God Shows Up in Glory Again & Again!

More instances of that which brought glory to God! Are you prepared to be awed?

In Matthew 9:1-8 Jesus is criticized for telling the paralytic and his friends that He saw their faith, and forgave the man his sins. To show that He had the authority to do just that, Jesus then healed the man. What happened? The multitudes gave glory to God. I doubt the paralytic and company set out for a worship and praise marathon that day. They were just people with a problem, seeking out this Man who seemed to offer hope. They trusted He could help. He did. God was glorified not just by them, but also by the multitudes! I wonder how long that spontaneous worship service lasted? How heartfelt was their praise? In all probability, this was no rote liturgy or the fifteenth chorus of "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus." Instead, I'm guessing, their very actions were a broad display of hearts truly filled with awe and trembling, and lives being prepared to be glorious temples of the Holy Spirit. (Remember the Holy Spirit was given to us after Jesus ascended to heaven.)

Jesus raises the widow's only son back to life in Luke 7:11-16. "The dead man sat up and began to speak" (vs. 15). The disciples and a whole multitude of folks were with Jesus when they came upon this funeral procession. The result: he entire crowd was gripped with fear, and they glorified God for visiting His people! Did the mourners have any hope, or big plans to see some great miracle? Do you think they were walking outside the city gate with the body expecting this man to sit up and have a conversation with them? Very doubtful. And, what's more, when he did it brought incredible fear upon ALL OF THEM. Those with Jesus might have thought traveling around with this Guy was pretty cool, but when they actually witnessed His power they were definitely humbled and trembling as were those in the funeral party. I think there were some building blocks prepared for their temples that day.

One more awe inspiring story in the next post along with another God-Color Moment.

Copyright Lynn U. Watson, 2004, 2011
Photo -- One small glimpse of God's glory! Through the lens of my own camera. 

Walking Talking Temples of the Holy Spirit

"Thus says the LORD, "Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool, Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For my hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being declares the LORD, But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word." Isaiah 66:1-2 (NASB)

Obviously, as we've already discovered our God is so incredibly large He could neer be contained in a "house" built by man. Yet we've already discovered that the apostle, Paul, admonishes in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NASB): "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body." No, He cannot be contained in a building of wood and bricks, but our hearts and our actions can certainly embody and proclaim His glory!

As I searched through the New Testament for specific instances of that which brought glory to the Father these are some of the examples I found, demonstrating that when He is present in our lives glorious things happen that we could never dream up. 

Luke 2:15-20 recounts the shepherds' visit to the Baby Jesus. Going about their routine lives in the fields by night, they had been visited by a host of angels. Did they expect to witness that spectacular display of God's creation? Highly unlikely. But their response was to leave their place of comfort, and go check this out at the risk of being mocked for believing some crazy vision was real -- or perhaps thought to have been smoking some funny weed.  The result: They returned glorifying God! Scripture doesn't tell us for sure, but I'm believing they returned to their work, their family, their friends, their same routine, but reflecting the glory of God and His heavenly light and colors to all of those around them! They were walking, talking temples of the Holy Spirit right in the middle of the ordinary stuff of life.

We will look at other examples in the next posts. Allow yourself to be awed by the glory of God.

Photo from canstockphoto.com
All other content Copyright Lynn U. Watson, 2004, 2011 

Rainbow, Radiance, Glory of the LORD

As the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. . .   Ezekiel 1:28 (NASB)

Today we observe descriptions of the throne found in God's Word. In the next post we will look specifically at our reflection of Christ to those around us. What do they see when they look at our lives?
     Please begin by reading the following Scriptures:
     Ezekiel 1:26-38 and Revelation 4:1-3
Record all the facts about the throne that you discover in these two passages.
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What stood out most to you?
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Copyright Lynn U. Watson, 2004, 2011