Articles
They Shall See His Face / Satan Loves Watermelon
They Shall See His Face
(Kent Heaton)
I wonder what the face of God looks like? Neither the most radiant of sunrises nor the unmatched beauty of the earth can match the warmth of God’s face. Jesus declared that no man had seen God (John 1:28). Moses heard the voice of Jehovah say, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live” (Exodus 33:20). However, John the apostle in the Revelation tells us the saved will see the face of God and “His name shall be on their foreheads” (Revelation 22:4). What a day that will be to see the face of God!
The word of God is likened to a love letter from someone we have never met. The Lord writes to us with unseen face and yet through the beauty of His letter of love revealed by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21) we can know what God looks like. But like all letters written with face unseen the real person looks little as we would suppose. For each individual the face of God is different. It is not because God is different but our perception of the face of God is relative to our knowledge of the Creator.
What does the face of God look like? Your answer says more about your depth of knowledge of God’s will than the truth of His true character. To some He is only a lonely figure sitting on a white throne with long flowing hair. To others He is a mighty champion of their faith as they have fought the good fight meting out justice, mercy and truth. Those who know Him best are those who spend time with His letter.
The Lord directed Aaron and his sons to give the following blessing to the people of God: “The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace. So they shall put My name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them” (Numbers 6:24-27). The face of the Lord is like the sun shining down upon our world giving all the blessings, warmth and security of a protective Father. Often the expression imploring the face of God shining upon His people is invoked to bring blessing. “Make Your face shine upon Your servant; Save me for Your mercies’ sake … God be merciful to us and bless us and cause His face to shine upon us … Restore us, O God; cause Your face to shine and we shall be saved … Make Your face shine upon Your servant, And teach me Your statutes” (Psalm 31:16; 67:1; 80:3, 7, 19; 119:135).
When we see the Son we see the Father (John 14:9; 1:14). Those who are pure in heart will see God (Matthew 5:8). But the day will come when we remove the shackles of our mortal tent and receive the “building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1) and then we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:1-2). The joy of salvation is being able to see the face of God. We will stand in His presence. We will look into His eyes. We will behold His beauty. We will immerse our spirit with His spirit. We will see the King in His beauty (Isaiah 33:17).
In the midst of his suffering, Job proclaimed his trust in his God. The conclusion of his speech rang with these words: “Whom I shall see for myself and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me” (Job 19:27). The power of God’s word is the earnest desire we have to see the face of God. The more we spend time with God’s letter the more anxious and desirous we are to see Him. Live for Him each day and look with longing heart to that moment in eternity you see God face to face.
Satan Loves Watermelon
(Kent Heaton)
I was cutting into one of those fine Ira Gore watermelons the other day when I realized that Satan liked watermelon also. Cutting the melon into quarters the first place I always go is the heart of the melon. This particular melon was a seeded melon and the heart is usually the sweetest part to me and less seeds. As I cut into that delicacy of fine melon flesh I thought that is exactly what Satan does with me – he aims for the heart.
When Satan appealed to Eve in Genesis 3, he did not come with showmanship and big bands and direct appeals to rebel against God. He went first after the heart. He said, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’” (Genesis 3:1). He did not take the fruit to her nor force her to partake. He sought the heart of Eve first to move her in the direction of rebellion. “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate” (Genesis 3:6).
The battleground of righteousness and unrighteousness is the heart. Jesus said of the Pharisees, “Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). The apostle Paul declared, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5). This is where battles are won and lost. Satan will always seek the heart of man to bring it into his submission.
In the parable of the sower (Matthew 13) the Lord demonstrates the different types of hearts as being the wayside, the rocky, the thorny and the good ground. The reception of the seed (the word of God – Luke 8:11) depends on the kind of heart a person has. Satan takes the seed away from the hardened heart, kills the seed in the heart that is weak and causes the “cares, riches and pleasures of life” (Luke 18:14) to make a good heart unfruitful. The only heart Satan has no control over is the heart broken of its hardness; the heart that has removed the rocks of worldliness; and refuses to allow the weeds of this life to choke the productivity of the good ground.
God has always wanted the heart of man. He destroyed the world in Noah’s day because the “thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). David penned in Psalm 19:14, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.” Later the Holy Spirit would say that David was a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22). To win the battle of the heart we must “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). Satan cannot control that heart.
To protect against the unyielding oppression of Satan’s influence we must allow the “peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, [to] guard [our] hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). That is the only way to keep Satan from cutting out the heart. Refuse to open up to him and refuse to allow his influence in your life. “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). When we submit our hearts to the will of God the devil cannot stand. He cannot touch our hearts. Resist him!
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