Tag Archives: countenance

Night Light - James & Shirley Dobson

Night Light for Couples – A Wife’s Countenance

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“He is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.” Deuteronomy 24:5

If you really want to know about a man and what kind of character he has, you need only look at the countenance of his wife. Everything he has invested, or withheld, will be there.”

That was the message Bill McCartney, then head coach of the University of Colorado football team, heard in a 1994 sermon. The words cut straight to his heart. McCartney had built the Colorado football program into a powerhouse that won a national championship in 1990. He had also cofounded a national men’s movement, Promise Keepers. But those achievements came at a price. For years McCartney had withheld his time and energy from his wife, Lyndi, and their four children. In 1994 Bill McCartney didn’t like what he saw in Lyndi’s countenance— so he resigned his position at Colorado to devote more time to his wife and family.

As a husband, you bear the primary responsibility for your wife’s welfare and emotional well‐being. What do you see in her face tonight?

Just between us…

  • (husband) Do you ever feel like you’re competing for my attention?
  • (husband) Do I appear preoccupied by my work or recreational activities?
  • (wife) What do you imagine it was like for Bill McCartney to walk away from his successful coaching career?
  • (wife) Do you ever struggle with trying to care for my emotional well‐being? Is there anything I can do to help?

(husband) Almighty God, with Your help I wholeheartedly accept my responsibility to care for my wife’s emotional well-being. May I increasingly become a master at it, so that I can see joy and contentment in her face. Amen.

From Night Light For Couples, by Dr. James & Shirley Dobson

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – You Have His Attention

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“The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.”—Numbers 6:26

Have you ever been talking with someone who wasn’t paying attention? Or to put it another way, have you ever been talking with someone who was texting? You’re saying, “And so I said this—are you listening to me?”

“Yes.”

“What did I just say?”

“Uh, I’m not sure.”

Sometimes we wonder if it’s the same way with God. We wonder whether we have His attention and if He is aware of what is happening to us when things aren’t going that well.

Maybe Joseph felt that way at times. After all, he was only human. He had done all of the right things. He had resisted the advances of Potiphar’s wife. But what happened? He was falsely accused of rape and thrown into a stinking Egyptian prison. How easily Joseph could have thought, This is just great. You serve the Lord, you do what God wants, and this is where it gets you. If I would have given in to Mrs. Potiphar, I wouldn’t be here right now. I would be living in the lap of luxury. But here I am, suffering!

The Bible doesn’t tell us that Joseph thought that, but I wonder if he did. Yet even while Joseph was in prison, God was still blessing him and preparing him for some awesome things. Joseph’s best days were to come. God was preparing him to be someone who could handle those lessons. In the same way, everything we go through in life is preparation for something else.

When Numbers 6:26 says, “The LORD lift up His countenance upon you,” that phrase “lift up His countenance” means “to lift up His face.” Another way to translate it is “to look, to see, to know, to be interested, and to have one’s full attention.”

We have His full attention.

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Rivers of Living Water

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“For the Scriptures declare that rivers of living water shall flow from the inmost being of anyone who believes in me” (John 7:38).

I was explaining to a group of Christians the meaning of Proverbs 15:13-15, “A happy face means a glad heart, a sad face means a breaking heart. When a man is gloomy, everything seems to go wrong and when he is cheerful everything seems to go right.”

God’s Word reminds us that the source of joy is the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 1:6). So if a man is filled with the Spirit, he will have a joyful heart. When we are filled with the Spirit, we will express love by singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord. A happy heart will inevitably produce a joyful countenance (Ephesians 5:18-21).

If we do not have a joyful, peaceful countenance, there is reason to question whether we have a loving, joyful heart. And if we do not have a loving, joyful heart, it is not likely that we are filled with the Spirit.

One Christian leader, who had heard me speak, approached me later. He just happened to have a very somber, stern countenance. He explained to me that this was a new concept to him, and since he was reared in another culture, he felt that his somber countenance was a cultural thing.

“In our part of the world [the Middle East],” he said, “we don’t smile and express ourselves like American Christians.”

Together we analyzed the Scripture and concluded that culture has nothing to do with this truth, since Jesus, Paul and other writers of the New Testament were also born in the Middle East. If we truly understand the Spirit-filled life, whatever our cultural background, the joy of the Lord will flow from us – from our “innermost being shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38, NAS).

Bible Reading: John 7:33-37

TODAY’S ACTION POINT:  Recognizing love, joy and peace as trademarks of the Spirit-filled life, I will consciously seek to be Spirit-controlled so that these expressions will be a natural overflow of my life. I will teach this spiritual truth to others today.

Presidential Prayer Team

Presidential Prayer Team; J.K. – Anticipation

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In his Fifteenth Sermon on Canticles, St. Bernard said, “Jesus is honey in the mouth, melody in the ear, and joy in the heart. Is any among us sad? Let Jesus enter the heart, and thence spring to the countenance.”

Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?

Psalm 85:6

Easier said than done, right? Circumstances sometimes tend to bring you down. The winter surrounds you with cold harshness, the children suffer lengthy sickness, the job demands more than you want to give, death strikes a family member, or some sin has overtaken you…and the heart is heavy. The Old Testament psalmist asked the Lord to revive the people. They had known God’s goodness, His leading and His faithfulness, but they had forsaken Him. Now they needed to come back to Him, forgiven and in His favor once more.

Where’s your heart, Beloved? Let it be uplifted. You can know Jesus – the salvation He secured for you if only you believe – and reflect that peace in your countenance. Rejoicing comes as you worship the Lord in prayers of repentance and thanksgiving for all He is and does for you. Even as you pray for America’s leaders, let your heart soar in anticipation of what God will do to revive this nation.

Recommended Reading: Isaiah 63:7-16

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Shine Like the Sun

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dr_bright

“And those who are wise – the people of God – shall shine as brightly as the sun’s brilliance, and those who turn many to righteousness will glitter like stars forever” (Daniel 12:3).

Did it ever occur to you that as a child of God you are to radiate in your countenance the beauty and glory of God? Have you ever considered the inconsistency of having a glum expression while professing that the Son of God, the light of the world, dwells within you?

Proverbs 15:13 reminds us that a happy face means a glad heart; a sad face means a breaking heart.

When missionary Adoniram Judson was home on furlough many years ago, he passed through the city of Stonington, Connecticut. A young boy, playing about the wharves at the time of Judson’s arrival, was struck by the missionary’s appearance. He had never before seen such a light on a man’s face.

Curious, he ran up the street to a ministers’s home to ask if he knew who the stranger was. Following the boy back, the minister became so engaged in conversation with Judson that he forgot all about the lad standing nearby.

Many years later that boy – unable to get away from the influence of what he had seen on the man’s face – became the famous preacher, Henry Clay Trumbull. One chapter in his book of memoirs is entitled, “What a Boy Saw in the Face of Adoniram Judson.”

A shining face – radiant with the love and joy of Jesus Christ – had changed a life. Just as flowers thrive when they bend toward the light of the sun, so shining, radiant faces are the result of those who concentrate their gaze upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

May we never underestimate the power of a glowing face that stems from time spent with God. Even as Moses’ countenance shone, may your face and mine reveal time spent alone with God and in His Word.

Bible Reading: Matthew 5:13-16

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: I will spend sufficient time with the Lord each day to insure a radiant countenance for the glory of God and as a witness to those with whom I have contact each day.

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Rivers of Living Water

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dr_bright

“For the Scriptures declare that rivers of living water shall flow from the inmost being of anyone who believes in me” (John 7:38).

I was explaining to a group of Christians the meaning of Proverbs 15:13-15, “A happy face means a glad heart, a sad face means a breaking heart. When a man is gloomy, everything seems to go wrong and when he is cheerful everything seems to go right.”

God’s Word reminds us that the source of joy is the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 1:6). So if a man is filled with the Spirit, he will have a joyful heart. When we are filled with the Spirit, we will express love by singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord. A happy heart will inevitably produce a joyful countenance (Ephesians 5:18-21).

If we do not have a joyful, peaceful countenance, there is reason to question whether we have a loving, joyful heart. And if we do not have a loving, joyful heart, it is not likely that we are filled with the Spirit.

One Christian leader, who had heard me speak, approached me later. He just happened to have a very somber, stern countenance. He explained to me that this was a new concept to him, and since he was reared in another culture, he felt that his somber countenance was a cultural thing.

“In our part of the world [the Middle East],” he said, “we don’t smile and express ourselves like American Christians.”

Together we analyzed the Scripture and concluded that culture has nothing to do with this truth, since Jesus, Paul and other writers of the New Testament were also born in the Middle East. If we truly understand the Spirit-filled life, whatever our cultural background, the joy of the Lord will flow from us – from our “innermost being shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38, NAS).

Bible Reading: John 7:33-37

TODAY’S ACTION POINT:  Recognizing love, joy and peace as trademarks of the Spirit-filled life, I will consciously seek to be Spirit-controlled so that these expressions will be a natural overflow of my life. I will teach this spiritual truth to others today.

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Joyce Meyer – Watch Your Countenance

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And the Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron and his sons, This is the way you shall bless the Israelites. Say to them, The Lord bless you and watch, guard, and keep you; The Lord make His face to shine upon and enlighten you and be gracious (kind, merciful, and giving favor) to you; The Lord lift up His [approving] countenance upon you and give you peace (tranquility of heart and life continually). —Numbers 6:22-26

Jesus’ countenance was changed on the mountain as He was transfigured. Our countenance is simply the way we look. It refers to our face. In the church today we need to be concerned about our countenance. One of the blessings that was pronounced upon God’s people was that God’s face would shine upon them and that He would lift up His countenance upon them.

When the world looks at us, they need to see something about us that is different from them. They can’t read our minds or see into our hearts, so our countenance is the only way we can show them that we have something they do not have but really want and need. I believe that we look better when we worship God. Worship puts a smile on our face. It is very hard to keep a scowl on our face while we are being thankful, praising and worshipping God.

If we regularly do these things, our countenance will carry His presence, not the expression of inner frustration and turmoil. Christians are supposed to be joyful people who walk in love. We must ask ourselves, “Would people know that I am a Christian by looking at my countenance most of the time?”