Reflecting His Glory

One of my favorite songs is by Gordon Levy, If You Want To Lead Me to Jesus

Your message is clear, you sound so sincere, your intentions are good The forgiveness of sin, life without end, I’d believe it if I could. But I’ve watched from afar and I’ve seen how you are with the people you’re around And I don’t see a trace of the love and the grace you talk so much about

If you want to lead me to Jesus you better find a better way ‘Cause your life is speaking so loud I can’t even hear a word you say.

“Somewhere along the way God’s people lost the story. In all their Torah obedience they forgot mercy and forgiveness. They forgot about being lowly and humble instead of merely doing their deeds for all to see. They forgot about being unseen and of having God’s good eye while being radically generous in their outlook on life. They forgot about taking care of and blessing the outcasts among them. But God’s kingdom is all about these things. His people needed to bring light back to the darkness of the broken world around them.” – Nate Sala, bible podcaster.

Hypocrisy is not new. Jesus’s direct confrontations, those moments you see His righteous anger are those moments when He confronts the scribes and pharisees - the religious leaders - who lauded their position and as Jesus said to them in Matthew 23:23 — 23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.

Genesis 1:1-3

John 1:1-27 - John was pointing to Jesus as the Christ, Savior of the world. Essentially saying, “HE is the light, I’m merely a lampstand.” The most expensive or beautiful lamp is useless without the Light.

Psalm 85:10 Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed.

John 8:12 — “I am the Light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness because you will have the light that leads to life.”

Matthew 5:14-16  “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. During the last supper … after Jesus had washed their feet - the King of kings stooping down to wash the dirty feet of His disciples — including Judas. He said THIS: John 13:34-35

How did Jesus love?

He loved with compassion, empathy, a heart to see the best in people (set free from any bondage satan has placed on them). He saw the end product of a radically changed heart.

ADD he loved them where they were, but wouldn’t leave them where they were. SAME MESSAGE: Come, follow me. While He ate with sinners and tax collectors, He loved them, but did not affirm them in their sin. He would tell them, ‘Go and sin no more.”

I don’t expect my 2yr old granddaughter to understand the things my 10yr old granddaughter does. Nor do I expect my 10yr old granddaughter to understand the things my 23yr old granddaughter does. Lovingly expect, nurture and cultivate maturity as they grow in Christ.

I find it incredibly frustrating when someone is a brand new baby Christian and some heartless older christian berates them for not being fully mature yet. It happens often and sometimes those babes leave the church feeling they can’t measure up. PRISONER STORY.

When I was young and first called to the ministry … all my ideas! As an adult most were cast to the wind with ongoing maturity, but I purposefully never quenched the excited ministry ideas of young men and women as they came to me and told me how to do things. Who knows, God may use them in a different way, but with the same Gospel, than He did me.

Eph 4:25-5:2

There are wounded and damaged people inside and outside our churches. The mercy and compassion we have freely received is to be freely shared with anyone and everyone God brings into our path. We’re to demonstrate the SAME sacrificial love for those in the world (NOT just fellow believers, though that would be a great start).

SO many broken homes, absent fathers or mothers and the children are desperate for someone to show genuine concern and care for them. It takes time. It takes sacrifice. It takes the love of Jesus - the same love He reached to you and we’re to share to those around us.

Romans 8:28-30 - 28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

Sunflowers - heliotropism. when young they turn to the east awaiting the sun to shine its glory on them. during the course of the day it follows the sun from east to west — tracking it across the sky until it’s setting — then turning back to the east to wait for the next day to begin. The plant’s 24-hour circadian rhythm matches closely with our own.

When the plant is young it’s building biomass due to the heliotropism which it will need for strength and endurance. As the plant matures eventually the sun tracking stops and the sunflower faces east continually. Eastward facing adult plants are warmer with the extra warmth making them better at attracting pollinators.

The sunflow reflects the glory of the sun - and its seeds have many uses including cooking oil, and feeding baseball players and birds.

Mat 6:26 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

Mat 2:1-2 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”

Ezekiel 43:4 Afterward he brought me to the gate, the gate that faces toward the east. 2 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east. His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory.

4 And the glory of the LORD came into the temple by way of the gate which faces toward the east. 5 The Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the temple.

Matthew 24:27 - For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

2 Corinthians 3:16-18 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Lyrics to Dust to Dust by Keith Green

Sometimes it’s hard to see; Sometimes it’s hard to get through to me, But I want to do all that You ask me to. Help me to follow through, Make every day a devotion to You. Cause it’s dust to dust, until we learn how to trust.

Sometimes I wander away, And I’m lost in the dark, my faith starts to sway I don’t know what to do so I cry out to you. And I reach out in the air, and I call Your name and You’re always there. Then You send down Your light, You tell me, ‘Walk by faith, not by sight.” then You come shining down.