When I was still an unsaved boy I remember  we as playmates used the look at holy people with contempt.  We actually used the word "holy" mockingly and thought that religion was for old, dull and starry-eyed people with "no beauty" as was said of the Lord also (Isa. 53:2).

Some religious people did appear dull and still do.  I may open for a church service on TV, transmitted from one of our  state controlled churches, and I usually get before me lifeless, deadly looking faces.  But of course this is a parody of Christianity.

The King´s singers praised "the beauty of holiness" (2 Chron. 20:21), and a victory was won.  They didn´t show forth dullness.  They reflected the beauty  of the Lord and the strength of His joy  (Neh. 8:10).

Billy Graham was a handsome man, but what really made him good looking was the gospel joy.  I have been close to preachers who were by far not so good looking, but as soon as they stepped forward with an anointed word  I always saw the beauty of the Lord on their lives.

The world around us is a dull world.  Its rostrums usually produce dull speeches. Most statesmen are pessimistic.  The entertainers make people laugh, and yet the laughter hides an inner, insatiable longing and despair.  But the Lord´s redeemed people radiate true and lasting joy.

O, learn from the children and learn something about the Lord.  Did Jesus smile?  Of course He did.  Children are not attracted to adult people that never smile.  "Mom, I saw Daddy smiling", a child said.  That dad usually never smiled, and his sermons were joyless.  So his sudden smile caused a sensation in his home.  I knew his blind widow though -  a happy saint.

In that happy attire Jehoshaphat went to war.  And "when they began to sing and to praise" their foes were defeated (v.22).  I was once travelling with an English preacher friend in U.K.  He noticed my sad countenance one morning and encouraged me to put on "the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness"  (Isa. 61:3).  I had my lesson and it´s still needed.

Oct. 6, 2019 - jn