Daily Archives: May 11, 2015

The Glory of God

Christian life

As we peruse the Word of God, we see that time and again, God’s glory is revealed to mankind through His wonder working power. The children were enslaved by the Egyptians, and they began crying out to God for deliverance. God raised up a man called Moses to be instrumental to liberate the children of Israel from slavery. To be able to seek God’s guidance Moses was in continual communion with Him. This led him to be bold enough to say to God “PLEASE SHOW ME YOUR GLORY”. God during His dialogue with Moses says to him, “YOU CAN-NOT SEE MY FACE”. However, God placed Moses in a cleft of a rock and covered Moses with His hand while His Glory passed by.

As we sum up the situation throughout the world, and especially in our own country at this point of time, we see that the only solution for this country is for the people of this nation to turn back to God.

We need to pray that God will raise up Godly leaders who, through the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit, will be instrumental in a “HOLY GHOST REVIVAL” in this rainbow nation. 2 Chronicles 7:14 is the cure for our nation, “IF MY PEOPLE WHO ARE CALLED BY MY NAME WILL HUMBLE THEM-SELVES, AND PRAY AND SEEK MY FACE, AND TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS, THEN I WILL HEAR FROM HEAVEN, AND WILL FOR-GIVE THEIR SIN AND HEAL THEIR LAND.”

When a nation seeks God’s face and obeys His word, we will see the Glory of God being manifested in and through its people. Homes will become a place where God is revered, Churches will be filled with people glorifying God, jails will be unoccupied by criminals, true justice will be the order of the day, and God will prosper our land so much so that we will have an influx of all those people who immigrated to other countries, wanting to be part of the movement of God. Cause us, Lord, to seek your face.

Colin

Show me your glory

Pastor's Desk

Dear Family

There is much written on the subject of the “glory of God” for us to study and learn from. Most of it leaves us feeling better about who God is and what He is able to do for us. All the “weight” or “heaviness” of His goodness is wonderful to dwell upon. We natu-rally love to know that our God is completely surrounded by mercy and goodness. I love the way the Psalmist states the obvious for us in Psalm 19:1–4 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”

But as I thought about His glory, I felt the LORD saying to me, “Now show me YOUR glory”. And this is what I think He meant:

Jesus taught in Matthew 5:14–16 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

The Apostle Paul says to us in Philippians 2:14–15 “Do everything with-out complaining or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe”.

As believers we do not have an option but to be reflectors of God’s glory. I have no doubt that God is often pained by my lack of reflection of who He actually is. My flesh is rotten to the core. But we have lost our license to behave as we want. Besides, we are dead! Our lives are now in Him and He in us and so our role is to reveal Him to everyone – His glory through us. What an in-credible privilege! These cracked jars of clay are the vessels God has chosen to reveal Himself to the earth. Will you be a reflector of His glory in response to His desire, “Now show me your glory”?

Paul

 

A Wild Celebration!

Bible Study, , , ,

A WILD CELEBRATION!

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet on shigionoth.

“Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds,  Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy (Hab. 3: 1-2).

What is the meaning of shigionoth?

“Shiggaion, from the verb shagah, “to reel about through drink”, occurs in the title of Psalm 7. The plural form, shigionoth, is found in Habakkuk 3:1. The word denotes a lyrical poem composed under strong mental emotion; a song of impassioned imagination accompanied with suitable music; a dithyrambic ode.http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/shiggaion/

A dithyramb is a “usually short poem in an inspired wild irregular strain” http://i.word.com/idictionary/dithyramb

Why am I probing the meaning of shiggionoth? I believe it is significant to explore the wild emotion of Habakkuk’s prayer. This was his response to the revelation God gave him regarding his problem. This was far more than an intellectual issue. What he wrestled with touched him to the core of his being. Why did God seem not to care about the moral mess his people were in?

God’s response shook him because he was not anticipating the horrifying thought that not only did his holy God tolerate the actions of heathen nations against His people, He actually admitted to being directly responsible for raising them up to punish Israel. How could He? It was as though Habakkuk was betrayed by a trusted friend. His second dilemma was even worse than the first. What God was doing was unthinkable – He was in bed with the enemy!

Only when God revealed the final phase of His reply did the prophet get it. Aha! God placed every individual, heathen or Israelite, on the same footing – accountable to Him and responsible for his actions. No one was off the hook. His people could not hide behind their collective covenant relationship with Him and the heathen could not use the excuse that they were God’s instrument for dealing with His people.

It was this truth that sent the prophet into a frenzy of anticipation. He remembered God’s deliverance of His people from slavery and His judgment on Egypt. This great event in the history of His people marked the beginning of their life as a nation. In graphically poetic language, he related the effects of God’s coming on the natural world and on the enemy who seemed invincible.

With his confidence in the sovereignty of his God restored, he celebrated God’s mighty victory over the Egyptians. Surely, just as He fought for His people over their oppressors then, He would stand by them again against the Babylonians when His purposes for them were complete.

God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens and His praise filled the earth. His splendour was like the sunrise; rays flashed from His hand, where His power was hidden. Plague went before Him; pestilence followed His steps. He stood, and shook the earth; He looked and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains crumbled and the age-old hills collapsed – but He marches on forever (Hab. 3: 3-6).

God is unstoppable in His power. Nothing stands in the way of His march towards fulfilling His purposes. He demolishes every natural obstacle with ease. Even the mighty waters give way when He passes by.

I saw the tents of Cushan in distress, the dwellings of Midian in anguish. Were you angry with the rivers, Lord? Was your wrath against the streams? Did you rage against the sea when you rode your horses and chariots in victory? You uncovered your bow, you called for many arrows. You split the earth with rivers; the mountains saw you and writhed. Torrents of water swept by; the deep roared and lifted its waves on high (Hab. 3: 7-10).

He proceeded to review the horrendous and systematic destruction of Egypt through the eyes of a worshipper. From the other side of the Red Sea, in the land of Midian His people watched God come in majestic splendour to sweep away the Egyptian army through the writhing waters of the Red Sea.

As the prophet remembered, he worshipped. It was this God, this mighty Sovereign whose power was unstoppable, who would intervene again to rescue His people from the devastation of the Babylonians. Just as Egypt has served God’s purposes and then were crushed like bugs in God’s hand, so He would mete out judgment on another nation which thought it was God.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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