By Charles and Frances

God has displayed His Glory in multitudes of ways throughout all ages of this earth.

The rainbow of promise from God to His creation is spread across the sky as a showcase of His beautiful glory. All people of all ages since the first rainbow was ever placed in the sky by God have watched His glory exhibited with a feeling produced by something majestic, sublime, beautiful, awesome! We recognize God in His creation!

When we see the sky filled with lightning flashes, and hear the thunder of his power we stand in awe! God is reminding us of His power and His glory!

When we see the wonders of the color, the variety, the created beauty of His flowers and vegetations placed upon this earth for the pleasure of His people, we see the glory of God paraded before our very eyes. God shows off for His people, and we are blessed to be His people! Oh, how much love and tender care and concern He has for all of us, even for those who do not love Him back.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). God presented His greatest beauty, His greatest love before us as He sent His royal Son to become one of us so that we could be one of His royalty.

What a mighty God we serve. Why would anyone not want to release total control of their lives into the loving hands of such a God as He?

We know of no greater way to describe God and His glory than to go directly to His Word. As we look at the description God gave of Himself and His works and power in Job, chapters 38 and 39, we see evidence of His greatness.

But even as we see His creation, His goodness to us, we can only finally get a glimpse of His glory when we read what Jesus said to His Father, to our Father, in the seventeenth chapter of John. Because it is so beautifully paraphrased in The Living Bible, we want you to read it again as we have, and see God’s glory!

“When Jesus had finished saying all these things he looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the time has come. Reveal the GLORY of your Son so that he can give the GLORY back to you. For you have given him authority over every man and woman in all the earth. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him. And this is the way to have eternal life--by knowing you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth! I brought GLORY to you here on earth by doing everything you told me to. And now, Father, reveal my GLORY as I stand in your presence, the GLORY we shared before the world began.

“I have told these men all about you. They were in the world, but then you gave them to me. Actually, they were always yours, and you gave them to me; and they have obeyed you. Now they know that everything I have is a gift from you, for I have passed on to them the commands you gave me; and they accepted them and know of a certainty that I came down to earth from you, and they believe you sent me.

“My plea is not for the world but for those you have given me because they belong to you. And all of them, since they are mine, belong to you; and you have given them back to me with everything else of yours, and so THEY ARE MY GLORY! Now I am leaving the world, and leaving them behind, and coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your own care -- all those you have given me -- so that they will be united just as we are, with none missing. During my time here I have kept safe within your family all of these you gave me. I guarded them so that not one perished, except the son of hell, as the Scriptures foretold.

“And now I am coming to you. I have told them many things while I was with them so that they would be filled with my joy. I have given them your commands. And the world hates them because they don ‘fit in with it, just as I don ‘t. I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from Satan ‘S power. They are not part of this world any more than I am. Make them pure and holy through teaching them your words of truth. As you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world, and I consecrate myself to meet their need for growth in truth and holiness.

“I am not praying for these alone but also for the future believers who will come to me because of the testimony of these. My prayer for all of them is that they will be of one heart and mind, just as you and I are, Fat her -- that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us, and the world will believe you sent me.

“I have given them the GLORY you gave me -- the GLORIOUS unity of being one, as we are -- I in them and you in me, all being perfected into one--so that the world will know you sent me and will understand that you love them as much as you love me. Father, I want them with me -- these you’ve given me -- so that they can see my GLORY. You gave me the GLORY because you loved me before the world began!

“O righteous Father, the world doesn’t know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. And I have revealed you to them, and will keep on revealing you so that the mighty love you have for me may be in them, and I in them.

Probably the greatest earthly glory ever seen is in the miracle of the birth of a child. When God created man and woman and gave this ability for the man to plant a seed containing a human life into the womb of a woman, He was displaying his glory in creation.

The very greatest glory ever seen on earth was when Jesus came to earth as a human being. Then God continued displaying His glory by placing a portion of Himself into the spirit of man when His seed, His sperm, His life is planted into the spirit of man - His seed being Jesus. When we are born again by the Spirit of God, we actually do have Jesus, the seed, the life of God, in us. That is truly the greatest miracle we will ever see on earth, and that is God’s glory.

CHAPTER 19

THE PLOWMAN

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14