizarre and depressing (atheism-driven) world of ‘pitiless indifference’.

3. The Promise of Jesus Christ. “The thief [SATAN] cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I [JESUS] am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” [John10:10-11].

4. Messianic Prophesy from the Old Testament anticipating the First Coming of Jesus Christ. ”The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; Isa 61:2  To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; Isa 61:3  To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified. … .” [Isaiah61:1-3].

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