The Joy of Glory

Leviticus 19:17-18
“You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.”

Reflection
Can we really be commanded to love?

Doesn’t love lie outside of our control? Isn’t it more of an emotional response that just bubbles up out of the heart? Or… have do we have the concept of love wrong altogether? Perhaps it has nothing to do with affection but is rooted in action no matter what one is feeling. At least then it would make sense that we could be commanded to love. And yet, something about the concept of love having nothing to do with affection just seems wrong.

That’s because it is.

Love absolutely involves affections which do result in actions. This is a both/and situation, not an either/or.

And, God does not hesitate to command us to love! He does not hesitate to command us not to hate! God commands everything about us, even our affections!

How can we possibly obey such commands?

The simple answer is that we cannot. We cannot turn love and hate off and on like flipping a light switch. These things bubble up out of the depths of our heart, which we cannot change no matter how much we try! We need our hearts to be transformed in order for our affections to be transformed. Only God himself can transform a heart!

This is why Saint Augustine said, “Lord, command what you will and grant what you command!” He recognized that we cannot obey the commands of God (like the command to love him and our neighbor) unless God empowers us to obey.

We do not naturally possess the ability to love our neighbors as our ourselves. That is the way that God loves. We need him to pour out his love in our hearts. We need his love abiding in us so that we may love with his love!

Are you abiding in his love? Dear Christian, he has promised to empower you to do so. Pray, seek, depend… abide… and see if your heart is not transformed to love with the very love of God.
*All previous devotionals may be found at www.thejoyofglory.com
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

Each day of the Lenten season, I will be emailing out a devotional to many of the members of SVCC. I will also be sharing these devos via www.thejoyofglory.com

These are designed to accompany the SVCC Lenten reading guide which may be found here: 2018 Lenten Reading Guide

In these devotionals I will give a link that will take you to the entire reading for the day if you would like to read it. I will actually include a few of the verses upon which I will focus my reflections. In the reflection section I will make a few brief comments which I hope will spur your own thinking and prayers.

Lent is meant to be a season of repentance and fasting that prepares our hearts for the coming celebration of Easter (fuller explanation here). Repentance is a reminder that we need to be saved from our sin…we need a Savior. Fasting reminds us that we are not in need of the things this world offers, but in desperate need of Jesus. So, the point of Lent is that we need Jesus…we need Easter. It is my prayer that these daily devotionals will simply help remind us of our daily need for Christ.

Exodus 15 11-18 (click here)
“Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them. You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.”

“You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain, the place, O LORD, which you have made for your abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established. The LORD will reign forever and ever.” (Exodus 15:11-13 and 17-18)

Reflection
Do you journal?

I’m not asking if you are a faithful journaler, chronicling your everyday existence. I wish I was that consistent, but I do make occasional attempts at recording particular events. I have found journaling to be particularly helpful when the Lord has worked in my life in a way that cannot be denied. This practice has proven to be beneficial because I am such a forgetful creature.

We are forgetful creatures.

God will work in my life in some amazing way, but within a matter of weeks or days (or even shorter) I find myself living as if he had never acted at all. Is this not a reality repeated to us throughout the story of the Exodus? God saved his people out of the land of Egypt to lead them to a land he had promised them as a home. Yet, along the difficult journey they constantly forgot the deeds of the Lord.

This is why Scripture constantly calls God’s people to remember what he has done! In Exodus 15, God’s people are directed towards his glorious deeds he performed in redeeming them and guiding them. This looking back is meant to stir up faith amidst their difficult journey so that they may have confidence concerning the future they have been promised… that God himself will plant them in the land he promised them. They will dwell there in the presence of the Lord as he reigns forever.

When I find myself amidst life’s most difficult days, it is helpful to flip back in my journal and read my own words about God’s past faithfulness. It’s as if “past me” is preaching to “present me” to trust that the Lord is faithful and will bring me all the way home to enjoy his presence forever! The past deeds of the Lord stir up my faith in the present and gives me confidence concerning the future.

In what ways has God been faithful to you in the past? Perhaps you should write it down. Do a bit of journaling so that when the days are dark you can remind yourself that God has been faithful and will be faithful forever.

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

*Last night, at our annual SVCC family meeting, I briefly reflected on 2017. Below are the thoughts I shared in the form of a letter.

My Dearest Shades Valley,

With each passing year, Holly and I feel the Lord sinking our roots deeper into this community. It is still my prayer that Shades will be the only church I ever pastor. To that end, Holly and I recently purchased a new house that we hope will be our forever home. We are sinking our roots deep and not just geographically, but relationally. As you know, at the end of 2017, we found out we are expecting our fifth child…another little boy. This means that more than half of our children will have been born during our days at Shades, and you are helping to raise all of them! You are their family. You are our family. And, we are daily in awe that God has graced us with you. We continue to sink our roots deeper into this community because this community has sunk its roots deep into us.

Shades is a place with deep roots which have a way of digging into your heart, grabbing hold, and never letting go. I believe this is so because of the ultimate ground in which we, as a church, are rooted… the ground of the Gospel. And, we will only continue to be the community God has created us to be if our roots remain in the Gospel. Therefore, it is vital that we constantly remind ourselves of how everything we do is rooted in the glory of Jesus. This is why, at Shades, we talk about four roots or four ways that we dig down into the glory of Christ: Worship, Serving, Community and Mission. And, just like my family’s roots have pushed down deeper into Shades this year, I believe that we, as a faith family, have pushed our four roots down deeper into Christ in 2017. Let me mention just a few ways, not to brag on us but to boast in God’s grace, for all we do is empowered by being rooted in him.

So… in 2017, we sank the root of Worship ever deeper into the Word as we continued our journey through the Gospel of John. We also spent the Lenten season digging into what it means to be a cruciform community; and, through the Word, God continued to conform us to the cross of Christ. He has also shaped us through music as our worship team has kept on writing new songs that ever put the praise of Jesus on our lips. Rumor has it that pretty soon you may be able to carry a couple of these songs with you wherever go. Deeper still the root of worship grew as our art’s ministry hosted “The Feast.” They led us to worship Jesus through the symbolism of Passover via all sorts of artistic mediums. So, whether in word, song, or art, all our worship has and will continue to aim at rooting us in Christ.

Likewise, the root of Serving grew in 2017. I cannot possibly list all the ways you volunteer and sacrifice yourselves for one another, and your serving continues to grow year after year. Two examples from 2017 of new serving ministries come to mind. First, Shades of Motherhood has reached out to serve moms within and beyond our community. It has been amazing to hear testimonies of how so many have been cared for and encouraged through times of celebration and mourning. Second, the WRAP ministry has engendered a new awareness in our body concerning the needs of adoptive and foster families. Further, they continue to enlist new volunteers to help met these needs. All of this is happening from the bottom up, not the top down. These ministries haven’t been designed, planned, and executed by the staff. No. God’s people, you, have answered the call to take all you’ve been equipped with and use it to serve one another, pointing each other to Christ. Your serving roots us deeper in Jesus.

Now, the root of Community grew like a weed with incredible speed in 2017. I’m not even going to guess how many children were born among us last year, but it is an observable fact that our nursery is buried in babies. We are literally making disciples! And, there is no sign this multiplication will slow down any time soon, for we also had an abundance of weddings in 2017 (including our own discipleship pastor…finally). All joking aside, last year the Lord added to our community through new community groups, new leaders, and new partnerships with other Homewood churches. We shared in Lenten devotionals and a Reformation celebration with brothers and sisters from across our city; and, I believe, the Lord is going to use this unity more and more for the spread of the Gospel. The purpose, the root of our community is Christ!

And finally, if all our worship, serving, and community are rooted in the glory of Jesus then our Mission must be also! We are a people who long for Christ’s glory to be known from Birmingham to the ends of the earth. And, last year our root of mission dug down as we saw new believers come to faith and be baptized. It dug down through the West Homewood Farmer’s Market continuing to connect with the surrounding neighborhood. It dug down through sending a hurricane relief team to Florida and a mission team to Cambodia. It dug down through the commissioning of people out from our body to domestic as well as Global mission. And it continues to dig down as we persevere in prayer for the Lord to raise up more laborers for his harvest. We have been and must continue to be a people whose mission is rooted in the glory of Jesus!

So, Shades…in 2018, let’s sink our roots even deeper! Through all our worship, serving, community, and mission let’s delve into the infinite depths of Jesus. Let’s go into the world in peace, having courage, holding on to what is good, honoring all men, strengthening the faint-hearted, supporting the weak, helping the suffering, and sharing the Gospel. Let’s love and serve the Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit, knowing that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is with us all. Let’s sink our roots deeper into the glory of Jesus because he has sunk the roots of his love deep into us.

I love you all,

Jonathan