Sermon Central
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True Beauty
Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 18, 2011 (message contributor)
TRUE BEAUTY
Carre Otis was once among the world’s top super models for 17 years, beginning her career at the age of 14. To prepare for each photo shoot, she routinely binged and purged, took laxatives and diet pills, and exercised intensely. Being extremely thin made possible a modeling career that earned her $20,000 a day, but she became dependent on cocaine and heroin to keep her on a diet. The actor, Micky Rourke, married this top super model, but her outward beauty couldn’t keep them together. Soon after they married, they divorced, and her destructive lifestyle led to a mental and emotional breakdown.
After treatment at a mental institution, Carre Otis emerged committed to changing her life. She began eating normally and abstaining from all drugs and alcohol. She gained 30 pounds, went from a size 2 to a size 12, and became a successful as "plus size" model.
Some time ago, on her 32nd birthday, a friend invited her on a humanitarian mission to distribute clothes and toys to kids living in orphanages in Nepal. For the first time she saw what starvation really was. Looking back on her experience, she explained to reporter Cynthia McFadden:
"It wasn’t about somebody being concerned that they were going to fit into a size, and that’s why they weren’t eating. It was because there wasn’t food to be had. There was no money to get food..."
Then Carre said, "If somebody asked me, 'When did you feel the most beautiful?' I would say, when I was traveling through the Himalayas in dirty clothes, dirty hair, hadn’t had a shower in a week, and was giving kids clothes. That’s when I felt like the most beautiful woman, and the woman I’ve always aspired to be." ("A Natural Woman," Prime Time Thursday, 9-06-01)
True beauty for both men and women comes from a servant’s heart. So if you want to see God’s grace transform your marriage, or any relationship, then learn to serve like Jesus did. Come to Him today and let Him give you His heart.
(From a sermon by C. Philip Green, Grace at Home--Part I, 6/11/2011
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