Glory – VOTD.06.25.18
And [the seraphim] called out to one another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory. Isaiah 6:3 It is…
The Breadth of God – VOTD.05.14.2018
When Paul says, “Praise the Lord all you nations, and let all the peoples extol him” Rom 15:11, he’s saying that there is something about our God that is so universally praiseworthy and so profoundly stunning and so precisely worthy and so deeply satisfying that God will find passionate lovers in all sorts of different people.
Jesus’ true greatness is demonstrated in the breadth of people who identify themselves with Him and cherish Him. His glory is shown to be higher and deeper than if He was only found awesome by a narrow, insulated group of people who see everything the same way.
But instead of attracting only a single kind people, His appeal is to the deepest, highest, largest capacities of our souls. It all testifies to His incomparable glory.
And it all challenges the smallness of our personal image of God. And that’s important because our image of God drives every single part of our life and determines how we live out our lives. (more…)
We Have Seen His Glory – VOTD.12.25.17
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only. Who came from the Father full of grace and truth. John 1:1,2, 14
We hardly get into John’s Gospel – his attempt to tell a story that is beyond telling (Jn 21:25) – and he explains: “We have seen His glory!” We’ve handled, touched and heard… We encountered the ‘One and Only’…we’ve experienced Jesus.
Everything else John writes is based on that pivotal fact: This is what I’ve experienced. This is my testimony to what I’ve seen; the character of the one I know; “We have seen His glory”.
‘Glory’. Christians often use this biblical word, but we don’t always recognize what it reveals about our God—and the beauty of all He is and does. Moses asked God “I pray You, show me Your glory!” (Ex 33:18). We, today, might long for the same opportunity, because the glory of God attracts us, draws us, and compels us to seek more of Him.
The most common Hebrew word for glory is kabod, meaning “heavy in weight.” When you glorify God, you recognize His importance, or the “weight,” of His uniqueness. Beauty, majesty, and splendor are what we’re attributing to God when we glorify Him. You and I are probably more familiar with the Hebrew word ‘shekinah’. That word never appears in the Bible, but the concept certainly does. (more…)
The Hope of His Coming – VOTD.12.20.16
We were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son… to redeem those under the law. Galatians 4:3-5
We don’t have to read very far into the Bible to find out that we have 2 big problems:
1. We all sin—we all do destructive and unloving things. Today’s verse calls that “slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world”.
2. None of us measures up to the glory that God planned for us walk in.
This situation would be bad enough all by itself, but we discover in our own experience and the experience of people written about in the Bible, that sin separates us from God who is our only hope, it produces misery in our own lives in in the lives of others. And we have no successful solution to this problem.
God, however, has a solution. As we read through the Old Testament, we find promise after promise that God made concerning how He was going to save people from the mess that sin makes in our lives. His goal is to restore us to the glory that He had planned for us.
His plan: He would send a Savior. (more…)
Seeing the Beauty of God – VOTD.08.23.16
Open my eyes so that I can see all the wonderful things in your teachings.Psalm 119:18
God is awesome. He’s superlative beyond anything we can imagine. The Bible proclaims this often; any number of Christian songs have repeated the message from time immemorial. Even otherwise antiseptic doctrinal statements elude to it. Many Christians catch a glimpse of it occasionally when a prayer is answered or in an especially moving Christian meeting.
God’s greatness is a central theme of the Christian faith.
The problem is, much of the time, much of the Christians don’t see His wonder. They don’t see His glory, His beauty…and so, like much of the mainstream around them, they mark time. That’s military marching step where soldiers march in place, moving their legs as if marching, but without stepping forward. It looks pretty cool in a parade, but in real life it gets pretty monotonous.
But even in a parade, if you mark time long enough the whole parade stops…maybe. Or maybe the band behind you just keeps marching forward and runs you over. That’s a pretty intimidating thought. Point is, if God does not open our eyes to behold His glory, we’re marking time in the Christian faith…we’re putting in time and going nowhere. (more…)
Lifestyle Glory – VOTD.08.09.16
Be filled with the Spirit. Speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Ephesians 5:17-21
Last time we were looking at what being filled with the Spirit looks like: First of all, it looks like worship, Public Worship, Private Worship, Experiential (thankful) Worship and Lifestyle Worship.
We saw that lifestyle worship is treating our brothers and sisters in Christ as if they were Jesus. If we are involved with sins against our brothers and sisters in Christ and we have not made things right with them the Holy Spirit’s filling is still available but we won’t experience it.
How do I know that? In introducing the passage in Eph 5 that we are looking at, Paul says “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you (Eph. 4:30,31) (more…)
Remaining Glory – VOTD.08.02.16
To the faithful you (God) show yourself faithful,
to the blameless you show yourself blameless,
to the pure you show yourself pure
but to the unfaithful you show yourself a wrestler. 2 Sam 22:26,27
In some ways today’s verse divides us as Christians into two categories: those who bask in God’s presence and those who wrestle in it.
Last time we saw how tempting it is to think that people who seem to have a greater degree of the presence of God in their lives are just particularly pure, but that’s not the case. Not one of us is particularly pure, but some are more aware of God’s presence than others.
God shows Himself to those who fix their eyes on Him. His glory (presence) is on them. The picture they see of Him is of a faithful, righteous and pure God. This God of ours comforts us with words like “I will never leave you nor forsake you. I will never drop you.” God is Loyalty itself. (more…)
Remaining Glory – VOTD.08.01.16
For if what is fading was came with Glory, what remains is even more glorious!
2 Corinthians 3:11
Last week we talked about the temporary experience of God’s presence that happens to Christians from time to time. Although this temporary experience of the overwhelming presence of Jesus is wonderful, Paul declares that even greater than this is the glorious presence of God that can be with us always.
Part of the New Covenant that Jesus provides for us is the indwelling Holy Spirit. All Christians have the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit has greater affect in some of us than in others of us. The reason might have less to do with how “spiritual” we are as much as how much we know and understand we are useless without God’s presence. Only those who know they can do nothing seek the Spirit of God earnestly. (more…)
Fading Glory Examples – VOTD.07.26.16
The sweet, satisfying companionship of the Lord have they who fear (revere and worship) Him, and He will show them His covenant and reveal to them its [deep, inner] meaning. Psalm 25:14
Last time we saw some common circumstances when God draws us near and His presence becomes overwhelming. Today we’ll look at some common results of this type of experiencing God?
1) The first result of the presence of God is that He increases and we decrease. When you and I come into contact with God our focus is on Him not on ourselves. The more clearly we see Him the more we are so overcome with the glory of Christ we don’t think we’re big, we know we’re small. When someone testifies to an experience with God, listen for who is getting the glory. That’s how you can know how real this experience is. When you and I experience God for real, we don’t walk away with a bloated idea of our own importance. We are seriously humbled. (more…)
Fading Glory – VOTD.07.25.16
For if what is fading was came with Glory, what remains is even more glorious! 2 Corinthians 3:11
How precious is Your loving kindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings. They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, and You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures. For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light. Psalm 36:7-9
The Glory, or presence of God, comes from Him to us. There are two kinds of glory mentioned that Paul talks about: Fading Glory and Remaining Glory. Simply put, Fading Glory is temporarily and passes away. It it can refer to being temporarily overwhelmed with a sense of God’s nearness. Remaining Glory is more permanent, day in, day out, walking through life in the very presence of God.
Today we’ll look at the first of these two types of experiencing God’s presence. So many times when the glory of Jesus is described it is radiant – a “high” that comes forcefully into our lives and may last hours, or even weeks. Usually, but not always, these experiences of God’s presence take place during certain earthly circumstances: (more…)