The Glory of God

I remember reading about some famous mathematician who tells of how, as a child, he agonised over knowing what a number is. He could not get his head around the concept of a number. He quite obviously “got it” at some point but for years it rendered mathematics literally painful for him because of his lack of understanding.

For me the concept of God’s glory has been similar in nature. The Bible, from front to back speaks of God’s glory. But what does that mean? His glory this. His glory that. What is His glory? For years I couldn’t get it.

At minimum God’s glory means His transcendence over all finite reality. For example, God is transcendent over life and death. He is not bound by them. God’s glory is everything that makes Him unique. He is perfect. He is infinite and self-existent. He is unchanging. He is utterly superior in every aspect. He is the definition of grace and mercy and forgiveness and justice and love. For God IS love. That is the glory of God.

God has not promised skies always blue, flower-strewn pathways all our lives through; God has not promised sun without rain, joy without sorrow, peace without pain. But God has promised strength for the day, rest for the labour, light for the way, grace for the trials, help from above, unfailing sympathy, undying love.
Kristone

The Atheist’s Standard

A sceptic asked, “How could a loving God eternally punish someone as good as me?”

I’m pretty sure he wasn’t joking.

What he needs to be asking is, “What kind of Love, what kind of Mercy, what kind of Grace does this God possess that causes Him to reach out and save for eternity in paradise the worst individuals who have ever been born, and all they have to do to receive this salvation is agree with their Creator that they need His forgiveness, justification and sanctification?”

This repentence of course is something that "good" atheists are unwilling to do. Even though pride will land them in hell, it's considered a positive trait among atheists.

In reality none of our efforts are “good.” None of our efforts are completely free of corrupted self-love. As has been described, our best deeds are little more than dressed-up sins. Atheists of course disagree. The Bible describes our "good" deeds as used tampons.

In light of that, some atheist named Joseph Hanson has taken the “Am I Good?” test that Ray Comfort uses when people say that they’re so good God should be thrilled to have them in heaven. Not surprisingly, Hanson found out that, “Yes indeed I am good.” How did he arrive at that conclusion? Well, the same as any other atheist. He threw out the existing rules and definitions, and then made up new ones as he went along.

That shouldn’t surprise. As Hugo says “Everybody does it.”

For example:
. Hanson took issue with the idea that if you tell lies, then you are a liar. Not so says the atheist. In atheist-world you have to tell A LOT of lies before you’re a liar. He keeps the exact number that constitutes “a lot” to himself, but you can bet it’s at least one less than the number that he’s told.

. Hanson took issue with the idea that lust / adultery is bad. Wanting to cheat on your spouse and think about having sex with the partner of someone else, “Is just being human.” And, as we know, in atheist-world, if most of the people think it’s a good thing, then it is a good thing.

. Hanson takes issue with the idea that stealing makes you a thief. Like his views on lying, to Hanson thieves are people who steal more than he has stolen and more frequently than he steals

Isn’t that precious? Like I said, or more correctly like Hugo has said, Joe Hanson agrees that this is how all right and wrong is decided. You create your own standard of morality, making sure that you sit just above the cutoff line and then - ta da! - you declare yourself to be a good person.

Joseph Hanson concludes, “I’m not a Christian, but I live my life in a good way.”

Absolutely, and he would make as good a friend as any atheist alive. As long as you don’t mind a friend who feels ok about lying to you from time to time (but not too often), fantasising about having sex with your spouse (I don’t think there’s any limit on that one) and stealing from you only the things that he defines as small and according to his idea of not too often.

Be a Dad

My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say,

“You’re tearing up the grass,” and dad would reply,

“We’re not raising grass. We’re raising boys.”

Life affords no greater responsibility, no greater privilege, than the raising of the next generation.
C. Everett Koop

“Then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elder; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing.” (Revelation 5:11,12).

It makes me smile when I hear sceptics talking about how boring heaven will be.
Sitting on clouds
Playing harps
Boring!

They complain that we’ll have to praise God all the time, as if that is something awful.

Small minds have small dreams. Dreading praising one’s Creator shows just how far sceptics are right now from living life to the full.

God assures us that heaven will be neither boring nor will it entail lying around. We get glimpses of heaven during our lives on earth. For example, I sometimes find myself holding back from thanking God at bedtime because of where it leads. When my soul interacts with the very Spirit of the living God, I often find myself awake for hours with indescribable joy as thankfulness wells up. A peace that is beyond description settles upon me and a love that is supernatural envelops me. And that is from an imperfect knowledge of my Lord and King. When I am in His very presence, when I know Him as He is, in all His splendour and glory and power, well, it’s no wonder that praise in heaven is unceasing.

Human nature is such that Ayn Rand is thought to possess wisdom. If she tells us that the more we focus on ourselves the more happiness we’ll experience, then it makes sense to us. In the West we actually believe that our goal should be a retirement with enough money to allow us to do whatever we want, when ever we want it. This is our picture of paradise.

It’s actually called paradise.

It’s a lie.

A focus on self does not bring real life and real living. It doesn’t bring anything more than momentary happiness.

Instead, we were created to devote ourselves to meet the needs of other people, even when it doesn’t make any “evolutionary” sense to do so.

Heaven On Earth

While God’s revelation to us of Himself is the best thing that can ever happen to us, unbelief and rejection of our Creator is the worst thing that can happen to a person. Ruined lives, destroyed relationships, fear, addictions, stress, rage, all these and more stem from a broken relationship with our Saviour.

Telling your Creator that He is a liar, that He can’t be trusted, that He is not worthy of our love is to commit spiritual suicide.

“But then I won’t be able to do what I want!”

Well, no, not at first you won’t. But this I can tell you with absolute certainty. Doing what God wants instead of what we want will bring more joy and peace and security to your life than any amount getting your own way. In fact, this is so true that one day, you will only want what God wants and you’ll ignore what your old self wants at any point that it disagrees with God’s commands.

The only thing standing between you and paradise on earth is your will being in conflict with God’s will.

The only things worse than experiencing the difficulties that come with living in a fallen world is to go through these trials as an enemy of your Creator.