Kingdom Seeker

God's choice

For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. - Jesus (Matthew 5:45 ESV)

On our vacation trip, we witnessed this marvelous image somewhere in Arizona.  There is rain and sun originating from one sky.   I imagine many are scrambling to stay dry while others, miles away, are basking in the sunlight. One sky, two perspectives, on source, one God.

Then on our way home, we saw this.

Rain on the right, rain on the left, smoke from a wildfire in the middle. We prayed the rainclouds would hover over the fire, but as far as we could tell, it never did.

Many questions arise regarding the sovereignty of God. He is powerful enough to create rain, enough rain to flood the entire earth, and certainly enough to douse a fire that is but a tiny candle beneath His feet.  Yet he does not. Not this time.  We believe He's powerful. We believe He's good. We know He's good because these rain clouds are healing someones parched land. We don't know what good, if any, this fire is accomplishing. So far in the distance, we are unable to know if someone is losing their home, their memories. We don't know if a farmer is losing his crop, his business. We also don't know if this fire is sweeping away an unknown pestilence which brings longer term grief. 

We're confident this fire-ravaged land was once the recipient of healing rainwater and sunlight and perhaps the rain soaked land itself once experienced flames.  In this life we may never know what God is accomplishing with this rain and fire.  For eternity, the echoes of "where were you?" might ring as an incessant salve to our souls.  But denying His supreme sovereignty on this side, without the benefit of His vision, is not an option.  Thankfully, mercifully,  I don't have to choose between his sovereignty and His love.  I don't have to choose how God's will is accomplished.  It's God's choice. His alone.

Spur

If you attend church, let it spur you to attend to the church.

If you tithe, let it spur you to give your life away.

If you preach, let it spur you to truthful living.

If you bow your head and close your eyes as someone else prays, let it spur you to live humbly and reverently.

If you partake of communion, let it spur you to commune with the Father minute by minute.

If you were baptized, let it spur you to shine your light before men.

If you raise your hands during the music, let it spur you to a life of surrender.

If you serve in organized ministries, let it spur you to spend quality time with the broken and oppressed.

If you receive a blessing on Sundays, let it spur you to be a blessing everyday.

Primed for Growth

About a month ago my wife asked me to paint the bathroom.  I did not disagree with this notion as the unattractive wallpaper that had been there since we moved in 14 years ago was beginning to peel and reveal an even uglier wallpaper underneath.  The bathroom is small so I figured that it was time to "knock it out" in a couple of days.  As most of my friends know, I am not a painter.  I don't have the patience required and usually hire the job out to the professionals.  This time, however, I decided it was time to take matter into my own hands. I was going to do this! 

I soon discovered that very few home projects are as simple as slapping paint on the walls.  I had to research what to do with the wallpaper.  It came down to a choice between peeling it off or painting over it.  Either way, neither option can be done easily in a couple minutes. Once I started the process of painting this bathroom, I learned very quickly that this was not going to happen overnight.  I discovered that it takes oil based primer to seal the wallpaper from the wet joint compound we were going to apply to the wall.   I also learned that I needed a water based latex primer to go on top of the texturized compound so that the paint would not be absorbed by the compound and lose it's sheen.  It's the sheen of the paint that makes the wall look beautiful in the end and while I hate all the steps involved in painting a wall, I know that they are important in achieving the look I want.

This experience is such a parallel to the spiritual journey God has me on right now.  I know God brought me and my family to The Village Church for a very important purpose.  I am his project. 

God understands what it takes to create His likeness in a human soul.  He did not leave it up to me to complete this project.  The natural response is to slap paint on the walls of my soul with religiosity and good works and bypass the necessary steps.  Let's face it, primer and joint compound are boring. Paint is exciting!  No one goes to the home improvement store to "pick' out their primer.  When we choose paint, we  are choosing color.  We are looking for fresh, new, and exciting.  It is the paint that catches our eye and stirs our senses when we walk in to a freshly painted room.  But as professionals will tell you, every element beneath the paint has a big impact on how the paint adheres and how it ultimately looks. 

The Christian faith is very much like painting a room, but our fallen nature would prefer to bypass the gospel primer and exchange it for the sheen of self-help.  We want to have stronger marriages and manage our finances better, but as my pastor Matt Chandler has said, "We want his stuff, but not Him."  Very few are interested in the foundational work that must be done.  No one wants their ugliness exposed and peeled away.  No one really wants to pay the price of reconciliation and repentance.  They want pure hearts but are not willing to let the surgeon's scalpel circumcise their hearts. In short, most people do not want the gospel. 

There is no shortcut to being conformed to the image of Christ.  There is peeling, scraping, and priming before that coat of paint is ever applied.  The Cross is the joint compound, the Gospel is the primer, and the painter is God Himself.

Sovereignty is for the birds

This evening I witnessed a huge flock of birds as they cast their cooperative shadow upon a busy intersection.  They swirled around as if playing a fluttering game of musical chairs!  As they settled momentarily upon a conglomerate of perches ranging from tree limbs to electrical wires, I was suddenly romanced by thoughts of the sovereignty of God.  Entranced by the realities of migration, I was reminded that these ordinary birds boast extraordinary instinctive prowess.  It seems very reasonable to "fly south" before inhospitable climates approach, yet unreasonable to expect a bird to possess the faculties required to make such sound decisions.  Thus, the birds have good reason to fly south every November, though they possess not the ability to comprehend or explain the reason for doing so. 

God's sovereignty is crystal clear in every ordinary taken-for-granted occurrence in the natural world whether it be bird migration, working ant colonies, or the unstoppable force of arctic glaciers.  When we take a closer look, it's not a sovereignty that is passive, but one that it is causal.  In other words, our God not only formed man from the dust of the earth, He continually forms man with the fire of His Spirit.  He doesn't merely set things in motion, He is motion!  His hand not only points the way for the migrating fowl, It transforms the seasons which inspire migration! He is not only the wind beneath the wings of the sparrow, He is the flexor of each wing of every flying creature! He directs every movement, glide, and flap by the Word of His mouth!

All of this sounds glorious when we're talking about birds, but how does the reality of God's sovereignty affect our hearts?  As image-bearers we love the Light who guides our steps, but as broken mirrors we despise a God who has already plotted our course.  As redeemed, we love a God who plans our future, but as depraved we hate a God who decided the ending before speaking the words "let there be light".  We love that God has given us a choice, but hate that God has made our choice.

We don't know God's reasons for the suffering in this world, yet we incessantly demand a reason.  When we do, that's pure unbelief.  It's unbelieving and short-sighted to define God's sovereignty as somehow owing an explanation. As Tim Keller said, "If you have a God big enough to be mad at for not stopping evil, then you have a God big enough for having reasons why He hasn't stopped evil that you can't conceive of.

Meanwhile,  the sparrow doesn't resent his annual trek . He can not conceive of a reason to fly south, but then again he can not conceive of a reason not to. 

Glory Exchange

I had the privilege of witnessing power and supersonic speed up close this past weekend as we had "front row" seats to a local air show to see the Blue Angels perform mind numbing feats of aerodynamic greatness!  I was literally shaken to my core as these beautiful blue jets screamed past my face followed by a delayed ear-crunching roar!  There was one time in particular when one of the jets stealthily flew over my head throwing my body into an involuntary "curly shuffle" to the amusement of family and friends! This was indeed the closest I had ever stood to such imposing physical energy. I was not only seeing and hearing this awesome display, I was feeling it a spiritual way!

It was only later when I began to ponder my own feelings of astonishment that a self examining question arose.  Why am I amazed with these 6 Boeing F/A-18 Hornet Jets? Why does their death-teasing 700 mph maneuvers seemingly awaken a part of my soul? Is it because of the ingenuity of the men who engineered these marvelous machines?  Is it due to the skill and expertise of the pilots who push the limits and operate them in unified precision?  I concluded that while the visible evidence precipitates an engagement of the senses, there is an invisible reality that serves as the fountainhead of endless affections;  An inate urge to deeply admire what is perceived as glorious. The same can be said of our enjoyment as we gaze upon the glories of snow capped mountains, vast canyons, and massive star fields.  Ironically, the same joy equally enthralls as we're hypnotized by the melodic coos of newborns.  Simply stated, glory is the stimulus for worship.

I suspect much of the crowd this weekend walked away attributing glory to great engineering, masterful piloting or great human ingenuity. Still, I wonder how many considered the natural laws in place that inspired men to build flying machines in the first place? I wonder how many marveled at the ingenuity of a Creator who designed the universe in such a way that finite beings would constantly strive to tame it's inherent dangers?  Would these flying machine amaze us so much if there was no gravity to defy?  I concluded that while I stood in awe of these powerful machines, I was even more awe-inspired by the God who created a universe that begs its inhabitants to challenge its perilous wonders!   This doesn't imply there is no measure of glory in the finite for even a reflection of glory is glorious in itself. 

But what happens when these affections focus on the reflection?  If the plane crashes, if the mountain crumbles, and if the baby dies, then the affections for these beauties either die with them or continue in postmortem pursuit.  This is because affections appropriate to the infinite were never meant to terminate in the finite. Instead, the finite is designed purposefully as a sheer reflection of what is infinitely glorious!  It would be absurd if not tragic to prefer a photograph of a jet to a seat near the runway.  To trade in the magnificent depths and dimensions of 12 ton jets flying over you for a mere 2D gaze would be a self-inflicted swindle of a deal!  Likewise, to exchange the glory of God for finite images is both tragic and absurd.

I'm dead

When I was little kid and we would play games like cops and robbers, we would shoot our pretend guns at each other.  Whenever I was shot, I would fall to the ground and as my friend approached me to finish me off, I would say in a low voice, "I'm dead".   Oh, the silliness of a dead man informing others of his demise with a confirming voice.  It's silly because dead men don't whisper "I'm dead", they just are.  They don't whisper anything!
In the New Testament a guy named Lazarus was dead.  He didn't whisper "I'm dead" to his friends and family.  No, he was unable to do so. The bible makes it obvious when it reports that Lazarus was in a tomb for a few days and as the KJV eloquently puts it.  "He stinketh".   When Jesus arrived, as the rest of the story goes, Lazarus was resurrected from his tomb completely wrapped in his burial garment still emanating the stench of death.  How did he rise from the dead?  Simply by the word of God, namely the phrase "Lazaurus, come forth". 
You see, if Lazarus couldn't tell people he was dead, then he sure couldn't ask Jesus to bring him to life. It just wasn't in him. He was dead.  It's the same with spiritual birth. Dead in our sins, we carry its stench  upon us until one day uninvited grace comes upon us and our hearts are regenerated and our faith is awakened.  This is the greatest miracle God performs!  I don't understand it fully, I just believe it!

¹ And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ²in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following  the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— ³among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature  children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. ⁴But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵even  when we were dead in our trespasses,  made us alive together with Christ—  by grace you have been saved— ⁶and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable  riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For by grace you have been saved  through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast.   - Ephesians 2:1-9

Even our faith is a gift from God!  If you are struggling with doubt, don't look back on some decision you made, whether you made it or not, if you followed some formula, or whether it was authentic.  Look to the mercy of God!  A.W. Tozer reminded us in "The Attributes of God", that God doesn't just have mercy, HE IS mercy!  That means His mercy is infinite! We need to stop listening to the accuser who wants us to look to ourselves, and listen to God's Word which states emphatically that salvation is from Him.  Not only do unbelievers need to hear that salvation is from God (the gospel), but believers likewise need to hear that their salvation was from God,(the gospel) not their own well meaning intentions!

Thank God He chose us before the foundation of the world! Thank God He still raises the dead!

What I don't know CAN hurt me!

Cancer is frightening!   It's often been said that the mere mention of the word in the context of a doctor's visit will sap the strength of the patient in knee-buckling fashion.  Why does the word have such a fearful effect?  The answer is simple if not obvious. It's because of knowledge.  It's because of the knowledge that informs us that this deadly disease has taken the lives of friends and family, and because we know about the destructive nature of cancer cells on the body.  A diagnosis of cancer strikes fear in us because our mortality is presented to us in an untimely and inhospitable manner, and because we know it breeds fear in the minds of our worried families.  The diagnosis of cancer is a knowledge I pray never to possess, yet it is one I need to possess if ever I am stricken by the disease.

The Remedy

Cancer is one of the many difficulties of our physical world!  But it also provides a striking parallel to the great difficulty of the spiritual world, namely the disease of sin.

The fundamental difference between cancer and sin is simple.  Not everyone will be diagnosed with cancer, but every living human has been already been diagnosed with the spiritual disease of sin.  (Romans 5:12 Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned; Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God")

The similarities, however, are astounding.  Both destroy life, usually in incremental stages, and can exist undetected for long periods of time.  They also have remedies with one major difference.  The treatments for cancer don't always work, but the remedy for sin is guaranteed and unfailing!  Cancer treatment usually consists of strong doses of chemicals or radiation, whereas the treatment for sin is an application of the Gospel!   Interestingly, knowledge is the common denominator in this parallel.  You have no chance to defeat cancer without applying the methods of treatment.  Moreover, you will not accept the treatment without some basis of knowledge to its effectiveness.  For example, if someone told you the way to get rid of your cancer was by sticking your finger in a light socket, you certainly wouldn't follow their advice.  Why?  Because there is no basis of knowledge to support such a crazy theory!  If there were, Oncologists everywhere would be writing prescriptions for electrocution to their patients.  Instead, thousands of people each year are submitting to chemotherapy and radiation as proven methods of fighting cancer. Why?  Because there is a basis of knowledge to support their limited but proven effectiveness. 

The same is true of the Gospel!  The Gospel is knowledge, more specifically, "good news".  It is truly a miraculous reality that this knowledge is God's prescribed means to cure sin and all its hopelessness!  Let me be careful to note that is not just "any" knowledge! It is Gospel Knowledge!  

Where's the Knowledge?

In the past 200 years, the Bible has been relegated by the western world as "lacking knowledge" while science and mathematics are viewed as reliable sources of knowledge.  In our postmodern world, Christianity is considered one of many options in determining  how to live your life, but not as the basis of knowledge for how everyone should live their lives!

What if the medical community adopted this stance of knowledge? What if published medical journals heralded the freedoms of choosing any method of treatment you prefer to fight cancer, even if it did involve light sockets!  As thousands died because the treatment they preferred didn't work, there would be an uprising in this country to revolutionize the practice of medicine with a demand for a real basis of knowledge in the treatment of diseases!   Why? Because knowledge is essential to everything whether it be physical or spiritual.

Reclaiming Knowledge

As the church, we have retreated from our right standing as truth bearers when we separate faith from knowledge as if they were opposites. Actually, there is no such thing as faith apart from knowledge.  Although the Bible tells us that faith "is in that which is unseen", it never extracts knowledge from the equation.  While it is true that we have to exercise faith without knowing all the specifics involved, it is still based on a knowledge that God is who He has revealed Himself to be, and that we are not who we would like to be.   When the scriptures tell us that "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God", it is proclaiming the necessity of knowledge.  In other words, you can not have faith, much less a faith to overcome sin, unless you receive knowledge, namely, the Gospel! While the medical community would never sit put while thousands of people tried to cure their own cancer with their own preferred treatments, the church should not remain silent about what the gospel is and its necessity for the healing of the soul!   The lost are telling us that their lives would be better if we would just help them with their immediate felt needs, and we are obliging them by giving them what they prefer, not what they need.  We think we are loving them, but in fact we are not.  Perhaps driven by our need to eradicate legalistic approaches to evangelism, we have thrown the baby out with the bath water.  Like the western world, with our actions and even our words, we have proclaimed that truth is relative and we can not be depended upon as a reliable source of knowledge!  Does knowledge puff up? Yes!  So let's get rid of the pride, not the knowledge!

Deep beneath the surface, the world has rejected the gospel not because its failure as a reliable source of knowledge.  It is because a gospel accepted as knowledge, is one that must be submitted to!  (We see this evidenced in Islamic nations which recognize the Koran as the basis of knowledge and they respond accordingly.  Their whole way of life, though misguided, is a result in their perception of their religion as a reliable basis of knowledge.) 

The best way to evade submission to truth, as the world has demonstrated, is to discredit the source of truth.  This is certainly seen in the way of politics with the use of mud-slinging and thorough investigations of the private affairs of politicians.  In the political arena, if a man or woman can be made to look incompetent or immoral, then great damage is done to any truth they represent.  Likewise Christianity has been demoted from its once  authoritative perch of knowledge to a lower realm of entertainment, hobbies, and philosophies which are by nature subjective. 

In response to this demotion, has the church to some degree ceased to be truth-bearers (light and salt)?  In our zeal to attract unbelievers, have we have hidden the knowledge (Gospel) from those who need it? Have we have actually hidden the knowledge of the gospel in our attempts to soften it which ends up being a powerless gospel or no gospel at all? 

The Treatment Hurts then Heals

When it comes to cancer,  it's often been said that the treatment is worse than the disease, but the implication is that one feels sicker from the effects of the treatment than from the actual invasion or metastasizing.  In reality, if the treatments were worse than the disease, then no one would seek treatment.  We have seen cases where people refuse treatment because of its nauseating effects and tragically underestimate the seriousness of the disease.  Essentially, they have refused to act accordingly to the proven knowledge that various treatments can often eradicate cancer or send it into remission.

The intended natural effects of the knowledge of the Gospel will make us feel worse than the actual sickness of sin which is itself pleasurable for a season.  When we receive this dose of knowledge, we are sapped of our strength as our hearts buckle beneath the weighty revelation of our fatal condition, but then a remedy is offered in another dose of knowledge!  This gospel remedies our condition with the revelation that God has accepted us on the basis of Christ's righteousness!  Our malignancy turns benign in relation to the wrath of God and although we need lifelong gospel treatments of tumor shrinking, we rest in the knowledge that God has redeemed us and restored us to eternal wholeness!

Flip a coin

As a fan of the Batman movie franchise, I'm reminded of one of my favorite villains, Two-Face.  Originally a moral hero and combatant of crime, Harvey Dent suffered a horrible fate when half of his face was burned off.  As a result, he was not only left with a badly scarred face, but a loss of sanity as his mental instability caused him to waver between good and evil. In an effort to settle his indecision, he carried a coin in his pocket that was scratched on one side, and pristine on the other from which all of his decisions, good and bad, derived.  Whenever a situation presented itself, he would flip the coin.  If it landed on the marred side, he would commit the crime, and if it landed on the shiny side, he would refrain from the offense.   Interestingly, the fate of the coin flip did not have any affect on the very character of Two-face.  No matter which side came up, he was still a demented threat to society because it takes only one crime to make a man a criminal regardless of all the right decisions he makes along the way.

The natural man faces a similar dilemma in the pursuit of goodness. Likewise, he carries a coin defined by the two sides of legalism and moralism.  The legalistic side is scarred perhaps because his soul has been crushed not only by its excess of human requirement, but also an accompanying attitude that enjoys it!  Although he is already naturally blinded to the glory of Christ, he is tragically driven deeper into darkness by the venomous spirit of legalism.  Superstition seems to be his disposition as the "things he wears" and the "places he goes" equate to the broken mirrors and black cats of divine acceptance.

By grace alone, he will wake up and escape from this satanic philosophy, but in an unwitting attempt to run and never look back, the moralistic side of the coin inevitably appears which is usually preceded by a season of liberation.  Indeed, in his desire to be freed from legalism, he goes to great lengths to decontaminate himself as he engages in the activities once considered iillegal.  One thing is for sure, he has no intention of going back to the dark side of the coin again!  Eventually at the end of short-lived freedom he will be entranced by the allure of the shiny side of the coin.  It's moralistic identity assures a kinder and gentler human striving. It doesn't focus as much on impermissible action but rather on pragmatic action.  It preaches the need to reach his human potential as opposed to a lingering of human failures.  This philosophy often proceeds (behind the guise of Christianity) with a technique for goodness, but ultimately it is proved to be mere human endeavor and the result is not unlike that of legalism! Why?  Because moralism and legalism are just different sides of the same coin!  Legalism promises acceptance through rule-keeping while moralism promises self-improvement through pragmatism.  Both in stark contrast to biblical Christianity, legalism views the Bible as a rule book while moralism uses the Bible as a handbook. However, the damning effect is not attributed to either side of the coin, but to the coin itself! For no matter where the coin lands after it is cast, the exertion is innately human, and until then it remains deep-seated in the pocket of human raiment. 

Conversely, the Gospel is a completely different coin where divine revelation is rendered from both sides.  First there is the revelation of our spiritual non-existence that is the sheer human inability to achieve divine goodness. By it, we are informed of our corrupted nature with which we have no chance apart from grace to cause our own existence.   Just as an infant cannot bring about the cause of his own conception, we are not the cause of our own spiritual birth!   The other side of the coin affords us a glimpse of the Glory of Christ displayed predominately on the Cross.  Together, the two sides illumined by the Holy Spirit give us true spiritual sight!  When you begin to really "see" the glory of Christ against the backdrop of the ruined human soul the Gospel increases in focus, igniting faith, and leads to genuine goodness! 

Sincerely, God

The picture shown here is believed to be the last photograph of Abraham Lincoln.  The photo was recently discovered in a family photo album of Ulysses S. Grant.  His great-great grandson suspected that the tall human figure in the center of the picture could be Lincoln and that the structure in the background was the White House.  Keya Morgan, a Lincoln Historian, was brought in to determine the truth of the matter.  He deduced that several things in the picture pointed to the fact that Abraham Lincoln was indeed the central figure in the photograph including the height, the hairline and facial hair, and of course the general surroundings.  Finally, he asked a very important question of the Grant descendant.  He encouraged him to take the photo out of the album and look at the back of it to see if the original photographer had signed his name.  Morgan explains, "If you don't know who the photographer is, it's like not knowing who your father and mother are,"  When he did, he turned it over he saw the seal of photographer Henry F. Warren with the following inscription, "Lincoln in front of the White House".  Astounding!

Indeed, it is astounding to think that something as obvious as reading the back of a photograph was overlooked in the identification of the central figure in the image.  I wonder how many times General Grant's family members gazed at the picture in curiosity.  As they examined the photograph over the years, did they engage in fervent discussion and debate over the identity of the tall figure?  If so, how amazing is it that no one ever thought to remove the picture from the album and read the back of the photo?  Surely, the questions would have been settled in their minds long before the historian came along. 

This historical discovery reminds me of our search for God.  In our curiosity and wonder, we observe the innumerable evidences that surround us.  We marvel at the natural creation, and engage in the beauty and artistry of this world.  In doing so, there is a natural yearning within us to worship!  So, we do.  We worship everything in the created order with only a tip of our hat to the creator. 

Yes, we acknowledge the existence of God.  We even find great comfort in discussing and analyzing Him.  We read our Bibles and use it like a handbook for good living.  We even acknowledge the Bible as the very Word of God.  We wear t-shirts promoting His causes, and bracelets espousing His moral value.  We know the story of the cross and can recite it with ease.  Still, despite our saturation in Christianity, we ask deep questions regarding His identity.  We might not ask them out loud, but they ring incessantly in our ruined souls.  Who is this Christ? 

Just as the curious soul fails to flip the photo and have His questions answered once and for all, the ruined soul ignores the very documentation that he holds in his possession.  It is in the sciptures, that we find God's signature.  He has authenticated His identity from Genesis to Revelation.  From the moment He reveals the plan of redemption to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, to His future expectation of the great Revelation, we are overwhelmed with God's Gospel. 

If we have eyes to see, we realize that Jesus Christ is the central figure in Genesis, Isaiah, Revelation, and every book in between!  Though not as obvious as the 4 gospels, when we look for Christ in any part of the Bible we will find Him.  We see Him as Lion, Lamb, Judge, Saviour, Creator, Redeemer, and King!  He is the leading actor in this unfolding drama, and we're bit players. 

If we have eyes to see, we will be broken and humiliated when we discover that nothing in the Word is about us.  It is about Christ. 

If we have eyes to see, we will rejoice in the truth that is not about us.  If the Bible was about our forgiveness, our fulfillment, our hopes and dreams, our righteousness, ironically none of those things would be possible! 

If only our eyes would be opened to the truth of God's glory!  We would see that His glory is everything we could ever hope for.  His glory is our hope for redemption! His glory is our hope for eternal fulfillment! His glory is our only shot at righteousness!  

We should rejoice that God revealed Himself and His desire for glory.  I don't know why He chose to do so in an ancient document.  Maybe that's all we can endure.  I do know that when it comes to the Word of God, if you don't know who the author is, it's like not knowing who your Father is.

OUCH!

I admit, I admire this architectural masterpiece ever week I drive by it.  But the following video clip by Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle really hurts, because it is so so true.