The Joy of Glory

1 Chronicles 30 (click here)
And many people came together in Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month, a very great assembly. They set to work and removed the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for burning incense they took away and threw into the brook Kidron.

So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles 30:13-14 and 26)

Reflection
The Kingdom of God’s people had long been divided.

The Northern Kingdom of Israel barely even exited after its decimation by Assyria… and the Southern Kingdom of Judah was anything but a faithful people.

Then the Lord moved in the reign of Hezekiah.

An invitation was extended to anyone left in Israel to reunite with Judah around the feast of the Passover. As many gathered in unity, focusing on the sacrifice love of God in saving his people from Egypt so long ago…an amazing thing began to happen.

The people tore down their pagan altars, repented, and returned to the Lord. They literally drowned their pagan ways by throwing their former altars in to the brook Kidron. Joy erupted amongst a long-divided people as they were reunited before their God!

We have seen that idolatry destroys community (Exodus 32 – Listen here). When we make a god who is all about us, we will try to create a community that is also all about us. If corrupt worship corrupts community… it makes sense that purified worship would lead to purified community.

That is exactly what unfolds in 2 Chronicles 30! As the people return to the Lord, they reunite! As they worship, they welcome one another! As they repent of their idolatry, they are reconciled to God and to one another.

Could it be that the cure for our communities begins with worship? Reconciliation with one another begins with reconciliation to God. Just as the Jewish people gazed upon the sacrificial love of God through Passover, we gaze upon his sacrificial love in the cross. In light of such sacrificial for our forgiveness and reconciliation, how could we ever refuse forgiveness to others who have not sinned against us nearly to the extent we have sinned against God.

In beholding the love of Christ extended to us in the cross, our hearts are filled with love to extend to others. In beholding our reconciliation that happens through the cross, we are moved to demonstrate that same reconciliation to our brothers and sisters. In behold the cross, our lives transform and become cruciform.

Do you take time each day to behold the cross? Have you taken time today, right now to behold the cross? The cross of Christ is the only the means by which we become a cruciform community.

Behold the cross of Christ… today… tomorrow… and forever.
 

*All previous devotionals may be found at www.thejoyofglory.com
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

1 Chronicles 16:8-36 (click here)
Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name;
make known his deeds among the peoples!
Sing to him, sing praises to him;
tell of all his wondrous works!
Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice!
Seek the LORD and his strength;
seek his presence continually!
Remember the wondrous works that he has done,
his miracles and the judgments he uttered…

Sing to the LORD, all the earth!
Tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!

Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and joy are in his place. (1 Chronicles 16:8-12, 23-24, and 27)

Reflection
Why do we gather to worship as a community?

I mean… all of life is worship, right? I can worship all on my own, right? As a believer, I am untied to Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit and can approach the Father… why in the world do I need to gather with other believers to worship?

“Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name;
make known his deeds AMONG THE PEOPLES!” (1 Chronicles 16:8)

There are certain things that happen within the context of communal worship that simply cannot happen anywhere else. Part of the purpose in our gathering is to sing, pray, and proclaim to one another the deeds of the Lord. Through song and speech we remind each other of the faithfulness of our God. We hear from his Word, of how he has always been faithful to us as a people, and we hear from one another current experiences of that faithfulness.

In the dark night of my soul, I need the community of faith to sing over me of the sovereign faithfulness of God. I need to be able to look across the room and see the tears streaming down the face of a mom I know has lost a child… and yet through the pain she is singing for joy in Christ. I need to sit beside the man dying of cancer and hear him sing, “whatever my lot, though hast taught me to say… it is well… it is well with my soul.”

Why do “I” need to gather with other believers to worship? That question is self-centered. It only sees value in the communal gathering because of what it can offer the self, but we gather to sacrifice ourselves for one another and minister to each other. We gather as a cruciform community.

…and we don’t just gather in this manner for one another, but as a witness to the watching world.

“Sing to the LORD, all the earth!
Tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!” (1 Chronicles 16:23-24)

Communal worship offers a untied witness to the world that we stand together to declare the glory of our God to all peoples! As different people, from different backgrounds, education levels, socio-economic levels, races, ages, etc come together… the binding love and supernatural unity of the Gospel is put beautifully on display.

As we worship together, we equip and encourage one another to take the Gospel from within our wall out into our world. We remember that we are not alone, and we go forth with a clear calling and mission.

When we worship with the people of God with the goal of helping others and the world to behold God’s glory… I believe it is then that we find ourselves caught up into the joyous presence of God in a way that cannot be experienced in any other context.

“Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and joy are in his place.” (1 Chronicles 16:27)

It is as if everything is amplified and intensified when we gather together. Our voices unite, our hearts unite, and our joy unites.

So why do we worship together? There are a million beautiful reasons… but the three-fold answer we’ve seen is this… 1) In worshipping together we are able to participate in cruciform community as we sacrifice our own preferences to encourage others with our presence and participation… 2) We are able to participate in cruciform community as we stand united in sacrificial love as a witness to the world… and 3) We are able to be ministered to by the cruciform community as we see, meet, and are helped by Christ in them!

*All previous devotionals may be found at www.thejoyofglory.com
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

1 Samuel 8:1-22 (click here)
Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him… “Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.”

And the LORD said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them…only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”

But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations…” (1 Samuel 8:4-5, 7, 9, 19-20)

Reflection
“like all the nations…”

Make us like everybody else. That was Israel’s essential request. They had been led out of slavery by God… redeemed by God… brought to a new land by God… established their nation by God… forgiven by God as they forsook him over and over again… they belonged to God!

The very purpose for which he had saved them was so that they might be different from all the other nations of the world… set apart as his people… a holy nation.

Exodus 19:6, “…you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

But they did not want to be a city set on a hill for all the world to see and behold the light of God through his people. No… they wanted to be in the valley where they could hide their light under a bushel and party with everyone else.

They rejected the kind of community their King had created them to be.

And they were warned.

Through the prophet Samuel, God warned his people that there is no such thing as life without a king, and any option aside from himself will eventually fall short. But they didn’t care… and all too often neither do we.

Life without a king simply doesn’t exist.

Everyone has a ruler, even if they believe it to be themselves. As Christians, we have been recreated as a community of king Jesus! We’ve been set apart, made a city on a hill, that through our sacrificial love for one another the world might see a reflection of the sacrificial love of God most clearly displayed through the cross.

But oh how strong is the temptation to want to be like all the other people of the world. In our own western culture, that temptation specifically takes shape in the desire to be our own king and captain of our soul.

Oh people of God, hear the warning of God through the Word of God… we make bad kings! You have been freely given the greatest king who offers you the greatest joy… himself! You… we… have been given Jesus! May we be a people, a community who cling to our king!
 

*All previous devotionals may be found at www.thejoyofglory.com
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.