From Glory to Glory
His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him.
Psalm 21:5
Not Thy glory- but His glory! Not His salvation- but Thy salvation! Jesus was glorified, not through His own works, but through the Father's, who "loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hand."
In our fleshly pattern of thinking, we think that glory is individual and atomistic- you get famous and respected by doing your own things, for yourself, by yourself. Because, after all, you deserve it! If I want to be a famous basketball player, I have to be super talented and practice hours every day, and play the system well enough that I get into college ball, and hopefully go on to the NBA. If I want to be a renowned scholar and influence the minds of the world, I'm going to have to spend hours a day reading and doing research, get into the best schools, meet the right people, write the best papers, until someday I see my name on Amazon.
It's easy to transfer this way of thinking to Christian life. If I want to be a good Christian, I've got to go to Church take the Eucharist every week, read my Bible and pray the Liturgy of the Hours every day, go to small groups and midweek services whenever possible, and never, ever sin (oh, and I can't forget to look down on people who do). Once I've got that basic stuff down, I need to pray beautiful prayers filled with Scripture (why else would I read the thing?), volunteer for every kind of social justice cause in existence (and start some new ones that aren't), and always have an encouraging, maybe even prophetic word for my brothers and sisters. Though not strictly necessary, it'd especially help to write a blog, and update it three days a week with reflections from God's Word. Then God will love me, and my Christian friends will adore me, and if the world hates me, it's only because it doesn't realize how awesome I really am.
Then, and only then, can I hope to be a good, godly and righteous man. Just like Jesus.
Except... that's not how Jesus worked. Jesus didn't think of glory as something you get for yourself. He thought of it as something that you give to others. He didn't seek glory for Himself, but prayed, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self. "Glorify thou"- not I, but do Thou it- "with thine own self"- I cannot have Thy glory without Thee , but must receive it as I abide in Thee. And on the other hand, He didn't wait for God to glorify Himself, but said, I have glorified thee on the earth- how? This is how: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
Glory in the spiritual realm is not atomistic, but relational. Actually, that's true in the flesh, too- I could be the best scholar or basketball player in the world, but if no one else cares, I don't get any glory for it. Relationship is key in the flesh. But in the spirit, that's all it's about. In the flesh, you get glory from others for your own works. In the spirit, you get glory from others for the works of others. God does not glorify Himself in Himself, but humbly allows His Creation to bring Him honor and praise. The things that we do- and "we" includes not only us human beings, but also angels, fire, snow, hail, mountains, cattle, and all beasts and vegetation, and whatever else exists- show how great God is. Likewise, we do not get recognition for what we do in ourselves, but rather, for what God does in us.
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My thought is complete. The rest of this post is more personal, and may not interest you.
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O God, help me understand this! This is hardest thing for me to grasp in my entire Christian walk. I'm very action-oriented when it comes to spirituality: I always have a very clear (though not always correct) picture of what to do with myself. But when I come up against something bigger than me- a physical problem like insomnia, or a temptation I can't resist like anger- my whole scheme for victory just falls apart, and I feel trapped and powerless. So then I turn it over to God and rely on His grace and repeat all those warm fuzzy Scripture promises- and you know what? Nothing happens! I just slide worse and worse into whatever I'm dealing with.
It's so easy, when working hard to glorify God, to turn it into a time of glory for yourself; and when God comes to bless you with glory, it's tempting to take it for yourself and forget about God, or else to turn it into something warm and fuzzy and "Christian" and "deny the power thereof." Yet I know from the times I have gotten the balance that it's a beautiful and powerful thing, and accessible to anyone who has the Holy Spirit.
I remember the first time I was filled with the Holy Spirit, the way it's described in Acts. I was thirteen years old, and going to be baptized in a few weeks. There were no lights or sounds or shaking or shouting or laying on of hands- I didn't even speak in tongues or prophesy. It was just me, God, and my bedroom window. It came, it went, that's it. I could easily write it off as an odd adrenaline rush- if it weren't for the radical turn my life made after that brief, maybe fifteen second experience. I was filled with a love of God, and desire for union with Him, that has never left me since. And yet, that was the beginning of my teenage years, when I would plunge myself into graver and more diverse kinds of sin than I could ever have imagined as a child. I've spent the past eight years of my life trying to make sense of that contradiction.
My prayer for myself at the moment- and please, if you're reading this, pray with me- is for God to fill me with that same Holy Spirit again- this time, to complete my fire-baptism by giving me victory over sin, by His grace and not by my works. I don't think I believe in entire sanctification in this life- but, O God, I have so much sin to get through before I even begin to think about that! I need the strength that my desire for divine union requires, that only comes by Your Spirit. Amen.
Psalm 21:5
Not Thy glory- but His glory! Not His salvation- but Thy salvation! Jesus was glorified, not through His own works, but through the Father's, who "loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hand."
In our fleshly pattern of thinking, we think that glory is individual and atomistic- you get famous and respected by doing your own things, for yourself, by yourself. Because, after all, you deserve it! If I want to be a famous basketball player, I have to be super talented and practice hours every day, and play the system well enough that I get into college ball, and hopefully go on to the NBA. If I want to be a renowned scholar and influence the minds of the world, I'm going to have to spend hours a day reading and doing research, get into the best schools, meet the right people, write the best papers, until someday I see my name on Amazon.
It's easy to transfer this way of thinking to Christian life. If I want to be a good Christian, I've got to go to Church take the Eucharist every week, read my Bible and pray the Liturgy of the Hours every day, go to small groups and midweek services whenever possible, and never, ever sin (oh, and I can't forget to look down on people who do). Once I've got that basic stuff down, I need to pray beautiful prayers filled with Scripture (why else would I read the thing?), volunteer for every kind of social justice cause in existence (and start some new ones that aren't), and always have an encouraging, maybe even prophetic word for my brothers and sisters. Though not strictly necessary, it'd especially help to write a blog, and update it three days a week with reflections from God's Word. Then God will love me, and my Christian friends will adore me, and if the world hates me, it's only because it doesn't realize how awesome I really am.
Then, and only then, can I hope to be a good, godly and righteous man. Just like Jesus.
Except... that's not how Jesus worked. Jesus didn't think of glory as something you get for yourself. He thought of it as something that you give to others. He didn't seek glory for Himself, but prayed, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self. "Glorify thou"- not I, but do Thou it- "with thine own self"- I cannot have Thy glory without Thee , but must receive it as I abide in Thee. And on the other hand, He didn't wait for God to glorify Himself, but said, I have glorified thee on the earth- how? This is how: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
Glory in the spiritual realm is not atomistic, but relational. Actually, that's true in the flesh, too- I could be the best scholar or basketball player in the world, but if no one else cares, I don't get any glory for it. Relationship is key in the flesh. But in the spirit, that's all it's about. In the flesh, you get glory from others for your own works. In the spirit, you get glory from others for the works of others. God does not glorify Himself in Himself, but humbly allows His Creation to bring Him honor and praise. The things that we do- and "we" includes not only us human beings, but also angels, fire, snow, hail, mountains, cattle, and all beasts and vegetation, and whatever else exists- show how great God is. Likewise, we do not get recognition for what we do in ourselves, but rather, for what God does in us.
-------
My thought is complete. The rest of this post is more personal, and may not interest you.
-------
O God, help me understand this! This is hardest thing for me to grasp in my entire Christian walk. I'm very action-oriented when it comes to spirituality: I always have a very clear (though not always correct) picture of what to do with myself. But when I come up against something bigger than me- a physical problem like insomnia, or a temptation I can't resist like anger- my whole scheme for victory just falls apart, and I feel trapped and powerless. So then I turn it over to God and rely on His grace and repeat all those warm fuzzy Scripture promises- and you know what? Nothing happens! I just slide worse and worse into whatever I'm dealing with.
It's so easy, when working hard to glorify God, to turn it into a time of glory for yourself; and when God comes to bless you with glory, it's tempting to take it for yourself and forget about God, or else to turn it into something warm and fuzzy and "Christian" and "deny the power thereof." Yet I know from the times I have gotten the balance that it's a beautiful and powerful thing, and accessible to anyone who has the Holy Spirit.
I remember the first time I was filled with the Holy Spirit, the way it's described in Acts. I was thirteen years old, and going to be baptized in a few weeks. There were no lights or sounds or shaking or shouting or laying on of hands- I didn't even speak in tongues or prophesy. It was just me, God, and my bedroom window. It came, it went, that's it. I could easily write it off as an odd adrenaline rush- if it weren't for the radical turn my life made after that brief, maybe fifteen second experience. I was filled with a love of God, and desire for union with Him, that has never left me since. And yet, that was the beginning of my teenage years, when I would plunge myself into graver and more diverse kinds of sin than I could ever have imagined as a child. I've spent the past eight years of my life trying to make sense of that contradiction.
My prayer for myself at the moment- and please, if you're reading this, pray with me- is for God to fill me with that same Holy Spirit again- this time, to complete my fire-baptism by giving me victory over sin, by His grace and not by my works. I don't think I believe in entire sanctification in this life- but, O God, I have so much sin to get through before I even begin to think about that! I need the strength that my desire for divine union requires, that only comes by Your Spirit. Amen.