Sunday, February 04, 2007

sentimental

There is a wonderful, liberating simplicity that comes with finding out what the Bible says, and doing it. Abhoring the evil, holding fast to the good for example, going and sinning no more. Perhaps it would be better to say 'finding out what the Bible says and then getting on our faces to ask for help'. But you get my point. It would probably save us from all sorts of undue pain and sin and stress.

2 Corinthians 3:18
is a great example of this. Look at the glory of the Lord and let it change you, believe in it's power, persue a vision of the glory of God. And i know this works because in a tiny way, i've caught sight of it working in my own life. Catching the faintest glimmer of the glory of God has made me hungry for more, hungry to change, hungry to love people and be like Jesus. So i know it works. And this is so liberating. It's liberating because it takes the responsibility off us. It's liberating because it puts us in a position of complete trust in God, who is, after all, far more concerned with His own glory in our lives than we are. This verse is good news, and it's news that works.

So lets do it. If w want to change, if we want to be changed from one degree of glory to another, lets persue a vision of the glory of God. We need to spend time in the Word, considering how amazing grace is and how awesome our Lord is. How high above us He is in every conceivable way and how He has saved us from Himself. How He worked out His great salvation plan. Lets pray that God would open up our hearts to see more of Him. And He'll do that so that we enjoy Him more and therefore bring Him more glory. And the glory of God will never run out, it will never run dry and we will never get tired of it. So lets be greedy to feast on the glory of God for our joy and His glory. We need to be reading good books. Books by people like John Owen, and CJ Mahaney and John Piper and huge numbers of others. People who can give us a bigger picture of God than we can see at the moment, who will share their wisdom with us. Spend time in the Word, spend time in prayer and spend time in good books, and hopefully we'll see more and more of the glory of God and be changed.

And we won't be like Moses. Moses saw the trail of God's glory and His face shone. But slowly this glory faded and he had to wear a veil. That won't happen with us, we won't lose our vision of the glory of God if we keep seeking it. We have the glory of God inside us, dwelling in us by His Spirit that will never fade and never grow old. And there will always always be more.

1 comment:

Stephen Harbage said...

Great stuff mate, thanks for the encouragement : )
- so true!
Awesome verse...