The Beauty of Intimacy
Mkuu Upendo: Uzuri wa urafiki
Song of Solomon 4:7
The Grand Romance
The Beauty of Intimacy
Song of Solomon 4:7
A Statement of Intimacy
* Song of Solomon 4:7
* All beautiful you are, my darling;
* there is no flaw in you. (NIV)
Song of Solomon 4:7
* You are altogether beautiful, my darling,
* beautiful in every way. (NLT)
Beauty defined
* Beauty: the combination of all the qualities of a person or thing that causes delight.
* “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”
* Connected Biblically with Holiness/without flaws
The Shumanite Look
[Pictures of Various models and Actresses]
Perfect Beauty
[Picture of Pastor Amelia]
Understanding Ugliness
* Ugliness is a manifestation of unacceptability and disgust.
o Disgust is a psycho-physiological reaction to:
+ Things that threaten our wellbeing
+ Things that offend our sense of morality
# Contamination and Contagion
# Purity and loyalty
+ Things that remind us of our own mortality
+ It protects us
Beauty
* What we perceive as beautiful allows us to voluntarily set aside our disgust reaction
o We become vulnerable to that which we perceive as beautiful.
* Our choice to love is our choice to beautify
o We do not love because the object of our love is beautiful. We make the object of love beautiful because of our love
God is creator of beauty
* Genesis 1:3-4
* And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.
God Beautifies
* Isaiah 61:3
* and provide for those who grieve in Zion —
* to bestow on them a crown of beauty
* instead of ashes, the oil of gladness
* instead of mourning, and a garment of praise
* instead of a spirit of despair.
* They will be called oaks of righteousness,
* a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.
* NIV
Jesus, the agent of beauty
* Ephesians 5:25-27
* Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
Jesus, the agent of beauty
* Revelation 21:2
* I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
o The Bride is not beautiful but made beautiful.
o Holiness or made complete (without flaw)
Love is sacrifice
* Hebrews 10:10
* And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Our garments
* Colossians 3:12
* Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
* NIV
Making Beauty
* Song of Solomon 4:7
* All beautiful you are, my darling;
* there is no flaw in you. (NIV)