If you were to build a house to honor the Lord, how would you build it to reflect his glory? You would want the best wouldn’t you? Solomon obtained the best. The sanctuary was lined with carved cedar on the walls. The floor was covered with cypress. The Most Holy Place was lined with gold. Windows were placed in the top of the house facing the east. Can you imagine how the room glistened with the morning sun as the rays reflected off of the gold lined interior? Surly it was dazzling indeed. Perhaps it was a forerunner to the transfiguration of Jesus when his appearance dazzled the disciples. Solomon seems to have spared no expense in building the temple and it accoutrements. It was seven years in the building. Why? It needed to reflect the glory of God. Is the intent of all that I do to reflect the glory of God?
Solomon also built an impressive house for himself. It was bigger than the temple. But then, the Temple’s dimensions mirrored the tabernacle’s dimensions. Solomon seems to have limited himself to the tabernacle’s dimensions for the temple, but for his own house he had no limitations. He built it to 225,000 cubic feet, 39% the amount of cubic feet of the Marland Mansion. His own house took 13 years to complete. Hmm. . . I wonder about whose glory he was most concerned. Is the thrust of my life about my own glory or God’s. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
Psalm 95
What causes you to sing? Do you ever just break forth into singing? What motivates it? I have several motivations when I break into singing. Occasionally, I just enjoy it. Sometimes I am kind of melancholy, and it just seems fitting to sing a sad song. Sometimes I am depressed, and I need to combat depression with joyful expression. But usually it comes as an outburst of something I am joyful about. I have written a few songs, not many but a few. They all came to me when I was thinking about the Lord when He had just brought Laura into my life. It set me in a joyful mood because of His wonderful grace. The songs just came.
The Psalmist, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, commands us to sing joyfully to the Lord. It is not enough for him to give us a command, but He also tells us how great He is. He is in the deep places of the earth. I have visited a few caverns. I have been to Marvel Cavern, Lurray Caverns, Alabaster Caverns and some caverns in Chiapas, Mexico. I am always amazed at the beauty under the earth that God has created. Who knows what beauties lie under the earth that only God knows what is there. He alone appreciates their great beauty. He created if for His own pleasure. Yet man from the very beginning has been digging in the earth trying to mine its treasures and explore its beauties.
I am equally amazed at the beauty of the sea. I saw the ocean for the first time when I was 19 years old. For almost three years I lived only three blocks from the beach. Another ten years I lived just a fifteen minute drive from the beach. The sea is incredibly vast in its majesty and beauty. It has been said that we know more about outer space than we know about our oceans. I don’t know if that statement is true, but I do know the ocean is an incredible ecosystem which also is full of the beauty of the Lord. Its storms are terrible indeed. Its life is teeming with complexity and diversity. Its color is breath taking. I remember one night walking on the beach. We had some kind of anomaly in the ocean that caused thousands maybe millions of little jellyfish to wash up on the beach. As Laura and I walked along, the breakers would dash the little jellyfish against the sand. When their tentacles hit, they would light up light like mini-lightning bolts. The beach literally sparkled with the jellyfish raging against the breakers and sand. It was a sight of outrageous beauty. He created it for His own pleasure. Even if we had not been there, it would have happened, and He would have enjoyed it! What was it like for those firs explorers to build boats and rafts and set out for other continents across the vast sea?
I have also lived near mountains. Their beauties to me are the most staggering of all. To stand on the edge of an outcropping of rock near the pinnacle of a mountain causes a swelling of awe to rise up in me that takes my breath away. Because of the panoramic scene which spreads out before me, it causes me to see how little I am in a vast array of beauty. Yet I am only able to enjoy its beauty because others have built roads and cut pathways for me to get to the top safely and then return home. Yet God created and sees this beauty and more that we cannot ever see. He does it all for His pleasure.
This God, who does this, takes even greater delight in His creation of us. He sees possible beauty in us that no one else can see, and He rejoices! With all this possibility, He chooses take us into His flock, and he cares for us as a shepherd for his sheep. He yearns to draw that beauty out of us, but it means that we must listen to His voice. It is going to take a lot of work. Work makes me tired, but if we listen to his voice, He leads us into a work that is restful. That is His desire. He leads us into a work of beauty that is restful. Why wouldn’t that knowledge cause a song of joy to well up in me? I have to let it out! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
HOSEA 4
I would have little respect for a man or woman who let their spouse sleep around. Marriage love includes a commitment of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual being to each other. Without that commitment, we do not really understand love. God is love. Marital love reflects and demands a commitment of truth and mercy. Without truth and mercy the relationship, if it continues, is only a mask. One of the signs that a relationship has come to an end is when the truth can no longer be spoken to each other. There is just silence.
So too, a relationship coming to an end will sometimes come to a point where talk no longer produces anything. Those parties in the dead relationship don’t really hear each other when they do speak, or if they do hear, it is only the sound of tearing each other down. Israel had come to the point where God was no longer going to even rebuke them. Israel was entering a period of silence from God. In verses 4-6 God says:
Now let no man contend, or rebuke another; For your people are like those who contend with the priest. Therefore you shall stumble in the day; The prophet also shall stumble with you in the night; And I will destroy your mother. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.Matthew Henry says of this:
It is a sign that persons and people are abandoned to ruin when God says, Let them not be reproved. … but the meaning is, They are so hardened in sin, and so ripened for ruin, that it will be to little purpose either to deal with them or to deal with God for them. Note, It bodes ill to a people when reprovers are silenced, and when those who should witness against the sins of the times, retire into a corner, and give up the cause.
It is to God’s glory that when we have become so hardened to sin that we no longer listen to the voice of God, for God to cease speaking, even through his appointed prophets. It is demeaning to the innocent spouse to beg and plead with the wayward spouse. There is a time for tough love. A time when the innocent one says, “You make a choice, either love me only or leave me for good.” The more that the faithful spouse pleads for the errant one to come back, the weaker they become. So to with God. He is after all, God. It just wouldn’t do for our Creator to beg us to come back. It demeans His glory. He commands that we return to Him. If we do not, He ceases to speak to us. It is consistent with His glory. Indeed, we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
Ephesians 6
The glory of the Lord Jesus Christ extends to the very core relationships of our lives. Our relationship is not something that we address only on Sundays. It is an every-day-in-every-way relationship. His glory affects our relationship with our parents changing those who walk with Him so that they honor their parents. His glory changes our relationship with our children, changing those who walk with Him so that bringing up children is neither harsh nor lacking discipline but focused on the nurture and admonition of the Lord. His glory affects our relationship with our employers changing those who walk with Him so that the job we have is not just a job but rather it is God's ordained means of our bringing glory to Him. We work not for a boss but for the Lord. His glory affects our relationship with our employees changing those who walk with Him so that their concern for their employees is not just what that employee can do to advance the business. Rather, the concern extends for the general welfare of the employee. As much as possible, the employer desires to advance the welfare of the employee (keeping in mind a godly balance). These things are something that only the Lord Jesus Christ can bring about in people so that they volunteer to do it. Yet, He does it regularly, as people focus on His glory. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John
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