"Jesus"

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"God invites us to see His face, so He can change ours. He uses our uncovered faces to display His glory. The tranformation is not easy, but our Lord is up to the task. He loves to change the faces of His children. By His fingers, wrinkles of worry are rubbed away. Shadows of shame and doubt become portraits of grace and trust. He relaxes clenched jaws and smoothes furrowed brows. His touch can remove the bags of exhaustion from beneath the eyes and turn tears of despair into tears of peace."

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"How? Through worship. We would expect something more complicated, more demanding. A forty-day fast or the memorization of Leviticus perhaps. No. God's plan is simpler: He changes faces through worship. Consider King David's definition: "Oh magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together."
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"Worship is the act of magnifying God. Enlarging our vision of Him. Stepping into the cockpit to see where He sits and observe how He works. Of course, His size does not change, but our perception of Him does."

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"Avibrant, shining face is the mark of one who has stood in God's presence. After speaking to God, Moses had to cover his face with a veil (Exod. 34:33-35). After seeing heaven, Stephen's face glowed like that of an angel (Acts 6:25; 7:55-56). God is in the business of changing the face of the world."

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"Our goal is not to conjure up some fake, frozen expression. Our goal is simply to stand before God with a prepared and willing heart and then let God do His work. And He does. He wipes away the tears. He mops away the perspiration. He softens our furrowed brows. He touches our cheeks. He changes our faces as we worship. But there's more....not only does God change the face of those who worship, He changes those who watch us worship."

My little Hopey told her pre-school class today about her very favorite Person in the world. Jesus. When I picked Hope up from class, her teachers said she had repeated His Name several times. Jesus. Jesus.

Our girl may not say alot of words, but how thankful I am to hear she is saying the most powerful Name in all the earth. The name of Love, Healing, Forgiveness, and Salvation.

Oh, Hopey, when I look at your precious face, I behold true beauty. And I find myself longing to know the Artist who carefully molded you, and then placed you into my life, even more! Just as you are. Just as I am. We come.

(excerpt above taken from "Just Like Jesus" by Max Lucado)