A New Beginning
I've been a "blogger" for over a year, but nothing has come of it really. I've started several times. Posted a total of about 5 entries, but erased them all at one time or another because I thought they sounded dumb or figured no one would read them anyway. I had come to the conclusion that I just wasn't a good blogger. I wasn't interesting enough to have what it takes, and, besides, who would want to read about me anyway.
Fast forward to today: for about the past 1.5 months I've been hearing "you have to dream it before you live it" from a few different sources: my physical therapist, Joel Osteen on what I like to call 'the Jesus channel', people on Oprah, a couple of photographers at a convention I went to who are men of faith, and in a book I'm reading that my friend picked up off a bargain table.
God has been placing this message in front of me and I've done nothing with it. I have a problem that I've been aware of since I co-led a Bible study about the subject with a good friend in college: I resign to pain. There are three ways we as human handle difficult times, I can't remember the other two because the third describes me so well. I naturally have a melancholy disposition and I don't fight back. I allow Satan to tell me all kinds of lies to keep me down, and worst of all I help out.
I figured it's about time I stop helping out the enemy and start living the life God has designed for me. It's time to take a step forward towards God. It's time to make a commitment to this "you have to dream it before you live it" thing. So, here's my first baby step. Awhile back I thought of any idea to have a blog Bible/Faith study that was more about throwing out ideas and letting my friends know about it and giving them an opportunity to throw some of their own ideas back out. In short, it's the lazy, anti-social route to a weekly Bible study that I can go to in pajamas. Mainly, it's a way to stay in the Word and cyber-fellowship with friends whom I miss having real Bible studies with. The formal idea is that I will post on Sunday's and leave the topic open to discussion all week.
So, with out further ado:
Topic: Glory.
We often read in scripture about the glory of the Lord. From Psalms we get passages that describe God as the king of glory (Psalm 24:7), that glory is something for God to bestow ( Psalm 3:3), and that God's people should be rescued by God for the sake of God's glory (Psalm 79:9).
The bargain bin book I mentioned above focuses on the following verse:
Ephesians 3:20-21 (New International Version)
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Discussion: So what is glory? How can God be it and bestow it? How can we as believers glorify God (what does that even mean)? Where is glory found?
posted by Mrs. Harmon @ 3:30 PM
4 Comments:
The topic of glory kinda makes me think of the hymn:
O soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s a light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free!
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
Through death into life everlasting
He passed, and we follow Him there;
Over us sin no more hath dominion—
For more than conquerors we are!
Refrain
His Word shall not fail you—He promised;
Believe Him, and all will be well:
Then go to a world that is dying,
His perfect salvation to tell!
Keep in mind Glory to God refers not only to times in life that are joyous and happy. The Bible states we should give glory to God in all situations. The story of Job proves just this...Despite losing all he had, including his family, his home, his cattle, and every single earthly belonging, Job remained faithful to God and relished in His glory. The sadness, anger, hurt, and bitterness most of us would feel was channeled differently through Job. He praised God when he lost his wife and children; he praised God when he lost his home; He realized that God was so powerful that praising his name and giving him all the glory for what he did have left was the only reason he could survive. Glory to God in happy times, and in the lowest of low times, for it may be praising God that gets you through a tough situation when you feel like you have nothing positive left.
Hey, Tiff, this is a cool idea!
Your post got me thinking in a different direction, about man's glory. The first thing I thought about glory after reading your post was that Joel Osteen and Oprah care about it too much. I mean, I appreciate the "you have to dream it before you can live it" slogan for being inspiring, and I'm glad it inspired you to blog (blogging rocks), but what if you dream it and then you just can't live it? Then what, Joel?
Osteen and a whole slew of others teach what we call the "Theology of Glory," and it is really the opposite of true Christianity. It teaches that the Gospel is something you hear once, to "get saved," and then you don't really need to hear it again -- you are on your way down the road to glory, yee-haw! You repent, which basically means being sorry for your sins and determining not to sin anymore, and then you work really hard at becoming a better person.
Determining....not to sin. Riiiight. I've tried this, and after about 30 minutes I'm so constipated with sin that my spiritual bowels are rumbling louder than a garbage disposal. I don't even make it to the toilet (er, confession?) but end up spraying sticky brown sin all over whoever's close by.
The opposite of the Theology of Glory is the Theology of the Cross. The cross of Christ is not simply the start of your Christian life; it is the whole of it. You are continually coming back to the cross. You never move on to become a better person (though you respond to God's great love with good works, which St. Paul calls "filthy rags"). To quote this excellent article:
"Every day in every way you are not getting better and better. In fact, the preaching of Law and Gospel will not lead you to an awareness of your holiness, but rather to greater awareness of the depth of your sin. As a result, you will develop an ever-increasing faith in and appreciation for the redeeming work of Jesus Christ."
Re: God's glory, the reformation gave us (well, reinstated) the principle of "Soli Deo Gloria" (For the Glory of God Alone). Here's an article which says,
"In contrast to the monastic division of life into sacred versus secular perpetuated by Roman Church, the reformers saw all of life to be lived under the Lordship of Christ. Every activity of the Christian is to be sanctified unto the glory of God."
I could stand to think a lot more about this, but here's one thought that's not original to me; I heard it in an interview with Rich Mullins. He had been to a concert, and afterwards someone commented, "That was great! The Spirit was really moving." And Rich said, "How could you tell?! It was so loud!" Then he said something like, "For me, a spiritual activity is making my bed, or folding laundry."
I didn't really understand that thought when I first heard it, but I'm starting to. When Karianne folds our laundry, she is really doing God's work, and God is working through her to bless our family. If "every activity of the Christian is to be sanctified unto the glory of God," then we bring God glory when we live out our callings, whether than means preaching the Word or folding some laundry.
Tiff, what a great idea! I’ve been meaning to add my two cents (might even be worth less than that, actually…) this whole week. It makes me feel a little bit closer to my friends down south!
Your post got me thinking about how much I take God’s glory for granted. I think this is because I tend to ignore things I can’t understand. I’ve concluded that the glory of God is more than I can take. God, in the fullness of his glory, is more than we can handle. In fact, God told Moses just before his glory passes by him, that no one can see His face and live. (Exodus 33) Think about that for a minute…it leaves me without much to say.
There are two things in the Bible that I most associate with God’s glory. The first is also in Exodus 34. Moses comes down from Mount Sinai after being with the Lord for 40 days and nights. His face is radiant from his time spent with the Lord, and Aaron and the Israelites are too afraid to go near him. It strikes me how foreign and frightening even this small manifestation of God’s glory is to the people, although I really can’t say just how I would react to seeing a friend’s face glowing. It would probably involve running.
The other example of glory comes from my Sunday school class this year. We are studying the gospel of John, and my pastor kept talking about the glory seat of God, and where it appears in John. The glory seat of God is the cross. The cross – a symbol full of shame, offensive to many at the time – is where God was most glorified. That, in and of itself, shows how God works in ways so counter to the world, and it also shows how he works situations to glorify himself.
I’m reading a book called "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson, and a passage in it got me thinking about the glory of God. He talks about trees in this way: “Without noise or fuss, every tree in a forest lifts massive volumes of water – several hundred gallons in the case of a large tree on a hot day – from its roots to its leaves, where it is returned to the atmosphere. Imagine the din and commotion, the clutter of machinery, that would be needed for a fire department to raise a similar volume of water.” This one small example from nature just leaves me in awe of God and what he can do.
One thing we do know: eventually EVERYONE will see God’s glory. What we don’t know is when that day will come, and what we are to do until that day. I don’t know how God is choosing to glorify himself through me, and sometimes I know I frustrate God’s efforts to do so. Psalm 46:10 seems to fit perfectly in a study of his glory. “Be still, and know that I am God.” God is glorious; the Bible is abundantly clear about that. So, knowing God means that in some way, we have to appreciate his glory, even if all we can do is just acknowledge how little we can actually understand his glory. It is easy to forget just how big God is. Every once in a while, we need to be still, we need to be amazed and humbled by God’s awesomeness.
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