The Joy of Glory

Ezra 9:6-15 (click here)
And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have given us such a remnant as this, shall we break your commandments again and intermarry with the peoples who practice these abominations? Would you not be angry with us until you consumed us, so that there should be no remnant, nor any to escape? O LORD, the God of Israel, you are just, for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is today. Behold, we are before you in our guilt, for none can stand before you because of this. (Ezra 9:13-15)

Reflection
“I’m stuck!”

I remember four-year-old Levi calling out those words in the middle of a restaurant. He had stuck his pointer finger through the slits in the lid of his cup… you know the ones cut for a straw to poke through. The real problem was that the lid was made of hard plastic, thus it was extremely inflexible.

I only had two options. Cut the lid to get his finger our… or pull really hard, knowing his finger would get cut in the process.

Have I told you that I’m a horrible parent? I chose the latter option.

Tears ensued, but I thought, “Hey… at least he won’t do it again… lesson learned.” Yeah… I still had a lot to learn about children.

“I’m stuck!”

You guessed it… he did it again. After all the pain he had been through the first time around, you would think he would have learned… but here he was again… stuck and in need of saving from his father.

In the book of Ezra, the Israelites look a lot like four-year-old Levi. Because of their sinful rebellion, God has sent them into exile. They got stuck in their sin and God pulled them out of their land… and it was painful.

But now… a remnant has returned and begun to rebuild. Surely they would not make the same mistake again. Yeah… I have a lot to learn about the hearts of people.

“I’m stuck!”

You guessed it… the Israelites rebelled again. This time by intermarrying with pagan peoples. The problem was not a race issue, but a sin issue. God had told them not to intermarry with people who did not share their faith in the one true God, for such marriages would surely lead them astray. And they did. And here they were again, stuck in their sin.

How often is this us? How fickle and prone to wander can our hearts be? We know the pain that sin brings, and yet time and time again… I know that I go in for a repeat of the hurt. I find myself crying out, “I’m stuck!”

But the good news of the Gospel is that we have a father who is not a horrible parent! We have a loving father, who sent his son to take on the pain of our sin in our place. He did so in the power of the Holy Spirit… and our triune God saved us from all our sin… with all its repetition… it all fell on him!

And now he empowers us in the fight against sin by the very same Spirit that empowered Jesus to and through the cross! Romans 8:11, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

We are no longer stuck! We’ve been set free, and now we are empowered to live free! Today… when you face temptations to run back into sin… trust in the Spirit that lives in you and be empowered to walk, not in sin, but in freedom. Fight sin by the power of the Spirit!

May the cry our heart transform from “I’m stuck” to “I’m free!”

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

2 Kings 17:6-18 (click here)
And the people of Israel did secretly against the LORD their God things that were not right…

…They went after false idols and became false… (2 Kings 17:9a and 15b)

Reflection
You are what you eat.

I heard that somewhere growing up, and I’m not even 100% certain what it’s supposed to mean. I guess it means something along the lines of “If you eat healthy, you’ll be healthy” and vice versa… and that makes sense as a general principle.

In other words, a more accurate version of the phrase would be “You’ll be like what you eat,” but that’s not as catchy. Still, we all get the point… what you put into your body will have a literal shaping effect on what your body becomes. How much more so with your soul?! For…

You are what you worship!

Now I don’t mean that if you worship a false god you become a false god any more than if you worship the one, true God you turn into God! That’s the equivalent of thinking if you eat apples you’ll turn into an apple. No. “You are what you worship” means something similar to “you are what you eat,” namely, that “You’ll be like what you worship.” What your soul consumes shapes you!

Worship has a shaping effect on the soul. If you worship wealth, it will shape all your wants, hopes and dreams. If you worship sex, it will control your pursuits, desires, and goals. If you worship ______________ (fill in the blank) it will shape your soul… the heart of who you are!

You are what you worship.

2 Kings 17 describes the horrible downfall of the nation of Israel, and it was all rooted in their worship. Verse 9 declares, “…They went after false idols and became false…”

They became what they went after. They valued what these false gods valued. They based life on what these false gods claimed life was all about. They consumed everything false… and they became false. Psalm 135:15-18, “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see; they have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them.” (see also Psalm 115:4-8 and Isaiah 44:9)

You are what you worship.

BUT… this doesn’t have to be bad news! For, we can pursue the one true God, through his Son Jesus Christ, by the power of his Holy Spirit. Through the Gospel, the triune God has made worshiping him possible as the only, ultimate satisfaction of our souls! It is the only thing that will shape our souls according to reality… that will shape us truly into what we were made to be, therefore bringing satisfaction in him!

2 Corinthians 3:18, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

So, let us worship the only one who is real, true, and beautiful! Let us worship the only one who is great, good, and glorious! Let us worship the only God, beside whom there is no other! Let us worship the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… for…

You are what you worship!

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

1 Kings 11:1-13 (click here)
For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. (1 Kings 11:4)

Reflection
Complacent.

If we are honest, it is so easy to become complacent. I can fall into complacency so quickly as a husband and a father. I’ll think to myself that I do a good job pursuing my wife and playing with my kids… so it won’t matter if today I’m lazy after work and take this one day for just me.

And one day turns into two. Two becomes three. And before I know it… complacency has taken me so far from where I began.

This was the slippery slope that King Solomon slid down in his latter days. It was “when he was old” that his wives turned his heart away from the Lord. He had been so faithful throughout his life! I mean head built the temple, poured out wisdom from on high, and reigned over Israel in unprecedented peace.

And complacency set in as he let one foreign bride after another bring her gods into his home. Before long, he was occasionally going through her worship practices alongside her… you know… just to be a good husband.

By the time all was said and done, the man who had once built the temple of God was building worship sites for nearly any god he was told existed.

None of this was the fault of his wives! We don’t even have time to talk about Solomon’s folly for practicing polygamy, but the text places responsibility for Solomon’s sin squarely on his shoulders alone, and God holds him accountable!

He had become complacent… where it counted the most!

And this can be so easy for us as well! Especially if we have been walking with the Lord for a long time and are entering our “Old age” as a believer. We can so easily think, “What does it matter if I don’t pray for one day… or skip reading my Bible… or worshiping together with other believers?”

And one day turns into two. Two becomes three. And before I know it… complacency has taken me so far from where I began.

I’m not promoting some kind of legalism in which I aim to shame you for not reading your Bible or attending church enough! Not at all! I’m aiming at a love relationship where you passionately pursue the Lord through the means he has given you because you don’t want to become complacent… you want to be connected!

If we are honest, it is so easy to become complacent… especially where it counts the most… in our relationship with Christ.

Let’s all say death to complacency today! Death to complacency right now! In this moment, through this word… let’s all pursue closer connection with Christ!

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