Psalm 50:23, "Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; and to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God."
Romans 4:20, "He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God."
1 Peter 4:11, "If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen."
Matthew 5:16, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."
I have been writing a primer on the glory of God. We have learned that it is something you see or reflect upon or point to rather than define. It is Christ’s beauty of his perfection, His worth, and His moral excellence in His character AND SO MUCH MORE! I made a statement, “The deepest longing of the human heart and the deepest meaning of heaven and earth are summed up in this: the glory of God.”
God means for us to see His glory with our eyes, know His glory in our minds, and relish his glory in our hearts, and reflect his glory in our lives. God has made us to see His glory, to savor his glory, and to show His glory. God says in Isaiah 43:7, "Everyone who is called by My name…I have created for My glory..." That means that we were all created to express the infinite worth of God's glory.
So we have been learning about the glory of God, what it is, how seeing it affects us, and what it means to fulfill our duty and highest purpose. Our duty and privilege is to conform to this divine purpose namely, to reflect the value of God's glory-to think and feel and do whatever we must to make much of God, to magnify Him, to increase His fame and renown. Our reason for being, our calling, our joy is to render visible the glory of God.
Today I want to share some implications of the ways we bring glory to God.I am thankful to John Piper who has given me these pointers by which I am expanding upon.
When we do evangelism it means more than simply giving gospel facts and information. It means depicting the beauty of Christ and his saving work with a heartfelt urgency of love that labors to help people see Jesus for who He is and to savor Him for all that Her is worth. Christ is glorified in evangelism when we help people to come to love and treasure Him. (Matthew 5:14-16)
Similarly true, authentic, biblical, Christian preaching, as part of the corporate worship of Christ’s church, is the preacher treasuring over the glories of God in his word, designed to lure God’s people from the fleeting pleasures of sin into the sacrificial path of obedient satisfaction in Him.(1 Peter 4:11)
The essence of authentic, corporate worship in song is the collective experience of heartfelt love, pleasure, cherishing, and satisfaction in the glory of God, or a trembling that we do not have it and a great longing for it. (Psalm 29:2; 50:23)
World missions is a declaration of the glories of God among all the unreached peoples, with a view to gathering worshippers who magnify God through the gladness of radically obedient lives. (Psalm 96:3)
Prayer is calling on God for help so it is plain that he is gloriously resourceful and we are humbly and happily in need of grace.(Psalm 50:15)
All ministry is meant to be done in humble dependence of the strength He supplies so that He receives all the glory. (1 Peter 4:11)
The work of the Spirit in the life of a believer is meant to produce God glorifying fruit. (John 15:8; Galatians 5:22-23)
The way to magnify God in death is by meeting death as gain.(Philippians 1:21)
"Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." (1 Corinthians 10:31)
"It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always, Christ shall be honored in my body, whether by life, or by death." (Philippians 1:21)
The only right way to live, serve, work, worship, eat, and drink is when we do it to His glory.
A PRAYER
0 Father of glory, this is the cry of our hearts-to be changed from one degree of glory to another, until, in the resurrection, at the last trumpet, we are completely conformed to the image of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Until then, we long to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord, especially the knowledge of his glory. We want to see it as clearly as we see the sun, and to savor it as deeply as our most desired pleasure. 0 merciful God, incline our hearts to your Word and the wonders of your glory. Wean us from our obsession with trivial things. Open the eyes of our hearts to see each day what the created universe is telling about your glory. Enlighten our minds to see the glory of your Son in the Gospel. We believe that you are the All-glorious One, and that there is none like you. Help our unbelief Forgive the wandering of our affections and the undue attention we give to lesser things. Have mercy on us for Christ’s sake, and fulfill in us your great design to display the glory of your grace. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
John Piper
Longing for us to go deeper in seeing, savoring, and showing His glory,
Pastor Bill
Monday, July 25, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
LIFE AS A STORY
"God works all things to the good for those who love Him" Romans 8:28
"What you intended for evil, God intended for the goo and the saving of many lives." Genesis 50:20
Today I had an epiphany that I must muse upon for awhile. I thought of life as a story. There is the story itself, the story that I want it to be, and the story that God is writing. Many of my disappointments, discouragement's, and frustrations with God are due to the fact that He is not writing my story the way that I desire. Often times His seeming silence is simply my ears turned deaf to the story that He is writing in my life. In difficult moments, I am in the middle of His story. If instead of despairing,or becoming frustrated,disappointed, and angry with the story God is writing; what I need to do is look for traces of His hand as He writes my story. II must surrender to the supreme author and stay in the story that He is writing. It will inevitably make for a much better story than the one that I would like to write anyway and it will inevitably lead to a very happy ending.
I am watching and listening to the story and the painting and the weaving of the tapestry of my Father in Heaven over my life. I am getting my eyes off what I think is missing and instead beginning to trace His beautiful poetry, artistry, and ineffable design. It truly helps fill in so many momentary gaps. I like to watch and listen to Him write,weave, and paint. Incomparable and supremely inspiring!
Pastor Bill
"What you intended for evil, God intended for the goo and the saving of many lives." Genesis 50:20
Today I had an epiphany that I must muse upon for awhile. I thought of life as a story. There is the story itself, the story that I want it to be, and the story that God is writing. Many of my disappointments, discouragement's, and frustrations with God are due to the fact that He is not writing my story the way that I desire. Often times His seeming silence is simply my ears turned deaf to the story that He is writing in my life. In difficult moments, I am in the middle of His story. If instead of despairing,or becoming frustrated,disappointed, and angry with the story God is writing; what I need to do is look for traces of His hand as He writes my story. II must surrender to the supreme author and stay in the story that He is writing. It will inevitably make for a much better story than the one that I would like to write anyway and it will inevitably lead to a very happy ending.
I am watching and listening to the story and the painting and the weaving of the tapestry of my Father in Heaven over my life. I am getting my eyes off what I think is missing and instead beginning to trace His beautiful poetry, artistry, and ineffable design. It truly helps fill in so many momentary gaps. I like to watch and listen to Him write,weave, and paint. Incomparable and supremely inspiring!
Pastor Bill
Monday, July 4, 2011
THE GLORY OF GOD FOR DUMMIES LIKE ME, A PRIMER Part 5
"Everyone who is called by My name…I have created for My glory..."Isaiah 43:7
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. “ (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. "(1 Corinthians 10:31)
"It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always, Christ shall be honored in my body, whether by life, or by death." (Philippians 1:21)
“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body”. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
The past month I have been writing about the most important reason why you are on this earth. The great Westminster Catechism summed it up this way:
Man’s chief end is to glorify God,and to enjoy him forever.
So we have been learning about the glory of God, what it is, how seeing it affects us, and what it means to fulfill our duty and highest purpose. Our duty and privilege is to conform to this divine purpose namely, to reflect the value of God's glory-to think and feel and do whatever we must to make much of God, to magnify Him, to increase His fame and renown. Our reason for being, our calling, our joy is to render visible the glory of God.
One of the greatest statements that I have ever read on the glory of God was penned by Jonathan Edwards in his most wonderful book, A Dissertation Concerning the End for Which God Created the World. Edwards writes:
All that is ever spoken of in the Scripture as an ultimate end of God's works is included in that one phrase, the glory of God... The refulgence shines upon and into the creature, and is reflected back to the luminary. The beams of glory come from God, and are something of God and are refunded back again to their original. So that the whole is of God, and in God, and to God, and God is the beginning, middle and end in this affair.
The deepest longing of the human heart and the deepest meaning of heaven and earth are summed up in this: the glory of God. God means for us to see His glory with our eyes, know His glory in our minds, and relish his glory in our hearts, and reflect his glory in our lives.” God has made us to see His glory, to savor his glory, and to show His glory.
Edwards says,
God is glorified within Himself these two ways: 1. By appearing... to Himself in His own perfect idea [of Himself], or in His Son, who is the brightness of His glory. 2. By enjoying and delighting in Himself, by flowing forth in infinite . . . delight towards Himself, or in his Holy Spirit...So God glorifies Himself toward the creatures also in two ways: 1. By appearing to... their understanding. 2. In communicating Himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in, and enjoying, the manifestations which He makes of Himself...God is glorified not only by His glory's being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart. God made the world that He might communicate, and the creature receive, His glory; and that it might [be] received both by the mind and heart. He that testifies his idea of God's glory [doesn't] glorify God so much as he that testifies also his approbation of it and his delight in it.
The implications of this paragraph for all of life are immeasurable. One of those implications is that the end and goal of creation hangs on knowing God with our minds and enjoying God with our hearts. The very purpose of the universe-reflecting and displaying the glory of God-hangs not only on true knowledge of God, but also on authentic joy in God. "God is glorified," Edwards says, "not only by His glory's being seen, but by its being rejoiced in."
In short, to glorify God is to enjoy Him, to delight in Him, to treasure Him, and to love Him. Therefore, we should be blood-earnest-deadly serious-about seeing the glory of God and being happy in the glory of God. We should pursue our joy with a passion and a vehemence that, if it must, would cut off our hand or gouge out our eye to have it. God being glorified in us hangs on our being satisfied in him. Which makes our being satisfied in him infinitely important. It becomes the supreme vocation of our lives.
How can we pursue seeing,savoring,and showing our joy in the glory of God. Let me give you some applications I have learned from some very wise men, John Owen and Jonathan Edwards.
The great 17th century Puritan, John Owen, gave five ways we can behold the glory and beauty of Christ:
1. Fix it in mind that this glory of Christ in the divine constitution of His person is the best, most noble, useful, beneficial object that we can have in our thoughts and affections.
2. Diligently study the Scripture and the revelations that are made of this glory of Christ in them.
3. Having attained the light of the knowledge of the glory of Christ from the Scripture, or by the dispensation of the truth in the preaching of the gospel, meditates frequently upon it.
4. Let your occasional thoughts of Christ be many, and multiplied every day.
5. See to it that all thoughts concerning Christ and His glory are accompanied with admiration, adoration, and thanksgiving.
Jonathan Edwards gives us three practical ways:
1.We should 'endeavor to increase spiritual appetites by meditating on spiritual objects.
Each time we surrender our minds to meditate on lessor things their grip on our lives is intensified. there is no way I will be able to increase my love for God if I fixate my mind upon sinful things. Paul said as much in his letter to the Philippians: 'Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things' (Philippians 4:8). Merely acknowledging that such 'things' exist is woefully deficient. More than defining them and defending them as worthy of our affection is needed. We must actually 'think' about them, ponder them, pore over them, and become vulnerable to the power God has invested in them to transform our values and feelings and to energize our volition.
Perhaps no one was more diligent in meditating on spiritual objects than David, King of Israel. I'm reminded of two statements in particular, both of which express the intensity and exclusivity of his devotion.
" I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken (Psalm 16:8).
"Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.My flesh and my heart may fail,but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." (Psalm 73:25-26)
David was diligent to avert his eyes from all lesser beauty. His resolve was to set the Lord before him, to concentrate his attention and the energies of his soul on the majesty and power of the One who alone would sustain him when all else is shaking. This was not an infrequent or occasional choice or one to which he reverted only in times of crisis, but an orientation of life to which he was `always' committed.
2."Endeavor to promote spiritual appetites by laying yourself in the way of allurement"
Edwards says,
"Persons need not and ought not to set any bounds to their spiritual and gracious appetites.They ought to be endeavoring by all possible ways to inflame their desires and to obtain more spiritual pleasures. . . . Our hungerings and thirstings after God and Jesus Christ and after holiness can't be too great for the value of these things, for they are things of infinite value. . . . [Therefore] endeavor to promote spiritual appetites by laying yourself in the way of allurement...11There is no such thing as excess in our taking of this spiritual food. There is no such virtue as temperance in spiritual feasting."
Posture your life so that you may be easily enticed by the beauty of Christ. Make it easy on your soul by exposing your senses to those things that awaken spiritual desire and deepen holy longings.God has appointed specific activities that are designed to ignite passion for his Son and elicit insatiable hunger for his presence. Let me humbly remind you of the importance of of prayer, scripture,fellowship with God-driven , God-hungry Christians, Meditation and contemplation, reading good Christian books, listening to worship music,regularly participating in the Lord's Supper, practicing silence, contemplation, and solitude, and spending time in nature.
3. "We should express our longings to God; they will increase by being expressed.'"
Passions often wither in silence. Undeclared delight is a virtual contradiction in terms. God never intended for our joy to be quiet. C.S. Lewis wrote;
"I think we delight to praise what we enjoy: because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation."
There's nothing more frustrating than an experience of sheer delight in the absence of someone with whom you can share it. I went to four national parks last summer by myself and it was very lonely and very empty without someone to share the beauty with. When I see a glorious sunset my instinctive reaction is to shout at anyone within earshot `Did you see that? Wow!' To leave my exultation unexpressed is unthinkable. So it is with worship, but on an even grander scale. When I gather with God loving on fire, white hot worshippers something happens both in my being in the presence of the Lord with them all and joining them in expression of our delight in God together.
Worship is not only the expression of joy, it is the soil in which additional and even greater joy is seeded. As we celebrate God in word and praise, the Spirit works within to cultivate still deeper delight in God that cries out to be vented in exuberant exultation. Enjoyment issues in worship. Worship incites knowledge. Knowledge awakens joy. This joy issues in worship ... and so it goes, to the gladness of our hearts and the glory of God!
May the Lord himself open our eyes to see the glory of God and be changed.
To be continued...
Pastor Bill
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. “ (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. "(1 Corinthians 10:31)
"It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always, Christ shall be honored in my body, whether by life, or by death." (Philippians 1:21)
“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body”. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
The past month I have been writing about the most important reason why you are on this earth. The great Westminster Catechism summed it up this way:
Man’s chief end is to glorify God,and to enjoy him forever.
So we have been learning about the glory of God, what it is, how seeing it affects us, and what it means to fulfill our duty and highest purpose. Our duty and privilege is to conform to this divine purpose namely, to reflect the value of God's glory-to think and feel and do whatever we must to make much of God, to magnify Him, to increase His fame and renown. Our reason for being, our calling, our joy is to render visible the glory of God.
One of the greatest statements that I have ever read on the glory of God was penned by Jonathan Edwards in his most wonderful book, A Dissertation Concerning the End for Which God Created the World. Edwards writes:
All that is ever spoken of in the Scripture as an ultimate end of God's works is included in that one phrase, the glory of God... The refulgence shines upon and into the creature, and is reflected back to the luminary. The beams of glory come from God, and are something of God and are refunded back again to their original. So that the whole is of God, and in God, and to God, and God is the beginning, middle and end in this affair.
The deepest longing of the human heart and the deepest meaning of heaven and earth are summed up in this: the glory of God. God means for us to see His glory with our eyes, know His glory in our minds, and relish his glory in our hearts, and reflect his glory in our lives.” God has made us to see His glory, to savor his glory, and to show His glory.
Edwards says,
God is glorified within Himself these two ways: 1. By appearing... to Himself in His own perfect idea [of Himself], or in His Son, who is the brightness of His glory. 2. By enjoying and delighting in Himself, by flowing forth in infinite . . . delight towards Himself, or in his Holy Spirit...So God glorifies Himself toward the creatures also in two ways: 1. By appearing to... their understanding. 2. In communicating Himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in, and enjoying, the manifestations which He makes of Himself...God is glorified not only by His glory's being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart. God made the world that He might communicate, and the creature receive, His glory; and that it might [be] received both by the mind and heart. He that testifies his idea of God's glory [doesn't] glorify God so much as he that testifies also his approbation of it and his delight in it.
The implications of this paragraph for all of life are immeasurable. One of those implications is that the end and goal of creation hangs on knowing God with our minds and enjoying God with our hearts. The very purpose of the universe-reflecting and displaying the glory of God-hangs not only on true knowledge of God, but also on authentic joy in God. "God is glorified," Edwards says, "not only by His glory's being seen, but by its being rejoiced in."
In short, to glorify God is to enjoy Him, to delight in Him, to treasure Him, and to love Him. Therefore, we should be blood-earnest-deadly serious-about seeing the glory of God and being happy in the glory of God. We should pursue our joy with a passion and a vehemence that, if it must, would cut off our hand or gouge out our eye to have it. God being glorified in us hangs on our being satisfied in him. Which makes our being satisfied in him infinitely important. It becomes the supreme vocation of our lives.
How can we pursue seeing,savoring,and showing our joy in the glory of God. Let me give you some applications I have learned from some very wise men, John Owen and Jonathan Edwards.
The great 17th century Puritan, John Owen, gave five ways we can behold the glory and beauty of Christ:
1. Fix it in mind that this glory of Christ in the divine constitution of His person is the best, most noble, useful, beneficial object that we can have in our thoughts and affections.
2. Diligently study the Scripture and the revelations that are made of this glory of Christ in them.
3. Having attained the light of the knowledge of the glory of Christ from the Scripture, or by the dispensation of the truth in the preaching of the gospel, meditates frequently upon it.
4. Let your occasional thoughts of Christ be many, and multiplied every day.
5. See to it that all thoughts concerning Christ and His glory are accompanied with admiration, adoration, and thanksgiving.
Jonathan Edwards gives us three practical ways:
1.We should 'endeavor to increase spiritual appetites by meditating on spiritual objects.
Each time we surrender our minds to meditate on lessor things their grip on our lives is intensified. there is no way I will be able to increase my love for God if I fixate my mind upon sinful things. Paul said as much in his letter to the Philippians: 'Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things' (Philippians 4:8). Merely acknowledging that such 'things' exist is woefully deficient. More than defining them and defending them as worthy of our affection is needed. We must actually 'think' about them, ponder them, pore over them, and become vulnerable to the power God has invested in them to transform our values and feelings and to energize our volition.
Perhaps no one was more diligent in meditating on spiritual objects than David, King of Israel. I'm reminded of two statements in particular, both of which express the intensity and exclusivity of his devotion.
" I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken (Psalm 16:8).
"Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.My flesh and my heart may fail,but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." (Psalm 73:25-26)
David was diligent to avert his eyes from all lesser beauty. His resolve was to set the Lord before him, to concentrate his attention and the energies of his soul on the majesty and power of the One who alone would sustain him when all else is shaking. This was not an infrequent or occasional choice or one to which he reverted only in times of crisis, but an orientation of life to which he was `always' committed.
2."Endeavor to promote spiritual appetites by laying yourself in the way of allurement"
Edwards says,
"Persons need not and ought not to set any bounds to their spiritual and gracious appetites.They ought to be endeavoring by all possible ways to inflame their desires and to obtain more spiritual pleasures. . . . Our hungerings and thirstings after God and Jesus Christ and after holiness can't be too great for the value of these things, for they are things of infinite value. . . . [Therefore] endeavor to promote spiritual appetites by laying yourself in the way of allurement...11There is no such thing as excess in our taking of this spiritual food. There is no such virtue as temperance in spiritual feasting."
Posture your life so that you may be easily enticed by the beauty of Christ. Make it easy on your soul by exposing your senses to those things that awaken spiritual desire and deepen holy longings.God has appointed specific activities that are designed to ignite passion for his Son and elicit insatiable hunger for his presence. Let me humbly remind you of the importance of of prayer, scripture,fellowship with God-driven , God-hungry Christians, Meditation and contemplation, reading good Christian books, listening to worship music,regularly participating in the Lord's Supper, practicing silence, contemplation, and solitude, and spending time in nature.
3. "We should express our longings to God; they will increase by being expressed.'"
Passions often wither in silence. Undeclared delight is a virtual contradiction in terms. God never intended for our joy to be quiet. C.S. Lewis wrote;
"I think we delight to praise what we enjoy: because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation."
There's nothing more frustrating than an experience of sheer delight in the absence of someone with whom you can share it. I went to four national parks last summer by myself and it was very lonely and very empty without someone to share the beauty with. When I see a glorious sunset my instinctive reaction is to shout at anyone within earshot `Did you see that? Wow!' To leave my exultation unexpressed is unthinkable. So it is with worship, but on an even grander scale. When I gather with God loving on fire, white hot worshippers something happens both in my being in the presence of the Lord with them all and joining them in expression of our delight in God together.
Worship is not only the expression of joy, it is the soil in which additional and even greater joy is seeded. As we celebrate God in word and praise, the Spirit works within to cultivate still deeper delight in God that cries out to be vented in exuberant exultation. Enjoyment issues in worship. Worship incites knowledge. Knowledge awakens joy. This joy issues in worship ... and so it goes, to the gladness of our hearts and the glory of God!
May the Lord himself open our eyes to see the glory of God and be changed.
To be continued...
Pastor Bill
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