The Joy of Glory

Discovering endless joy in the boundless glory of God…

Tag: anger

April 4, 2015

Lent Devotional: Revelation 22:1-5

*This is the last devotional as this is the final day of the season of Lent. Thank you for taking this journey with me. Join us tomorrow for our Easter celebration at SVCC 10:30am. Everyone is invited to bring bread (no nuts) to place on the communion tables before the service. Also, don’t forget to bring flowers to place on the cross. I hope to see you tomorrow.

Revelation 22:1-5 (click here)
No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. (Revelation 22:3-5)

Reflection
No more night…no more darkness.

Today is Holy Saturday. You know…that day between Good Friday and Easter. We never think about this day. It had to be the darkest day of the disciples lives. Jesus was dead…in the ground, buried, not coming back, it is finished…dead.

At least that is how things looked from the disciples perspective.

And, if we’re honest, that is how things often look from our perspective. Our lives almost feel like one giant “Holy Saturday.” Jesus is “gone,” not really, but we cannot see him. And, we find ourselves living in a world covered in darkness. All seem hopeless.

At least that is how things look from our perspective.

But just like Christ had promised the disciples a resurrection…he has promised us a return. He will come again to banish darkness once and for all! Revelation 22 envisions an eternal day in which God himself is the unending light and there is no more night for the brightness of his glory never fades and never fails!

All things accursed will be dealt with, done, finished, gone…and all things made new. And, we shall know eternal joy in worship of him! Our long “Holy Saturday” will give way to an eternal Easter of sorts…for WE will see his face!

The one who has been hidden from our sight, will be the very light by which we see him in all his glory! We will see HIS face!

We WILL see his face! Think of it…can you even begin to imagine it…to fathom it…to grasp it! No matter the darkness we face within this world, we hold onto the promise of his return that is guaranteed by his resurrection. We hold onto the promise of that the night is temporary and the eternal light is coming to cast it out forever. We hold onto the greatest of all promises…

WE WILL SEE HIS FACE!

*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

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April 2, 2015

Lent Devotional: Revelation 6:9-11

Revelation 6:9-11 (click here)
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. (Revelation 6:9-11)

Reflection
When saints are martyred…where is God?

Is he absent? Is he far? Is he not in control? Questions flood our mind. Martyrdom is not something of the ancient past. The reality of its existence was shoved in the world’s face as 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians were brutally killed by ISIS.

The horrific reality is that such extreme persecution is much more prevalent than we would like to admit. Most of it is simply not filmed and distributed through the internet. Persecution, and yes, martyrdom are very real and present realities. This has always been the reality of the Church. We are a people who are “being killed all the day long…we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

Yet, I thought that if God was on our side, who could be against us? Where is God when Christians are being killed?

He is present. He is sovereign. He is victorious.

The simple truths seem impossible…but “impossible” happens to be our God’s specialty.

Jesus promised us that there would be persecution and death. Luke 21:16-18, “You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name’s sake.” Yet in the very next verse he makes this outrageous claim, “But not a hair of your head will perish.”

How can we be put to death, but not a hair of our head perish? Jesus is asserting his sovereignty over everything that happens to his followers and that he can make promises that are more powerful than death itself. There is no ultimate perishing for his followers.

This is what we see to be true in Revelation 6. Everyone who has experienced martyrdom cries out to God to fulfill all his promises, to vindicate them, to deal with evil and make all things new. They know God can do this because he is sovereign. They cry out, “O Sovereign Lord!”

They are told the promise will be fulfilled, but not until the number of martyrs is complete. God has sovereignly set a limit on the persecution of his church. He is totally in control and will not let our persecution last forever. That is a promise!

We are “being killed all the day long,” but we will not always be “regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” Those words come from the end of Romans 8 which goes on to promise that we are “more than conquerors through him who loved us.” It is this same chapter that claims, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

All of this victorious language in the face of persecution is rooted in an eternal perspective. Who can be against us and ultimately win? No one! Even if they put us to death, ultimately, not a hair on our head will perish…for God himself has rescued us from death through Christ! He will raise us all to eternal life with him!

God sovereignly allows the persecution of his saints in the present for through persecution we come to know him and make him known (more on how suffering accomplishes this here), but we have a promise that all persecution will end.

We will ultimately be called “more than conquerors” and those who have “overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony.” Even if it costs us our life’s breath, let us cling to Christ amidst any and all persecution…for Jesus won’t let physical death rob you of one hair on your future resurrected, glorified body.

That’s a promise from the sovereign King who is always present and in control.

*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

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April 1, 2015

Lent Devotional: 1 John 3:11-23

1 John 3:11-23 (click here)
We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. (1 John 3:14-16)

Reflection
How do you know that you love Jesus?

John seems to think that one of the greatest evidences of love for Christ is loving his Church! “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers.”

As if that statement weren’t strong enough…John goes on to say that the opposite is true. If we do not love our brothers and sisters in Christ, but harbor hatred, then we do not have eternal life abiding in us!

John’s logic is made air-tight by his closing argument. The very way in which we know what love is comes from having seen and embraced the glory of the cross where Christ laid down his life for us. If we’ve really seen that and really embraced that, then it becomes our operational definition of love…our love must look the same. Our love must look like a sacrifice of ourselves for others.

If we do not display such sacrificial love, then it must be because we have not embraced it!

John looks at the cross and says that we find ourselves either united with Christ on the cross, or united with those who put him there. We either embrace self-sacrificing love or hatred that is akin to murder. There is no third option.

We either lovingly accept nails piercing our hands and feet, or we bitterly beat them into others.

We either look like Christ, or we look like murders. We embrace love or hate.

If embracing such love sounds impossible…that’s because it is. This can only be done in the power provided by God. He must open our eyes to the glory of the cross so that our hearts may freely embrace the Jesus we finally behold.

He must empower us to live a cross-shaped life of love through faith. We pray for this, yearn for this, and long for this…until we can say with Saint Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

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