JANUARY 8

OUR PERSONAL PROMISES

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Isaiah 42:8

“I am the Lord, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images.”

Ps 115:1-8

“Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,

But to Your name give glory,

Because of Your mercy,

Because of Your truth.

Why should the Gentiles say,

“So where is their God?”

But our God is in heaven;

He does whatever He pleases.

Their idols are silver and gold,

The work of men’s hands.

They have mouths, but they do not speak;

Eyes they have, but they do not see;

They have ears, but they do not hear;

Noses they have, but they do not smell;

They have hands, but they do not handle;

Feet they have, but they do not walk;

Nor do they mutter through their throat.

Those who make them are like them;

So is everyone who trusts in them.”

Matthew 16:27

“For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.”

Matthew 25:31

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.”

Psalm 24:1

“The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein.”

Psalm 29:2

“Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name; Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.”

Psalm 29:9

The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth, And strips the forests bare; And in His temple everyone says, “Glory!”

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This month we’re reading  the new devotional   “Becoming New”,  written by  Warren W. Wiersbe and compiled by his grandson.  Pastor Wiersbe was the President of Moody Bible Institute before the current President, Erwin Lutzer.  

THE GLORY OF GOD

Read Exodus 40:34-38 and Psalm 19

God created the universe to display His glory, but sinful humans “exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.”  (Romans 1:23).

Humans worshipped the very creatures over which they were to have dominion and “traded the truth about God for a lie.” (Romans 1:25).  In the Greek text that verse more accurately reads “for THE lie,” which is worshipping and serving creation and not the Creator.  Satan has always wanted to be worshipped, and He receives this worship when people worship idols or anything else that takes the place of God.  Idols are not just small statues or images on a shelf.  We can have idols in our minds and imaginations as well…..and these are even more common.

Everything about God is glorious, but He is glorified most when He is transforming people and situations in ways nobody else could match.

 GOD’S GLORY IS THE BRILLIANCE REFLECTED BY ALL HIS PERFECTIONS AND THE HONOR GIVEN HIM FOR HIS WISE AND GRACIOUS PLAN OF SALVATION.

Idols have no transforming power, except to make people worse as they become like the false gods they worship. (Ps 115:1-8) 

 Many people worship money and depend on it to provide goods and services, but money has no perfections and cannot of itself build character or change situations.  The first request in the Lord’s Prayer is that the name of God be honored.  This means we must not ask for anything that, if granted, would not glorify the Lord.  God is glorified most when He does remarkable things that we cannot understand.  We used to say at Youth for Christ, “If you can explain what’s going on, God didn’t do it!”

Other nations in Israel’s time had sanctuaries, priests, sacrifices, and rituals BUT ONLY THE JEWISH TEMPLE IN JERUSALEM WAS INDWELT BY THE GLORY OF GOD!   When Moses dedicated the tabernacle, God’s glory moved in and when Solomon dedicated the temple, God’s glory moved in.  Whatever blessings we seek from the Lord, the most important one is that He be glorified in all that we have, are, and do.

God is glorified when His Son is honored, and Jesus is honored when His people say and do what makes Him look great, like He is!  Paul called this “Christ….magnified in the body.”(Phil 1:20). 

People think Jesus is “small” in this world compared to athletic stars and movie celebrities, so let’s be like  microscopes that make Him look closer to His real SIZE!  They also think He is far away in the past, so let’s be like telescopes that bring Him closer.  We are like a lens and the cleaner we are, the better they will be able to see our Lord.

Jesus sets the example:  “I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave Me to do.” (John 17:4)  There is work for us to do,  let’s complete it for His glory!

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