Glory

I don’t usually “do” the dream stuff. Not because I believe that dreams are meaningless. There’s enough in the Bible to dispel that outright.
I just tend to believe that “MY” dreams aren’t much of anything other than the results of a busy mind sorting out it’s baggage in very entertaining ways.
I do however believe that there is great benefit in seeing thing with spiritual eyes. Things that ring true Scripturally, and help affirm or encourage our faith, which brings me to where these two things come together: Last night I dreamt that I was asked to explain “Glory”.
I immediately found it interesting since in my years of writing this blog, I’ve never dedicated one single post to the idea of glory. Considering how much the Bible talks about it, that seemed odd to me.
Well, in my dream as quick as a thought, someone asked what it was, and my reply was something like this:

"Glory is the reflection. It’s what bounces back off of you when God shines His brightness, His righteousness on to you. It doesn’t start with you, it’s Him, reflecting from you".

So of course, once I’d woken up, I had to make sure my “dream” theology was sound :) and either way, I’m still intrigued about delving into the idea of “glory”.
When studying a bible word, it’s always interesting for me to see what the word was first used for.


Here’s The Word:

Genesis 31:1 And he heard the words of Laban's sons, saying, Jacob hath taken away all that was our father's; and of that which was our father's hath he gotten all this glory.

Remember this story? In the previous chapter, Jacob, who was swindled by his uncle, Laban, into marrying both of his daughters instead of only Rachel is finishing up 20 years of servitude. For his pay, he and his uncle agree to the spotted, speckled and ring-striped cattle. What follows is a miracle explained more in Chapter 31, but suffice it to say, God blessed Jacob with abundance in the form of many, well favored cattle in response to Jacob’s persistence and steadfastness in the face of Laban’s trickery. The Bible refers to God as the owner of the cattle on a thousand hills….so what did God really give Jacob? An expressed abundance of what God already has. A reflection of Himself.

There are many, many other usages of “glory” in Scripture. Maybe some favorites come to your mind. How would you explain it?


Here’s The Word;

Luke 9:26 For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels.

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Romans 5:3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

1 Corinthians 1:31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

1 Corinthians 10:31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

2 Corinthians 3:9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.

2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Honestly, I was surprised to see how often the word appears in 1st & 2nd Corinthians. I’ll probably spend some personal time reading and focusing on broadening my understanding of “glory”.

That’s all this is really for. To draw our attention, give focus to, and broaden our understanding about something that can tend to fall by the wayside. We should be informed, rather than ignorant about glory.
Also, our representation of Christ shouldn’t be impotent. It’s easy to say “glory to God”, yet show no real intent toward reflecting Him. The glory is real, and will be displayed in every word of His truth, every reflection of His faithfulness, and every compassionate gesture if we truly allow our “selves” to decrease, and allow Him to increase.
When the Word commends us to “Let our light so shine”, it’s really not a light that originates in us….it’s us reflecting HIS light, that’s why the glorifying that follows is directed toward Him.


In Him,
Cros

Rejected

Sometimes I think we struggle with what we are as much as it seems to be a contradiction against what we believe we should be.
This begs the question – What should we be? What disposition should dictate our days? If we’re trying to be like Christ, what “Christian image” do we think we should emulating?

It’s one of those things where I think we should exercise caution and communication in order to ‘put on Christ’ in valid ways rather than unreasonable expectations of what we think the world is looking for.
Scripturally, Christ was called ‘a man of sorrows’…is that supposed to be us? If so, how so? If not, why not?
This is more about consideration than conclusion. When we read The Scriptures – well, let me back up a bit.

I remember the first years of my blog, it seems like I was more concerned with Christians acting like Christ. Somewhere along the line, I saw that my emphasis was on the wrong thing: Outward evidences of the flesh.
Now, even though I still promote evidence, the main emphasis is The Holy Spirit’s inner workings that produce it. Not human effort, which easily confuses many who see it, and even more tragic, many more of those who "do" it.
So allow me to rephrase: Rather than reading The Scriptures, I’ll say – when The Holy Spirit illuminates the mind of God IN His believers, what should our daily disposition aspire to be?

Recently, within the past few years, its become very popular in the media to express the idea that there are only two avenues of distinction; the comparisons went from the clever to the ridiculous – People who put ketchup ON the fries, or OFF to the side. Morning people, or people who want to kill morning people. Drumettes vs flats, and one near and dear to my heart: Coke or Pepsi.
As humorous as these categorizations are, God's Word really does identify people into 2 fundamentally different groups: Elected & rejected. Glorified and Reprobate

Here’s The Word:

Jeremiah 6:30 Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them.

Sometimes its hard to quite put your finger on a single, clear view on a word like reprobate, but if you follow this ‘first usage’ principle – you can simply call it “rejected”.

We’re going no further than that. This is not a post to help us try and figure out who is rejected and who’s not. Several times in Scripture, we see where God ‘rejects’ His people, Israel, but somehow things come around for them where they’re not totally eradicated and forgotten. Therefore, the full idea of who will or won’t be ultimately rejected belongs to God and God alone.
However, there is an admonition for us in Scripture in regards to this understanding.

Here’s The Word:

2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

Titus 1:16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.

If I had to cut and paste every Bible verse connected to how we ought to continually live and prove the genuineness of our faith, this would rather be a book than a blog.
Again, I draw your attention to the initial consideration: As we wake up every day, is there an overarching “thing” that should be apparent in our daily walk? A smile on our face? Joy in our hearts? Cavity causing sweetness in our interactions? An infectious heart of worship? – Well, to that I say, if that’s who you are, be who you are. If that’s who you’re not, pray and allow the Spirit to do transformation in ways that only the Spirit can.

I’m not saying that every Christian will be those things, but I believe what the Bible does call all Christians to be is sober. Sober doesn’t mean sad, sullen or downcast. It doesn’t mean that you resist enjoyment or bring about a air of gloominess. I believe that you can express true joy, enjoyment, worship and all of the aspects associated with the fruit of The Spirit all while being genuinely sober. It’s not happy OR sober, it’s joyful AND sober.

Our Father gives us many gifts to enjoy. His mercies are new every morning and He is not just with us, but FOR us in our transformation from dead to quickened. It’s just a necessary thing that we let our joy follow His work. Not the other way around. We can get too attached to wanting to feel “right” that we create it for ourselves without Him being involved at all. In all of this, it’s not to frighten us, just keep us sober.

Here’s The Word: Matthew 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

I remember that I used to say “to me, this is the scariest thing in the Bible.” I know now that I don’t have to feel that way. It’s still very real to me. Reprobate is a real thing. But a sober mind has heightened my awareness to proving that the power that raised Christ from the dead really is at work in me and all who hunger and thirst after righteousness. The first chapter of 2 Peter gives 5 verses of things we ought to do - exercises that culminate in “making our election sure”. A concern and a progression towards these evidences point to genuine conversion and godly progression toward Christ-likeness.

2 Timothy 2:19 Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

I believe that a right heart for the loss comes into consideration, just as a right concern for believers who don’t seem to have a direction toward soberness and faith validation. In both of these cases, we pray for the power of God to impact their understanding, showing them their need for a firm foundation and assurance of transformation. Our goal is never to try and identify who’s on the rejected list. In all soberness, we pursue to live out Colossians 1:28 …we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:


In Him,
Cros

Conversation Quicksand

I know that oftentimes it seems like I'm judging people. Like I've set myself higher than others, looking down on them with a scrutinizing eye. If that's how you feel about my posts, let me be the first to apologize, that's sincerely not my intent. Also, allow me to clarify my intentions. God's Word tells us that we shall know a tree by it's fruit. This means that we should be able to tell good fruit from bad fruit. On top of that, I never excuse myself from doing what the Bible calls 'making our election sure' (2 Peter 1:10). All of these things apply to me as well.

2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

This has to be one of the most prevalent issues among believers. Have you ever meet a Christian and although the start of the interaction/relationship starts off on the highest of notes, something happens: Circumstances arise and the next thing you know, you're wondering how someone who claims to love God would allow the things you're hearing to come out of their mouth.
Now far be it from me to question the genuineness of their conversion...but assessing things by their conversation....it's a no brainer...something's amiss.
It's not uncommon.

Many, if not most of us receive Christ at a specific time for a specific reason. We want salvation as a solution that our minds tend to process singularly.
He'll fix this, heal that, or help me with feelings of being unloved. And YES, He's absolutely the best remedy for all of those things. But it's our own thinking that limits what He's really here to do for us, IN us. Overall, we need to be more cognizant of how or conversation works. Of course we're willing to throw profanity down at the alter of conversion because its easy to see how that contradicts Christ.

But then what?

We need to take more of an intentional look at how God's Word talks about our words. There's really only two options....try to change words at the destination or at the source, and the Bible talks about both. Since the Word says that 'no man can tame the tongue'(James 3:8), that's obviously a futile option.

The true source of words is the heart, not the tongue. And it seems with as much of our hearts we're willing to give over, too many of us have a fence surrounding an area of quicksand....not surrounding our old words, but our old conversation.

Here's The Word:

Ephesians 4:21-23 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

Ephesians 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

It's not just about stopping profanity, which some confuse with 'cursing' since we call it 'cussing'. It's much more than that. The words of a Christian are to serve the purposes of Christ. Believe me when I tell that our very words can be the answers to prayer. They can fix this, heal that, or help situations where people feel unloved. That's exactly what His word exhorts us to do.
So tear down that fence. Allow God to remove your conversation quicksand and turn it into a compassion garden producing beautiful fragrant life to bless any who get close enough to experience it.

Here's The Word:

Ephesians 4:29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

Psalm 50:23 Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.

Philippians 1:27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;

2 Peter 3:11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,

Below are 7 rules for self discovery as presented by A W Tozer. They are useful in examining ourselves, and here's where I'll offer up the other side of our conversation. We mainly look at what we say, but in any conversation, there's a speaker and a receiver. This means we shouldn't only be concerned with what we say but the kind of receiver we are as well.

“Rules for Self Discovery: 1. What we want most;
2. What we think about most;
3. How we use our money;
4. What we do with our leisure time;
5. The company we enjoy;
6. Who and what we admire;
7. What we laugh at.”
― A. W. Tozer
Remember, when it comes to heart, investigate it. Make sure that you haven't withheld comfortable pieces of it from The Spirit's transforming power. If you're unsure about scrutinizing yourself, ask a friend you trust who can be honest with you. Also, a good method to try is to simply listen. Listen to the things your friends talk about and just listen without input. Chose to not engage, just listen and see if it's mostly edifying, positive, prayerful, hopeful, inspiring...etc.
Or is it quicksand? Know that the heart and mind are inextricably linked. God gives us a new heart, which with the power of The Spirit, is all we need to renew our minds, and prove our profession. Making our election sure.

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

In Him,
Cros

Parting Ways

Every so often, there comes a time
Where your sense of true purpose, needs to shine
What's always been, can be no more.
The time has come. Walk through that door.

All that's familiar, begins to fade.
Embrace the new, well worth the trade.
Comforts stagnate us. And many stay asleep.
Complacency and apathy, continue to creep.

Your focus turned inward: What's in it for me?
Distorting your purpose, so subtly.
Time passes by, you can't see how,
You forfeit fulfillment, you ask, "What now?"

Know without a doubt, you were made for more.
God has a plan, and much more in store.
When we lose focus, we just sit and rot.
That's why He says, we should be cold or hot.

You know if you've tasted: Inspired by Him,
His love in your heart, be on fire for Him.
If you're still dead and cold, He can send heat.
But when you're lukewarm, you think you're complete.

Not knowing you're useless. Lies have you fooled.
Ignorant that your slumber, is the devil's tool.
Helping promote your agenda, lest you awake,
To awareness that LIFE means decisions to make.

How do you see life, or make sense of what's true?
Do you see life as things that happen TO or FOR you?
Is it about what you do, or what's already been done?
Who masters your heart? Is it you, or The ONE?

This world does all it can, hiding what's real.
Promoting convenience, and selfish appeal.
Everybody's doing it, it's normal and right.
Blinding most people from seeing the light.

Artificial light, that doesn't bring heat.
It lessens your fervency with people you meet.
It tells you 'calm down, don't make it strange.'
With you being quiet, How can things change?

You're made for The Kingdom, Who's time is not yet.
God knows who are His, and this you can bet.
He's paid the admittance, and many are sought.
But who's allowed to enter?...Only the hot.

So it's time to break-up, break away from the lie.
It's not looking for your good, Just watching you die.
Prompting your efforts to seek joy for your days,
It's time to wake up. It's time to part ways.

Here's The Word:

Revelation 3:15 -16 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

1 Corinthians 5:10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.

1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

2 Timothy 2:19 Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.


In Him,
Cros