Dr. A Rosenow, a man who dedicated his life to medical research, was asked what brought him to this as his life’s task, and he narrated this story. He grew up on an isolated farm in the
Northern Wisconsin, and as a child he had an unforgettable experience
when his brother became seriously ill. He was sent for the nearest doctor, and when he got home,
Dr. Rosenow, then just a boy, followed the doctor into his brother’s room and hid behind a sofa to watch. What he saw determined his career. The doctor poured medicine
to give to the patient, then turned and told his
parents: “Don’t be afraid, he’s going to be fine. The light
that entered the faces of their parents was wonderful to behold,
and so deeply impressed him that at that time and place the boy
behind the sofa determined that he would do something that
it would make light appear on people’s faces.
We cannot begin to measure the powerful influence of
bright faces in history. Longfellow said of one:
the light on his face
Shine from the windows of another world.
Only saints have those faces.
When Adoniram Judson, the great missionary, was home on leave, he passed through Stonington, Conn. Where a young boy saw his face shine with the love of Christ. The
was so deeply impressed that one of the chapters in the book
he wrote when he became a pastor was titled “What a
child In the Face of Adoniram Judson.” This guy
he became Dr. Henry Clay Trumbull, a great soul winner. Now
you may not know Dr. Trumbull or Dr. Rosenow, or the
millions of people whose lives have been changed by seeing
faces, but you all know the man in this third illustration of
the powerful influence of a glowing face.
He was not a child like the other two, but a grown man
that he had already determined his profession. he was busy
on duties that would make his face bitter and fearful. By his own confession he says that he was full of rage when
suddenly at noon he saw a light from heaven, brighter
than the sun, and with that vision he changed his entire character and career. Paul had seen the light, not just a light,
but the light, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ. Even though he was
persecuting Christ, the face he saw was not a face of anger
like his, but a face of mercy and forgiveness, and of
That time Paul followed only the light that came from the face of his Savior
.
To behold the face of Christ, and to reflect the light of his countenance was the constant goal of the apostle Paul. He was not a
man with a thousand faces, but the man with only one face: the face of
Christ. He renounced all underhanded and cunning methods
and walked in the open light of the face of Christ.
Pablo could have written the words of the poet,
For this I fight, for this I pray,
For this I renounce everything else:
Be like my Master every day,
The Christian way begins on earth,
It reflects his face in mine.
Unknown author
In Margaret Deland’s story, Helina’s Awakening
Ritchie, a little boy looking at a picture of the baptism of Jesus
in which the artist had a face looking out from the clouds
He asked, “Is this a good photograph?” of God? Dr Lavendar,
the pastor said, “If he seems like a kind father, I think he’s a
good picture of God.” The Apostle Paul would say,
however, that the true authentic picture of God is the
Son of God, who is the express image of God. Jesus said:
“He who has seen me has seen the Father.” Paul tells the
Corinthians here in verse 6, that the source of our knowledge
of God, in all His glory and beauty, is in the face of Jesus
Christ. Back in the year 318 He establishes as a spiritual principle,
that only when we look with unveiled face the glory of the
Lord Jesus, we can be gradually changed, and be like
Him. Looking at the face of Jesus is not only poetry, it is a
essential and practical aspect of the Christian life, for those
who want to be like Christ in all their lives.
This means, of course, that the face of Christ is not His face.
literal, but the whole character and conduct of Jesus
as recorded in the Gospels. The face, however, is
most expressive part of the body of life and
emotions. If you want to know if a man is happy and cheerful, or
sour and angry, do not look at his hair, hands, back or feet,
but his face. Her face is the index of the heart and the mind.
When Shakespeare said, “Your face is so February, so
full of frost, storm, cloudiness” ; it is not difficult to guess
the state of mind to which it refers. As Lewis Evans said: “Your
face testifies, but you are inside. the eyes of the face
capture the light from outside, while the face itself is the organ through which
we express the light, or lack of it, within. Abraham
Coles wrote:
Conflicting passions push and displace,
And they tilt and rotate mostly in the face.
Unmatched for art, in this wondrous scroll,
He represented all the secrets of the soul.
This was true for Jesus, as it was for all men. Christ’s life
can be portrayed through a series of portraits showing
the expressions on his face. The album would start with
baby face of Jesus in the manger, and then would come the
studious face of childhood, when he debated with scholars
in the temple. Then comes her lovely happy face as she healed and taught. Then, on the mount of transfiguration, her face is shown as the Sun. Then comes her determined face
when He firmly set His face to go to Jerusalem to face
the cross. Then comes from her Her face of anguish and tears in the
Garden of Gethsemane. On the cross we see his disfigured face
by the crown of thorns, and finally His overcoming face
joyous manifested in the happy days that follow His
Resurrection. We can’t begin to look at the full album, but
we can focus our eyes on a couple of these images of the face
of Christ that should challenge us to seek more often for
meditate on Him until we literally see Him face to face. First
Let’s see-
I. HIS DELICIOUS FACE.
All this emphasis by Paul on the glory in the face of Christ
implies a face of beauty and delicious joy. the middle ages
lost sight of this face of Christ. He was an age of ascetics. The men
they went to the monasteries where they fasted and separated
of normal human life. They forgot that
Jesus never did this. Artists began to depict Jesus alone
as He appeared in those last hours of His suffering. The only
text they could see to paint was Isaiah 53:3, “A
a man of sorrows, experienced in sorrow, and as one of
Whom men hide their faces, was despised, and we do not esteem him
. This was a real image of Christ in his suffering.
The deformed face of Christ was real, and for us who know
the love behind that dying face even contains beauty.
Christina Rossetti put it so well in poetry.
Is this the face that trembles in wonder,
Seraphim who veil his face above?
Is this the face without blemish,
The face that is the face of love?
Yes, this disfigured, – this lifeless clod,
The love of all creation has sufficed,
Has satisfied the love of God,
This face, the face of Jesus Christ.
Keep in mind that Jesus was the Lamb without blemish offered in
sacrifice, and so, though He was made ugly by the sin of the
man, He was in His own perfection the fairest of all
mens. We must never lose the image of his suffering face
but suppress all others with it, and impose this ghastly image
in all the life of Christ is a great
perversion. Some who have looked so long and often into the face of pain have concluded that Jesus never smiled or laughed. This unfounded tradition, with nothing but silence as its foundation, began as early as the fourth century, and is still
has its effects today, because it is very rare that Christians
Consider the lovely smiling face of Jesus. The evidence
for this portrait is abundant, although there is no
specific text that says that Jesus smiled, as it says that he wept.
Half of positive poet suggests that He could have smiled
when he blessed the little children. “A man on earth
He marveled once, all meek and blameless, and those who loved him
They said-He cried, none of them ever said he smiled. However, there might have been an unseen smile as she bowed her holy face to bless that happy child. This half defense
of the smiling face of Christ is a testimony of how
strongly men have been influenced by the sad face of Christ
on the cross. It is almost as if it were irreverent to think of
Christ as a person who enjoys life. He would be extremely
abnormal than a person with very little to be happy about
I will spend my whole life without a smile or a laugh. It is
inconceivable that He who came so that we might have
abundant life, do so. Unless we are convinced that joy,
laughter and smile are from the devil, rather than the gift of
God, we must accept the reality of His lovely face.
Just try to imagine Jesus as a special guest at the
wedding at Cana, where he added joy to the occasion
with His miracle of turning water into wine. You may
imagine it all the time without expressing a smile or emotion of
delight, but keeping His face as solemn as if He were fasting?
I can hardly conceive that Jesus was stuck with such a dead face even during the 40 days of fasting and temptation in the desert. Certainly someone who said so often to others in
time of trial: “Be of good cheer.” He must have had a spring of
joy in His own heart to fill His face with light, even while
He faced the ruler of darkness. Jesus was the light of the world,
and in Him there was no darkness at all.
Jesus told his disciples to keep their faces clean and to
look happy and healthy when they fasted. they shouldn’t
show a sad face for sympathy, or be praised for
be so sacrificially religious. This alone, without all its
words of joy and rejoicing, is proof positive that we reject
the face of the facts when we imagine Jesus with the face of a
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ascetic. The very record of His crying shows that He was unique
and rare that He did because He was usually very
happy. Those who deny Christ the universal pleasure of
laughter and paint him as a perpetual man of sorrows have
an uncanny ability to jump to conclusions regardless
the facts. Jesus was not only a friend of children, but of
publicans and sinners. He was frequently at the banquet table
and I have never seen a banquet where the people were not
smiling and laughing.
The Pharisees asked Jesus why his disciples did not fast,
and Jesus answered in Matt. 9:15, “Can the wedding guests
mourn while the bridegroom is with them?” Jesus was
the leader of a group of deliciously…