Soli Deo Gloria

I've been thinking a lot about glory lately.

      All glory belongs to God. It seems like a simple statement, but it has huge ramifications. As Imago Dei and Imago Christi (the Image of God and the Image of Christ) Christians have the responsibility of displaying God's glory. Let me explain. As men we have been created in the image and likeness of God, and, to some extent, that means we bear the image of His glory. As Christ renews us we are given the glory of Christ in our new lives, which is displayed in our actions. Now here is where things get hard. God entusted us with His glory. Are we treating it like it's ours?

      Last semester someone asked, "Can God trust you with His glory, or are you taking it as your own?" This question was merely an interesting way of looking at pride, until this past week. In chapel and my devotions, among other things, I have come accross the word "glory" several times this week. And that question has been resounding through my mind.

     When I started this blog, I was feeling bored, I didn't know how to keep myself occupied. That's rediculous because I have a lot of homework and plenty of friends to fill my time. What I was wanting was something deeper than a time filler. As I was taking a short walk I began to think of God's intentions for my life, but I wasn't thinking much about God. I was focused on myself. In a small group with the guys in my hall or "wing" at school, which is called wing chapel and which we have on Thursdays we talked about Colossians 3:23 "Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men." This, I realized, I had not been doing. I came back to school this semester with a selfish disposition. I was stealing God's glory.

     Yesterday in chapel Dr. Graham Walker spoke about Jeremiah 8 and 9. He spoke of how the wise men were stealing God's glory and reminded us of God's commands to give Him glory. He quoted Jeremiah 9:23-24 as well as 1 Corinthians 1:30-31, which command us to do just that. I was struck again. Then, as I mused over this conundrum, I was reading several passages in the Gospels about Christ's birth (Matthew 1 and Luke 1-2). I was struck by how often God was praised and people gave glory to God. Even the angels give Him "glory in the highest"! Today there was another wing chapel, and, you guessed it, glory came up again! (Talk about emphasis.) This time we went through Colossians 1. The whole time we focused on who Christ is and the work He did. We examined the glory of the Gospel. (Now glory was not the topic, but it was clearly evident that God was being glorified in our time together.) The session culminated with a Youtube vidio recording of Dr. S. M. Lockridge's "That's My King", which tries to capture how glorious Christ is and self-proclaimedly fails. How glorious is my King!

     Even in my schoolwork the idea of glory comes through, as I read the Odyssey I was disgusted by the misplaced glorification of men and pagan gods. My King deserves that glory. In my class, Theology of the Bible, we were also reviewing the person and work of Christ. While we were discussing Christ's pre-existant state we read John 17:5, in which Christ prays, "Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was". (There it is again... glory.) As we discussed God's glory and what it means to share God's glory, Dr. Cox made the comment, "we should be jealous for God's glory and desire to remove ourselves from the place where we would recieve His glory". He spoke of flinging ourselves from the light of glory and letting it shine on God. I have learned a little more about what it means to steal God's glory. May we never do so.

Let me leave you, my readers, with this exhortation:
 1 Corinthians 10:31 "Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."

-Blessings
(Colossians 3:23, Jeremiah 8-9, 9:23-24, 1 Corinthians 1:30-31, Matthew 1, Luke 1-2, John 17:5, 1 Corinthians 10:31)