Tag Archive for 'glory'

If You Haven’t Gotten It Yet, It’s All About God’s Glory!

Published on 10/2/2009 in Bible Study. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .

- John 11. 41 – “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew
  that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people
  standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.”

Previously some of the leaders had said that Jesus had a demon,
      and others asked, “Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?” Now
      Jesus does something that they all know, no matter how hard
      hearted they may be, that no demon could ever do. And they know
      that for something of this magnitude, God would never listen to a
      sinner.
Jesus showed a lot of humility in calling on the Father. I don’t
      want to say that though, because there is an arrogant or prideful
      tone to saying someone “showed a lot of humility”. He deferred to
      the Father for the Father to get Glory from this event. When
      Moses got angry and struck the rock, he said, “Shall I bring
      water for you out of this rock?” and God was upset with him
      because he did not “Bring glory to God.”
      Jesus brings God glory by showing to everyone around that this
      miracle is at the request of a man to God. It is not luck,
      chance, fate, God’s unstoppable do-what-He-pleases will, or the
      work of demons.
I was in a class once and the prof was talking about praying for
      people and then afterwards asking if they felt anything when he
      prayed for them. A student in the class asked, “Weren’t you
      afraid of God looking bad when they said, no, they didn’t feel
      anything and your prayer wasn’t answered?”
      The teacher answered something about how he left God’s reputation
      up to God and that he thought he’d be lying if the made the
      person think that God answered every single prayer we pray
      instantly. I think another aspect of it is what happens here with
      Lazarus. There are many times that I tell people that I’m praying
      for this or that, and I really am, because I don’t want God to
      answer my prayer and them give credit anywhere else.
The Father wants us to know that He listens to us. He wants us to
      know that He deserves glory and credit and attention for the
      things He does, and that we do not benefit in any way by trying
      to skim some of it off for ourselves.
There are a lot of situations and events that I think people are
      afraid to ask God about. They may be afraid to be honest with Him
      or afraid that if they get what they ask for, it may require
      opening a tomb that stinks. The fact is, that’s underestimating
      Him and selling Him short. How much better to be over the top in
      our confidence and dependance on Him, so that when He does more
      than we ask He will get even more glory?

The Earth and Its Events are Full of God’s Glory

Published on 7/14/2009 in Bible Study. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , .

John 11.4 “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

As always, Jesus sees more to the situation than anyone else. He sees that Lazarus died for the glory of God, just like the storm came up in the middle of the night while the disciples were alone in the boat, and the little girl died, and all the people got hungry, and the bride and groom ran out of wine.

“For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.” (Rom 14:7-9 NIV)

This is where I get into that confusing zone of God’s sovereignty. How many things does God allow to happen and how many things does He MAKE happen. I have no idea, but the fact remains that everything we do is not just for ourselves and does not just concern ourselves. We live to the Lord and we die to the Lord. I know many times that I have been distracted during my Bible study time, only to meet some event in the day that I should have been spiritually prepared for and wasn’t. I know many other times that whatever great Bible study I had / or prayer time, or whatever time with God was a direct prep and teach time for the thing that happened during the day.

(Or the next several days. I was memorizing James 1 days before we flew across the Atlantic on an 8 hour flight and David was about 14 months old and threw up for the last 6 of those hours. It was quite a trial, and all I could think about was “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.”)

So Lazarus didn’t MEAN to get sick and die, but it happened for God’s glory. I don’t want to say that God made it happen, because that takes me into areas that I just don’t have evidence to make a conclusion about. But either way, like so many other things, Jesus turned a circumstance into an arrow to God’s glory.

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”
(Is 6:3 NIV)

If the whole EARTH is full of His glory, how much more so would be every event, circumstance, situation. May God give us eyes to see that in the midst of our daily activities!

Random Notes on John 9

Published on 3/12/2009 in Bible Study. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , .

<<<2009.03.10>>>
some random notes:
Midrash Rabbah on Song of Songs 1:41 (another later rabbinic work) states that when a pregnant woman worships in a heathen temple the fetus also commits idolatry. This is only one example of how, in rabbinic Jewish thought, an unborn child was capable of sinning. (http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=1318)

Genesis Rabbah 63:6 says that Esau committed idolatry. The Rabbis couldn’t come to grips with the fact that YHWH would allow a ‘bad’ thing to happen to someone, or that God would curse someone from birth, so they deduced that Esau must have committed idolatry in the womb.

There were a lot of rabbinical debates in Jesus’ day, and the disciples and the Pharisees often asked Jesus about them to find out whose side he was on. The issues of taxes, resurrection, and divorce, were other controversies in Jesus’ day. As I think about those questions, I don’t remember Jesus EVER giving a straight answer, but always cut through the politics to the heart issue. I wish I could do that as people at work talk about stem cells and evolution.

<<<2009.03.12>>>
Looking at my notes from the 10th, wondering about how throughout all history people have really had trouble with the idea of ‘bad’ things coming from God. All of the advice given to Job is based on him deserving it b/c he must have sinned, but we get a look at the very beginning that he is about as righteous as a man can get!
Then I think about Jesus being THE most righteous and undeserving person on earth getting crucified, and that God wanted that!  Isaiah 53.10

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

The wisdom of the wise is confounded and the ways of the Lord are as high above our ways as the stars are above the land. Even the simplest switch in thinking needed an absolute miracle to be comprehended. The switch from seeing hardship as punishment for sin to seeing hardship as a method for God to reveal His Glory is so hard to believe that a man had to be born blind, then healed illegally (kneading on the Sabbath) to help us believe in it!

Seeking Our Own Glory

Published on 11/1/2008 in Bible Study. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

John 7:18 The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.

I remember when I learned that no one in a desperate situation can be trusted. That was also when I learned not to ask people “can you do such and such?” because the guy I was asking would think, “my child hasn’t eaten in 4 days and this guy is going to pay me to do this, so I can figure it out.” Desperation brings out some of the worst things in people. I remember seeing women at the Shoe Carnival push and shove other women, over 40 even-I’m not talking about rowdy teens! over a 6 pack of socks! (if that can be referred to as desperation. I guess they felt like they were, nonetheless.)

I think of that same thing as I read about Jesus talking about people seeking their own glory. Here I am on the weekend before a big election and the news is nothing but people seeking their own glory. And what crazy foolishness God lets people get into when they are focused on their own glory! What silly things we do when we try to get people to like us! And the more diverse the people, the crazier our antics!

The fact that Jesus was not seeking His own glory but the glory of God must have been so absolutely foreign to the Pharisees. To imagine them doing something that would make someone else look good, at their expense, seems impossible. Jesus taught the truth without any care of his reputation or standing with other people. He was free from the bondage of acceptance-shopping, so He could treat everyone equally, rich or poor, powerful or weak, intellectual or simple.

I know I’ve written about this before, but Jesus didn’t need other people to tell Him who He was. He knew who He was, and He knew what God thought of Him, and that was all that He needed. That’s how we know that God does not show favoritism, because Jesus showed us what a person is like that needs no approval, and does not judge people on their outward appearance, or what they are tricked into thinking of our outward appearance.

Thoughts on being an Heir

Published on 1/5/2008 in Bible Study. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

I read this before I went to bed last night and was wondering about the whole heir thing. It is easy to think that the heir doesn’t get his inheritance until the estate owner dies. But there is more to it that that! How many people do you see in the news that are the heir to some great fortune, and have all kinds of exploits of living large?Even better–in ancient times, in a kingdom or in a rich power-holder’s household, where was the power? First and foremost, it would be the ruler, the king, the duke, the sultan, the sheik, etc. The next most powerful person in the place? THE HEIR. The next in line to the throne has full access to all of the wealth of the king, but none of the responsibility of keeping it. He didn’t earn the family fortune, but someday he will be the one responsible for it. Until then, he enjoys the benefits of the kings riches without the pressure to keep it, earn it, or use it.He doesn’t have to think about whether he should defend his border against Belgium. He doesn’t have to expand his territory past the borders of the Mongols, that is all the king’s job. As the heir, he need only concern himself with the love of his father, which was never earned, but born into by the grace of his parents.So isn’t that just like the full wisdom of God? All of His riches of glory are available to me, but I don’t have to defend them or protect them or expand them! I don’t have to figure out how to put a strong wall around my salvation and redemption, that’s my Dad’s job. He is the King, and I’m in the family. And since He’ll NEVER DIE, I get to enjoy my inheritance forever! If He were to die, then I would have to budget my inheritance, or protect it, but since He lives forever, He continues to INCREASE my inheritance and keep it.Here’s another part. I used to work at a bank and work on the software that printed up the IRA documents. There would always be a hang-up, and yes, I even had bank branch managers call me about this, when they wanted to divide the beneficiaries 3 ways equally. You could put 33% into each field, but that only adds up to 99%. You could put in 33.33% (it only went to 2 decimals) but it would still be unbalanced. Would you believe the children, the heirs of the IRA, would argue about who got to be 34% on the form, and which other two were 33%!? There would be arguements, more than once, about who was the favorite child, and who got the most, etc–all while the IRA person was sitting right there!Ok, enough of man’s foolishness, look at God’s wisdom. How much more enjoyable is it to give away your inheritance to your children while they are alive, so you can see them enjoy it? If left to themselves, they would be greedy and selfish, but when it is doled out by the owner, there is peace. God is just that way, He gives out our inheritance every day, and when we would complain that others are getting too much, He says, “don’t I have a right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous.” and we see that we’ve been given more than we deserve ourselves.I am happy to be an heir that will never receive my inheritance through a will, but through His Will, He gives it to me every day.[ratings]