The Joy of Glory

Acts 7 (click here)
…The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, “Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.” Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living. Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child. (Acts 7:2-5)

Reflection
Has God been faithful?

Whenever we ask ourselves that question we naturally begin to look at the story of our lives. We look for evidence of God’s faithfulness within the brief time period that we have walked on his planet… but our story is bigger than that and so is the story of God’s faithfulness!

God has been faithful to his people, of which we are a part… and if we want to see God’s faithfulness to us as then we must look at this greater, grander story! This is one of the reasons we have the whole of Scripture!

The grand storyline of the Bible can help us to see how it is that God is being faithful to us as one of his people, even when our individual circumstances may make it seem lack God’s faithfulness is lacking.

Just think about the promises God gave to Abraham which Stephen describes for us in the beginning of his sermon in Acts 7. Stephen’s whole message is about God’s faithfulness to do what he has promised for his people, and that begins with Abraham to whom the Lord promised a land filled with his own descendants which would be as countless as the stars. Yet, in his own lifetime, Abraham didn’t have one square foot of the promised land that he could call his own. And, as for those countless descendants… he had one son.

But Abraham believed God… he trusted… and we can look back and see God’s overwhelming faithfulness to fulfill his promises!

This goes beyond just Abraham… think about the fact that there were Israelites who were born, lived, and died in the wilderness. They would have been told stories of how God had faithfully rescued them out of slavery to Egypt in the past… and they would be told stories of how God had promised to faithfully give them a land in the future… but many lived and died without ever actually seeing either of those things. They lived and died in the desert!

Many of us may feel like this is our own individual story… that we are living and dying in the desert. When we look at our individual story it may be hard to believe that God is faithful… and this is why we need to see the grand story of God’s faithfulness to his people!

Open Scripture… see that story… and see that you are included in it! That grand story of God’s faithfulness to his people IS the story of his faithfulness to you!

Has God been faithful? YES!

Will he be faithful? YES!

All of Sciprture reveals that he is faithful to his people… and his people includes you!

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

Hosea 7:13-16
On Sundays there will be no written devotional as the reading for that day also serves as the sermon text for Shades Valley Community Church. If you would like to listen to this morning’s sermon on Hosea 7:13-16 you may do so by clicking here.

John 12:37-43 (click here)
Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.”

Reflection
Doesn’t it feel like darkness is winning?

When you look at the world and all the ways in which God and the Gospel are rejected… can’t it feel like darkness is winning? Into such seeming hopelessness, John 12 breathes a word of hope through a difficult text in which it seems like people are doing nothing, but rejecting Jesus.

BUT, the people’s rejection hasn’t caught God off guard! His plan and purpose have not been thwarted. No… John says rewind the clock all the way to Isaiah 53 (700 years ago) and behold the plan of God already in place!

The suffering servant of Isaiah 53, who we know is Jesus… he would be despised and rejected by men, no matter how much the arm/power of the Lord was revealed through him. He would be pierced, crushed, chastised, wounded, oppressed, afflicted, and led like a lamb to slaughter!

But none of this thwarted the plan of God… it fulfilled it! Isaiah 53:10, “Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief…”As the people were rejecting, God was ruling!

Scripture teaches both of these things and holds them in tension! The people really reject Jesus and they are really responsible for that rejection… we are responsible for our rejection of Jesus! But at the same time, God is sovereignly ruling over all… he even rules over rejection!

Don’t cut that tension or you will end up in unbiblical places! And even worse… you will annihilate the only hope you have! If God does not rule, we have no hope! But if God does rule, then we have hope even when it looks like rejection is winning!

We see this truth displayed supremely in the cross! At the cross, rejection did not win… God ruled!

God is ruling over this rejection for his glory and your joy! For through his suffering on the cross, Jesus would bear our griefs, carry our sorrows, be pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities… his chastisement would bring us peace and by his stripes we would be healed!

Through his substitutionary death, Jesus would bear the wrath our sin deserved… so that, by faith in him, we might be reconciled to God and enjoy his glory forever!

That’s our Gospel hope and it happens because God rules over rejection! Is this your hope?

Oh, brothers and sisters… do not despair over the rejection of Jesus in our world, for God rules our world! Remember that the darkness of Good Friday gives way to the light of Easter Sunday. Sin will give way to salvation. Death will give way to life! This is our Gospel hope… God rules over all… even over rejection… for his glory… and our joy!

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