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Just Finished Talking To The Creator Of The Universe
Perhaps one of the most astonishing aspects of God’s revelation of Himself in the Bible is that He wants to have a personal relationship with His Creation, and, more specifically, He wants to be intimate with man, the highest of His Creation.
The Psalmist in Psalm 8:4 asks, “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” Good question. The answer is both simple and complex, and, since I don’t write–nor do you read–long blogs, I won’t attempt to answer it here.
Instead, I want to marvel at the incredible fact that God DOES pursue a relationship with me. At a point before time began, He even decided he would die for me in order for us to have such a relationship for all eternity.
Once established, He doesn’t want our companionship to be one-dimensional. That is, He wants me to continually communicate with Him, just as He continually speaks to me. He does so through His Word, through the presence of His Holy Spirit and through His creation. Psalm 19:1, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”
With that in mind, allow Him to speak to you through this incredible video. Worship and listen to your Creator. Here’s the link, if the video doesn’t automatically load.
You Could Always Ask Him!
I believe the disciples who followed Jesus heard a lot about the glories of heaven. Surely Jesus mentioned His own experience of living in perfect harmony with His Father. As human beings, we enjoy sharing our own times of close fellowship with our Father, and Jesus, though fully divine, was also fully human, so I believe He must have talked to His friends about His preincarnate life with His Father.
Like Moses, the disciples of Jesus, were probably persistent in wanting to hear and see more of God’s glory. In fact, Moses’ request of God to “Show me your glory,” (Exodus 33:18) sounds more like a demand that a request.
Whether the disciples had asked (or demanded) to see His glory or not, Jesus gave three of his closest followers the incredible experience of glimpsing a tiny, pinhole peek of the glory He shared with the Father. He did this when he allowed them to accompany him to the top of a mountain as told in the gospels (Luke 9:28-36). “As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.”
I long for such times of close fellowship with the Lord, and, like the disciples, I believe He gives us opportunities to see a tiny fraction (really, infinitesimal) of what living with Him, seeing His glory, enjoying His Presence completely will be like when we read His Word, bare our souls in prayer, and engage in worship with fellow believers.
Why did Jesus take only three disciples with Him when He revealed His Glory? Perhaps they were the only ones who asked of Him, “Show me your glory.”
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7.
I’m Doing Something Different This Year
I never make New Year’s resolutions. It’s not that I think there’s something wrong with doing so. I’ve just developed an aversion to the concept, probably because New Year’s resolutions get a lot of bad press.
From comedians to newspaper articles, everywhere you turn, people make fun of New Year’s resolutions. The jokes usually refer to breaking them within a day or even an hour and often involve some form of deprecating humor.
However–and you knew there was going to be a “however” in this piece–I do like the idea of trying something different because a new year has begun.
Here’s what I’m going to be doing differently this year:
Change the way I do my morning Quiet Time: I’ve had a Bible study, prayer and meditation time every morning for the past forty years. I embraced this practice after reading a little booklet entitled Your Time Alone With God. At the end of the book, there was a signature line asking for a commitment to start a morning devotional time. I put my name on that line. Then, underneath my signature, I saw these words, “You’ve now made a commitment to meet the Lord every morning. He’s going to be there. Don’t stand him up.”
I didn’t.
Through these many years, I’ve often followed daily Bible reading plans–reading through the Bible in a year–but, at other times, I’ve concentrated on one book of the Bible for a whole year. Although I’ve often used devotional books, these books have always included daily passages of Scripture. Reading His Word every morning has transformed my life, and I’ve never regretted signing my name on the bottom line.
This year, I’m changing things up a bit because I received a brand new Bible. My old Bible was falling apart, and, for too many years, I put off getting a new one because I’d filled up the margins of the old one with sermon outlines, notes, and tears. I didn’t want to let that go. Now, it’s time to start over.
This year, I’m reading through my new Bible without being able to read my old notes in the margins. I’m writing down new thoughts, shedding new tears, and meditating on newly discovered glories.
As I finished reading through my old Bible last year, knowing I was going to be “breaking in” a new Bible this year, these words from Revelation 21:5 spoke to me: “And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new ” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”
Even if you have to make a New Year’s resolution to accomplish it, make it a daily practice to read His Word in 2015. You’re sure to find His Words are “faithful and true.”
God’s Love For You
God’s love for you can never be restrained.
It bursts forth in smiles
from a cattle stall.
It shouts out in praise
from a heavenly host.
It cries out in anguish
from an old rugged cross.
Three Reasons You Should Put On Weight
From doctors to news commentators to politicians, weight is a big issue today. (No pun intended.) In our America society, with an abundant supply of food and a lack of exercise, it’s easier than ever to add a few extra pounds. But due to health problems associated with being overweight, health care professionals warn against allowing those few extra pounds to turn into a few more, and a few more, and a few more, and lead to obesity.
However, there’s another kind of weight the Bible says should be added to our lives. It’s the “weight” of glory. Glory originally meant “to weigh upon” or “to be heavy.” That definition, better than any other, has helped me to understand the meaning of the word glory.
Thus, the Bible’s admonition to glorify God simply means we are to give him added weight, to treat Him as heavy, as a substantive Being.
Here are three reasons your “weight” of God should increase:
First, the command of God demands it. “Give Him the glory due unto His name” Psalm 96:8.
Second, the character of God requires it. “Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary” Psalm 96:6.
Third, the claim of God calls for it. “I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God” Isaiah 45:5.
Weigh in on God today. (Pun intended.) Treat him as overwhelming in your life. Magnify what He’s doing. “. . . do all to the glory of God” 1 Corinthians 10:31.
Put on a little weight to the glory of God.
How Do You Watch A Movie?
When I watch a movie, I’m intrigued by how the story unfolds, how the writer has pulled the threads of the plot together to get to a satisfactory—and sometimes unsatisfactory—ending. Of lesser importance to me are the specifics surrounding the actors’ ability to nuance the characters in the movie. Perhaps of least importance to me is the technique behind the camera shots or the way in which the director chooses to film the action in the movie.
However, my husband is not that interested in the “story” of the movie. Instead, he pays more attention to how realistically an actor portrays his character, and whether he or she is good at the craft of acting. He can also get excited about how a movie is filmed, noting things like the director’s love of close-ups or tall buildings.
I believe these two different methods of watching a movie reflect how we relate to other people. For example, take what happens when my husband and I meet a new couple. I immediately start asking questions about their background, their family, their “story.” On the other hand, he is much more interested in asking questions that reveal the couple’s emotions, feelings, and opinions.
Not surprisingly, our personality differences affect how we worship God, how comfortable we are with a certain style of worship, and how we enter into a worship service or respond to the pastor’s sermon. I believe Jesus seeks to encompass all kinds of worshipers with his words from John 4:24: “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
How does your spirit worship God?
I Was Late For Church On Sunday
I was running late when I arrived at our church for the worship service last Sunday, so I quietly slipped in the back door and chose the first seat available. It was on the other side of the auditorium from where my husband, James, and I usually sit when he isn’t out preaching somewhere. This location on the “outer fringes” would not have suited him, but since I was alone, and, as I said, trying not to disturb others with my late arrival, I scooted into an empty row of seats just as the worship leader began leading the congregation in a praise song.
Within seconds, though, a middle-aged couple in front of me caught my attention. I wasn’t acquainted with them, but I could tell, by the way they sang the praise choruses with familiarity and enthusiasm, they were probably regular churchgoers. At one point during the singing, the husband looked over, smiled at his wife, and slipped his arm around her waist. She, in turn, patted his hand. Their loving gestures seemed to demonstrate a worshipful delight at sharing this experience together.
As I observed their obvious love for the Lord and for each other, it made me smile, and I felt blessed.
At the beginning of the second song, the couple’s son and daughter-in-law joined the couple, appearing to apologize for their late arrival. Although I was just guessing at their relationship, the “son” was the exact height and spitting image of his “dad,” so I felt safe in making this assumption. As soon as the younger couple unashamedly greeted the older couple with hugs and kisses, they too joined in singing the worship songs.
As I observed their outward affection toward one another, it made me smile, and I felt blessed.
As soon as the pastor began his sermon, all four individuals opened their personal Bibles and followed along as he read the Scriptures. Each one wrote down in the worship folder the different points the pastor was emphasizing in his message. When the pastor made a humorous remark about families in his talk, the four of them looked at each other and laughed, whispering back and forth for a moment as they enjoyed the joke together.
As I observed their attentiveness and serious approach to the hearing of God’s word, it made me smile, and I felt blessed.
On my way home from church, I thought about how four ordinary people had been a blessing to me. They were not Hollywood glamorous or especially attractive from a physical standpoint. Their clothes were not expensive or fashionable. None of them spoke any words of wisdom to me or gave me any spiritual insight.
Yet, they blessed me because they were expressing their love for each other and their love for God in the midst of worship, exactly the kind of blessing God Himself surely loves to receive.
“Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together!” Psalm 34:3
Did God Make Extra-Terrestrials?
There have been several amazing announcements in the last month concerning the discovery of earth-size planets orbiting a sun-like star. These discoveries have come from NASA’s Kepler Mission, whose task is to survey the Milky Way galaxy to discover earth-size planets. Because of recent advances in technology, Kepler’s astronomers are speculating that our galaxy alone may have millions of planets.
I’m excited about what earth’s telescopes find in the heavens because “the heavens declare the glory of God,” but most often when discoveries of this nature are made, they are reported under a headline like the one from commentator Charles Krauthammer who asks, “Are We Alone In The Universe?”
Krauthammer voices a hope that many people express, a hope for intelligent life, for other beings living like us but under distant stars. He writes that the search for other planets “betrays a profound melancholy—a lonely species in a merciless universe anxiously awaits an answering voice amid utter silence.” He believes it makes no sense that in this vast universe of countless galaxies, human beings on planet earth are unique and speculates that other alien civilizations must have destroyed themselves. Krauthammer, a political commentator, concludes the article by urging mankind to get politics right or risk extinction. Read his full article here.
What fascinates and yet profoundly saddens me about this article and many like it is the failure to see Earth and the descendants of Adam who live on it as, yes, unique. Our uniqueness, our being the ONLY intelligent life in the universe God made, should make us acutely aware of how much our Creator God not only loves us but has a very unique plan for us. This very “specialness” elicits praise and knee-bowing awe in some, while it frightens others.
It is frightening to think the focus of creation was entirely mankind on planet earth. That carries an overwhelming measure of responsibility on us as human beings to acknowledge God, to express gratitude, to seek meaning of life in Him. Whereas if “matter just came into existence” and intelligence just “evolved,” and other rocky planets are inhabited by alien forms, then what need is there for me to turn my face toward a Sovereign Maker?
God’s spectacular display of His glory in the heavens was not so that man would seek others out there like himself, but that man would become God-centered, recognizing, as John wrote of those who believe in His son, “how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God.” (1 John 3:1)
Did God make extra-terrestrials? No, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)
Bits and Pieces 8/02
High Priest’s Golden Bell Discovered
During a recent excavation led by the Antiquities Authority in Israel of a drainage channel near the Temple Mount, a small golden bell was unearthed. This is the type of bell that was to be sewn on the hem of the High Priest’s garment. Exodus 28:33 says, “Make pomegranates of blue, purple and scarlet yarn around the hem of the robe, with gold bells between them.” Evidently, some 2500 years ago, as the High Priest made his way from the Pool of Siloam up to the Temple, the little bell came loose and fell into the drainage canal that was built alongside the road.
Is this significant to me today? Yes, because it serves not just as a matter of interesting historical significance, but also as a reminder that we have a great High Priest, our Lord Jesus Christ. He is more significant than any earthly High Priest, for as Hebrews 4 tells us, he is the Son of God. And, He didn’t just pass behind the curtains to the Holy of Holies, but He passed into Heaven itself to bring atonement to all who believe. For more information about the finding of the golden bell, visit The Golden Bell.
A Heavenly Devotional
I am intrigued by the title of a new devotional book called The Heavens: Intimate Moments With Your Majestic God by Kevin Hartnett. The author is NASA’s Deputy Science Operations Manager for the Hubble Space Telescope. I’ve always been fascinated by the mystery of the heavenly bodies and have often gazed in wonder at the incredible photos sent back to earth by the Hubble Telescope.
This book sounds like an obvious way to come to know God. Psalm 19 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.” I recall one day studying for a lesson I was to teach on Genesis and creation and finding the Hubble Website. I lost all sense of time and had a joyful worship experience as I looked at photo after photo of the world God created to declare His glory.
Ponder This
A quote to ponder from John Piper: “Do you feel loved by God because you believe he makes much of you, or because you believe he frees you and empowers you to enjoy making much of him?”
To Extol Is To Exult
C. S. Lewis wrote in Reflections on the Psalms, “I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment.” How true for us as we worship and share our joy of worship with others. Someone recently related on Facebook how much they had enjoyed a certain church worship experience, praising the sense of His presence in the service. I had attended that worship service and their praise made me rejoice in Him, completing my enjoyment of the experience. Delighting in Him is why He made us. Sharing that delight completes our enjoyment of Him.
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Ben in Trouble follows Four Steps Missed in the Titus Ray Thriller Series
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Ben in Charge, Follows Three Steps Away in the Titus Ray Thriller Series
Ben in Love, Follows Two Steps Forward in the Titus Ray Thriller Series
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His Glory My Joy, a blog of Author Luana Ehrlich 
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