2023-11-03
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Now that the Holy Spirit has defined glory for us, we can better understand it through the impact that God’s glory can have on us. Photographers, physicists who study light, ophthalmologists, optometrists, opticians, optical engineers, and astronomers have been explaining the behavior and nature of light for a long time. We are looking at an intangible phenomenon of God’s glory, stretching ourselves to understand less physical and more spiritual side of this compelling subject. Please understand I’m no expert on the physical behavior of light, but the Holy Spirit does give us some understanding of its spiritual side. 1 JN 1: 5-7, “This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.” This is so very basic to our understanding of God’s nature.
I can’t help but picture in my mind how an intruder in a house, who sculks in the dark, hoping to lead to theft, injury, or even death to get what he wants. God can suddenly enter that house shining His light or awakening the owner of the house, who immediately turns on a light, making the intruder’s behavior and motives evident. That’s a simplistic example, but it fits an introduction to our subject for today. With the citation above, we can see that God’s light is representative of His pure ethics. He wants us to obey DT 6: 5, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might.” Add to it, JN 13: 34-35, “A new commandment I give you: Love one another as I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples if you love one another.” These two citations are a basic formula together for how to live in a way which pleases God. Of course, there is more to doing this than only this formula, but that’s because God wants to shed the light of His wisdom and other important things on our lives.
God’s glory becomes evident as light on us when we study the Scriptures. I hadn’t looked at the book of Revelation for a while. Then, I started studying it with the workbook course by Margaret Feinberg. Part of this light is the recognition that every time we go back to a citation or (in this case, a book), we learn something new. Revelation is chock full of symbols, which once they are deciphered open up a new level of understanding—not just applied to this book but also as it fits with the entire Bible, both OT and NT. Because of its heavy reliance on symbols, many people are afraid to study Revelation. They shouldn’t be, because this is the most worthwhile one to study—the consummation of all prophecy in the Scriptures.
Sadly, we are living in a world that seems to be getting ever increasingly dark. A lot of this is people’s refusal to learn and read the lessons history has for us. That relegates us to the place where we repeatedly keep making the same mistakes. People can and are being quite cruel, greedy, and abusive. If I sound like a cynic about the human condition, it’s my long life’s experience. We see this in politics, the way business is done, in every kind of workplace imaginable, even in some churches! (And yes, I once was on a committee dealing with the defrocking of a pastor because he was having an adulterous affair with a married parishioner). While I may have seen a lot of bad behavior, I’ve also experienced a lot of good behavior that has come with the shedding of God’s light on people’s hearts. And that has kept me from being a cynic who generalizes about people’s motives and their hearts.
MT 5: 14-16 is Christ’s words as a part of the Sermon on the Mount. “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone I the house. In the same way let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” What a beautiful message and it instills such vivid pictures in the reader’s mind! We don’t just learn about God’s glory in the NT. One instance of it in the OT was in EX 34: 29-34, which I hope you will read. This is when Moses came down from Mt. Sinai after receiving the second set of tablets containing the Ten Commandments. His face was so radiant from the reflection of light from God’s glory, that he frightened the Jews who didn’t understand it. From thence on, Moses covered his face with a veil, so the others would listen to him. The entire story of his brother, Aaron, leading the people into darkness by erecting a golden calf from the jewelry and other metals given them by the Egyptians has a deeper understanding when we see how the glory of God impacts it.
PRAYER: O Lord, You are a most remarkable God, One Who is eager to shed His magnificence and glory on those He loves. Anyone on earth can be loved this way, even the lowliest of people with checkered pasts. In fact, You sent Your Son Jesus to specifically look for outliers, the needy, the less fortunate, knowing wisely that this ministry would be complicated. In our society, we honor people who are well-heeled, big donors, and leaders. Instead, Jesus was sent to teach the opposite—tax collectors, bums, the misguided, etc. He knew this would be a difficult assignment, yet He was willing to obey Your will, even to death. The Son knew He needed to share Your light with as many people as possible. Today, each of us has a task to do for You, one to which You have aptly fitted us. Help us to say “yes” to that task and to do it with joyful and peaceful hearts. Your glory is part of the promises You will make true and share with us [COL 3: 3-4]. I pray we can see the value of living as Jesus teaches us, so that each of us can have a share of Your glory in heaven. In Christ’s holy/mighty name I pray. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I had to stop due to running out of space before writing all that the Holy Spirit has given me. So, next week, I will write more about the impact of God’s glory on us. Our God loves us so much that He has incredible patience as He teaches us what we need to know to gain eternal life with Him. We need to understand there are differences between God’s time and ours [2 PET 3: 8-9]. This means we must wait patiently for Him to choose the right time for something to happen. He tells us to focus on the teaching of our Lord Jesus as we await responses to our prayers. That makes it easier to pass that time. It helps to understand that God always picks the optimum time to ensure maximum lessons taught and the best way to approach us—that time when our hearts are ready for what He wants us to receive.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn, JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2023. All Rights Reserved.
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