Face to Face

In Sermon Illustrations by Rachel Schultz

Face to Face

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By Dick Duerksen

 
© 2008 Dick Duerksen, Storyteller Maranatha Volunteers International
 
“Now we see as through a dark and cloudy glass, but one day – soon – we will see God face to face.”

Our very best view of God today is rather like watching an ancient Black-and-White TV set that is so snowy and filled with static that we can barely see bodies moving across the screen. But one day – soon – God promises us, we’ll see him in ways that make the very clearest HD flat screen look worse than the old TV. We will see him “face to face,” in the full reality of heaven’s clear skies.

Any other view is like looking through the bottom of an old Coke bottle that’s been sand blasted from years on a windy beach.

The rhino painting we’ve selected for today’s photo/devotional was painted on fabric by a young artist in Mozambique. The rhino, orange and smiling, appears totally harmless, a friendly creature who might make a great house-pet. It’s our favorite rhino painting ever!

But what you see is not true. In reality rhinos are seldom friendly and always dangerous. The rhino painting represents what the young artist sees when he thinks of a rhino, a view that is like looking at a rhino through glasses made from a grainy old Coke bottle.

Our view of Jesus is much like that. We see him and exclaim with joy! “Wow,” we say, “God is so absolutely awesome and wonderful!”

True. He is. But he is also far more than that. His love, his goodness, his power, him patience, his everything is far more wonderful that we can even imagine. And one of these days we’ll see it all clearly – as we stand with him, “face to face.”

The real view will be overwhelmingly lovely.

We can hardly wait.

Dick Duerksen is the official Story Teller for Marnatha InternationalAll rights reserved © 2008BetterSermons.org. Click here for content usage information.