CONVERSATIONS
WITH GOD

The Whole Story: Life, Love, & Glory

Day 1
The Glory of God

We could spend a great deal of time profitably studying and understanding the glory of God, so that is what we will do this week. To get us started, check out these two short but informative articles:

https://learn.ligonier.org/devotionals/glory-god

https://wildatheart.org/daily-readings/the-fullness-of-gods-glory/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22846251267&gbraid=0AAAAADqA04UCh2FD2ypGF-NJfvSWHrAq9&gclid=CjwKCAiA3-3KBhBiEiwA2x7FdASzdZ6YYa3GoEd7LHsaF2_JjiKIQaMUEBmNDq8EmcxO0RxytaWWNxoCDXQQAvD_BwE

Verses: Romans 6:4, 2 Chronicles 7:1–3, 1 Chronicles 29:13

Prayer Topics: Praise, Weightiness, Fullness

Day 2
Receiving Glory

Check out this great article on sharing the glory of Christ:

https://www.touchinglives.org/devotionals/receiving-gods-glory

How is it that we receive the glory of Christ when we enter into a covenant with Him? First, when we enter into a covenant with Christ we are identified with Christ. We are found in Him, which means that the life and glory of Christ are imputed to us. Being found in Christ, when God sees us, he sees us in the person of Christ Jesus, so that all of the love and the blessings that Christ receives from the Father are a gift to us as we are found in Christ Jesus. Second, the Holy Spirit works in our lives to make us obedient to the word, command, and heart of Jesus so that His glory becomes our glory. If a famous musician were to train you how to play music, over time that musician's glory would become your glory. This is why we strive for obedience and transformation in our lives, not because through it we earn salvation, but because we have been saved we want to have our lives filled with the glory of Christ. Let us live up to what we have already attained by being sanctified in the spirit to the glory of God.

Verses: John 17:22, Philippians 2:9-11, John 14:15-17
Prayer Topics: Training, Obedience, Joy

Day 3
Glory and Joy

In our sermon on Sunday, I spoke about the relationship between glory and joy. The reality is that God is the most joyful being in existence. The reason for this is simple and direct. God's joy is not without foundation. God does not conjure his joy out of nothing, he is not deliriously happy for no reason like someone you might find in a mental health crisis. God's joy is directly tied to his glory. Because he is the most glorious being in existence, he is the happiest being in existence. Joy is the result of glory. We all know this to be true. You don't cook a terrible meal and celebrate your accomplishment. You don't lose the race and take home the trophy. You don't laugh at the stupid joke. In every aspect of our existence, joy is a response to glory. This is why God's glory is so good for us, and why we worship him. Check out this great article for more about the connection of God's glory and our joy:

https://www.apologia.com/blog/glory-god-leads-us-worship/?srsltid=AfmBOoppdWJs2sQ5Z5OcKOpgLI4KD5snlh2Xa9GiDtt-qdaTwjmVg9Fh

Verses: Exodus 24:16, Exodus 29:43, Exodus 33:18-23
Prayer Topics: Beauty, Honor, Renown

Day 4
Beyond Worship

Yesterday we spoke about worship and what it truly consists of, namely, enjoying the glory of God. Today we want to take another step in our understanding of the Glory of God by orienting our actions around it. Check out this great article for some thoughts on this topic:

https://www.todayintheword.org/daily-devotional/understanding-the-greatest-commandment/gods-glory-your-goal/

Verses: 1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1, Galatians 5:13-15, 2 Corinthians 3:17-18

Prayer Topics: Freedom, Goodness, Inspiration

Day 5

Thanks to Sylvester Warsaw, Jr for our devotional today

In the birth and death of Christ Jesus, heaven and earth experienced the weight, depth and scope of God’s love for His creation and created being thereby His glory the fullness of who He is. Even in this revelation of God expressing Himself it’s challenging to understand this mystery because man tries to understand with his mind when our relationship with Him is a walk of faith. Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us that God has put eternity in the heart of man so that no man can find out the work that God does from beginning to the end. Because man isn’t comfortable with not knowing his arrogance prevents him from experiencing God’s glory because man starts with himself instead of God. The problem with fallen man is he wants to create his own identity instead of finding his identity in God the Creator of the heavens and earth. Men sell their souls for recognition and we all know people who ask the question, “you know who I am?” People think more highly of themselves than they ought. Because God is eternal and we are finite it’s impossible for what’s finite to define what’s eternal with the mind. Time is a boundary for that which is finite, therefore, time as we know it one day will fall exhausted at the gates of eternity. Even though man knows he’s finite internally he wants to be like God eternal. Man’s idea of eternity is immortality therein is the problem. Therefore the question becomes how do you take what’s finite and make it eternal? So, man has created erroneous concepts of equating immortality with eternal when the starting points are different. Man creates things to himself that will one day vanish like buildings and legacies but God always will be because He has always existed.

It’s only in relationship with God man has the opportunity to experience God’s glory, His fullness because He’s the starting point and not creation nor the created being the creature. However, at Jesus’s birth and death the whole of God’s creation got the opportunity to experience God’s glory. God appeared to shepherds watching their flocks by night and made a star to appear in the east to three wise men. God announced His love for man sending into this world His only Begotten Son to give man the opportunity for redemption through Jesus’s birth and death as the sacrificial lamb of God. The centurion and others declared, “Truly this was the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:51-56) The cross allows man to see and experience God’s mercy His judgment for sin for sin being placed upon Jesus so that man can be redeemed in and through Christ Jesus. Every child of God has the opportunity to experience His glory and I must warn you experiencing His glory comes with a price without it being a transaction. Ask Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego when ordered to fall down and worship the golden image of Nebuchadnezzar their response was to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matterl If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up” Daniel 3. In Daniel 8:27 we’re permitted a glimpse of the weight of God’s glory when He allows Daniel to experience

His glory. In 2 Corinthians 12:1-6, Paul talks about how he heard inexpressible words, which aren’t lawful for man to utter. I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced God in such a way you couldn’t explain the experience because mere human words pollute the experience I have by His mercy. There are times in our journey with Christ Jesus, God, through the Holy Spirit allows us to experience Him in such a way it overwhelms us. In Psalm 27:13 David said this, “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.” In being put to death at the hands of Saul, Stephen, declares this in Acts 7:55-60, “But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God! Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not charge them with this sin. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.” Something to consider are you and I unapologetically His meaning: have we truly counted the cost of following Christ Jesus daily?

CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD

CONVERSATIONS
WITH GOD