Tag: steadfast Love endures forever

2.k. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed

2 Chronicles 20:1  After this the Moabites and Ammonites, and with them some of the Meunites, came against Jehoshaphat for battle. Some men came and told Jehoshaphat, “A great multitude is coming against you from Edom, from beyond the sea; and, behold, they are in Hazazon-tamar” (that is, Engedi). Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. And Judah assembled to seek help from the Lord; from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord. And Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court, and said, “O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you. Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? And they have lived in it and have built for you in it a sanctuary for your name, saying, If disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before you—for your name is in this house—and cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save.’ And now behold, the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom you would not let Israel invade when they came from the land of Egypt, and whom they avoided and did not destroy— behold, they reward us by coming to drive us out of your possession, which you have given us to inherit. O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

Meanwhile all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, son of Benaiah, son of Jeiel, son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. And he said, “Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the Lord to you, Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God’s. Tomorrow go down against them. Behold, they will come up by the ascent of Ziz. You will find them at the end of the valley, east of the wilderness of Jeruel. You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the Lord will be with you.” Then Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. And the Levites, of the Kohathites and the Korahites, stood up to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice.

And they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. And when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be established; believe his prophets, and you will succeed.” And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the Lord and praise him in holy attire, as they went before the army, and say, “Give thanks to the Lord, for his steadfast love endures forever.” And when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed. For the men of Ammon and Moab rose against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, devoting them to destruction, and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they all helped to destroy one another.

Crying out to God in our affliction is not always something we do.  Sometimes the first thing we do is try to do is fix it ourselves.  Sometimes we ask others to help us.  And then sometimes we finally call out to Jesus Christ.  We have heard others who have said: “all I could do is pray”.  It is good when we get to a place where we realize we have no power in and of ourselves and we cry out to Jesus.  This should not be where we end up but rather where we start.  You see, running to Jesus is not the last resort option we fall back on to but rather a firm position we start with.

When crying out to Jesus is the last thing we do and not the first, there is more than likely a void of Him in our daily lives.  It is not as though we push Him out but rather we don’t invite Him in.  When we invite Him into every moment of every day He is the first thing on our heart, mind, and soul.  He is not an emergency “911” call number but rather an ever-present heavenly Father who is guiding, leading, directing, encouraging, and strengthening us.

When we start with self and end with a “911” call out to Jesus, He is not our all in all.  When He is where we start, we will not be calling out to a “911 emergency number” but rather we will be firmly holding on to the hand of Jesus Christ and maybe squeezing a little bit harder.  We will know His presence because that is where we choose to be “In His presence”, at all times, every moment, every day.

Walk through every moment of every day with the Word of God in your heart, mind, and soul, and with your hand firmly holding onto Jesus Christ in trusting reliance.

1.r. What is the Glory of God?

2 Chronicles 5:13  and it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord), and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the Lord, “For he is good,

for his steadfast love endures forever,” the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.

Exodus 40:35  And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.

Isaiah 6:1-4    In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.  Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.  And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

Ezekiel 10:4  And the glory of the LORD went up from the cherub to the threshold of the house, and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the LORD.

Revelation 15:8    and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power,

Psalms 19:1   The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.  Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.  There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.  Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.  Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

How do you define “The Glory of God”?

Thesaurus – praise, worship, adoration, veneration, honor, reverence, exaltation, homage, thanksgiving, thanks.

Dictionary – high renown or honor won by notable achievements, magnificence or great beauty, wonder, beauty, delight, marvel, phenomenon; sight, spectacle

John Piper – Defining the glory of God is impossible, I say because it is more like the word beauty than the word basketball. So if somebody says they have never heard of a basketball, they don’t know what a basketball is and they say: Define a basketball. That would not be hard for you to do.

You can’t do that with the word beauty. There are some words in our vocabulary which we can communicate with not because we can say them, but because we see them. We can point. If we point at enough things and see enough things together and say, “That’s it, that’s it, that’s it,” we might be able to have a common sense of beauty. But you try to put the word beauty into words, it would be very, very difficult

The same thing with the word glory. So how shall I do it? You have got to try because we can’t just leave it for people to fill up on their own. So here is the way I am going to try to do it. I am going to take it and contrast it biblically with the word holy and ask, “What is the difference between the holiness of God and the glory of God.” In doing that, I think we get a little handle on the nature of this term, the glory of God. So that is the way I am going to try to do it.

The holiness of God is, I think, his being in a class by himself in his perfection and greatness and worth. His perfection and his greatness and his worth are of such a distinct and separate category—we have been taught that holy means separate—that he is in a class by himself. He has infinite perfections, infinite greatness, and infinite worth.

His holiness is what he is as God that nobody else is. It is his quality of perfection that can’t be improved upon, that can’t be imitated, that is incomparable, that determines all that he is and is determined by nothing from outside him. It signifies his infinite worth, his intrinsic, infinite worth, his intrinsic, infinite value.

Now when Isaiah 6:3 says that angels are crying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty” — the next thing they say is this — “The whole earth is full of his” — and you might have expected him to say holiness. And he doesn’t say holiness. He says glory.

Intrinsically holy, intrinsically holy, and the whole earth is full of his glory from which I stab at a definition by saying the glory of God is the manifest beauty of His holiness. It is the going public of his holiness. It is the way he puts his holiness on display for people to apprehend. So the glory of God is the holiness of God made manifest.

Paul Trip – For any human being to think that they could capture the glory of God in a single artistic statement is delusional at best and vain at worst. To squeeze what is infinite into what is finite is vastly more impossible than trying to cram the entire body of the fully-developed elephant into a thimble. No matter how gifted you are or how hard you try, it just won’t happen!

No single drawing, painting, photograph, or verbal description could ever capture glory. Glory isn’t so much a thing as it is a description of a thing. Glory isn’t a part of God; it’s all that God is. Every aspect of who God is and every part of what God does is glorious. But even that’s not enough of a description.

People are glory-oriented creatures. Animals are not. People are attracted to glorious things, whether it’s an exciting drama or sports game, an enthralling piece of music or the best meal ever. Animals live by instinct and exist to survive. We live with a glory hardwiring and chase bigger and better things.

God built this glory orientation into us; it’s not sinful or against God’s will to be attracted to glorious things. Because of this glory orientation, our lives will always be shaped by the pursuit of some kind of glory. You and I will always be chasing something to satisfy the glory hunger that God designed for us to live with.

God intentionally placed us in a world jam-packed with glory. From trees to flowers to mountains; from mashed potatoes to steak to lemonade; from thunderstorms to sunsets to snowfalls – all of these things were designed by God to tingle our glory sensors. But, it’s important to understand that every created glory is meant by God to function as a spiritual GPS that points us to the only glory that will ever satisfy our hearts, the glory of God.

Imagine taking a family vacation to Disney World, and 30 miles out, you spot a sign on the side of the road with the logo and name of the resort. It would be silly to stop at the sign and have your family vacation on the side of the road! So it is with the glory of God in creation – it’s only a sign, directing you to the source. Don’t stop at the sign.

If there exists within each of us a hunger for glory, then one could argue that everything we think, desire, say and do is done out of a quest for glory. We all want what is glorious in our lives – whether that’s the fleeting glorious pleasure of a meal, the glory of recognition by peers or supervisors, or participating in the glorious work of the Kingdom of God here on earth.

Where we chase after glory can vary, but one thing is for certain: this hunger for glory will never ever be satisfied by created things. Even if you could experience the most glorious situations, locations, relationships, experiences, achievements or possessions in this life, your heart still would not be satisfied. Creation has no capacity whatsoever to bring contentment to your heart. Only God can satiate our hunger, and in satiating our hunger, give peace and rest to our hearts.