Bravo!

 

“Hallelujah! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. The kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. King of kings and Lord of lords, and He shall reign forever and ever.”

—Revelation 19:6; 11:15

Most people will recognize the words in the Scripture verse above as the text of the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah. It has become a custom for those in the audience or congregation to rise to their feet and remain standing during the singing of this chorus from the oratorio. King George II, attending the first performance of this work in 1741, was so moved by the glorious music that he stood. The audience in the concert hall followed his example. Since that time, kings and commoners have stood in honor of the Lord God Omnipotent, who reigns over heaven and earth.

Whether we stand in honor of the King of Kings, or kneel before Him, echoing the words of the Prophet Isaiah, God spoke these words through the Apostle Paul, found in Philippians 2:9-11:

Therefore God exalted him [Jesus] to the highest place and gave him the name that is above very name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Especially in the culture of the United States, humans find bowing to anyone difficult. But to Americans, bowing before foreign kings and world leaders seems especially troubling because of their exalted place among men and, more often than not, their seeming lack of the kind of humility God will some day require from all of His creation. For an amazing story of a king whom God turned around, please study the story of King Nebuchadnezzar in these three chapters from Daniel 2 - 4.

Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the very large Kingdom of Babylon, thought so much of his own power that he had a 90‑foot‑tall statue of himself erected for all to worship. He boasted of his greatness and flew into a murderous rage at anyone refusing to bow before this representation of himself. But, God took Nebuchadnezzar through some phenomenal experiences and brought him to a place of genuine humility. Note this testimony of the king from Daniel 4:37:

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.

We should humbly pray for world leaders that they, too, may recognize Jesus Christ as the true King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And, like King George II in 1741, honor Christ by standing, or kneeling before Him.

When you listen carefully to the famous “Hallelujah Chorus,” please hear within this piece a sense of the greatness of Christ’s power, the awesomeness of His loving reign, and the honor truly due Him from us all!

 

 

 

 

Gratitude Excites Humility

 

“Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.”

—Daniel 4:37

Pride seems to erase gratitude. Have you ever thought about that? And the reverse seems true as well: gratitude seems to erase pride. How does that happen?

Scripture gives us a multitude of examples of people and nations filled with pride that God had to humble. For example in Ezekiel 28:17, God said to the city of Tyre:

Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor.

Even Satan himself, filled with pride, heard these words from God recorded in Isaiah 14:13:

You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.

We all have those things in our lives for which we are tempted to invest our pride. Whether it’s:

• “my body of work”
  
  
• “my family”
  
  
• “my home”
  
  
• “my beauty”
  
  
• “my talent”
  
  
• “my charming personality”
  
  
• “my something else.”
  
  

When we take personal credit, gloat over others, or try to impress others, we have taken those things that God has given us and turned them into objects of our own personal pride. We have forgotten that God is the source of every good and perfect gift in our lives.

Even countries, cities, and churches can become prideful about the wonderful things that have come their way through God’s grace. When I hear people talk about “American Exceptionalism,” I agree in part. But, I wish those who speak so pridefully of this characteristic of our nation would also recognize that God has “shed His grace on us.” As a nation, we have been extraordinarily blessed by Him. We simply cannot take sole credit for anything our nation has.

Can we feel pleasure in the things God has uniquely given us? Certainly. But, when that pleasure erupts into praise of self and a sense of willful pride, we have crossed a line. When sinful pride creeps into our thinking, we should step back, realize all God has done for us in creating us with gifts and abilities that He has chosen to give to us, and gratefully bow in worship before our great God. He gives us gifts of all sorts. And, He wants us to joyfully use them to glorify Him.

In our example of Nebuchadnezzar at the beginning of this blog post, we see a pagan king, who experienced the humbling of God, pausing to reflect on this powerful, righteous One. How much more should we daily acknowledge God’s work in us. We should take no credit. Instead, we should bow in grateful praise. Everything we have should be on display for God’s glory—not ours!

 

 

Gratitude Erases Fear

 

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

—Philippians 4:6-7

There it is! The key statement! It’s right there in the middle of the verse at the beginning of this blog post!

“… with thanksgiving …”

Who has time to be thankful in the middle of an anxiety producing crisis? Apparently God expects it of us regardless of the circumstances.

“But, what have I to thank Him for when I am in trouble?”

We can always begin by thanking God for Who He is. Elsewhere in Scripture we read that God has almighty power. Even the devil and his demons shudder at that! (see James 2:19) That means that God is bigger than any trouble we may have. We can also look to His omniscience—His “all-knowing wisdom”—concerning us. God knows us in more detail than we know ourselves. And, God knows about every situation in which we may find ourselves.

Add to that, God’s omnipresence—His “everywhere presence”—which He has promised will never leave us or forsake us. We can also thank God that nothing comes our way unless He allows it. It’s true that God has a perfect plan for us, and He wants to use everything, even our troubles, to accomplish His perfect will in us and for us. Therefore, we must wholeheartedly thank Him for it!

In the middle of any prayer-producing crisis in our lives, for what else can we give thanks to God? We can remember how God has treated us in the past. We can focus on how God has answered our prayers. We can remember how God has spared us from worse harm than we experienced. We can recall how God has revealed His love to us during each situation we had to face in our lives.

Has God answered our prayers and healed us before? Then, we must thank Him, and allow that remembrance to take away our fears. Has God provided for us when we have needed help? In response, we must praise God for His faithfuleness. Don’t fear. Indeed, God will provide for us this time, too.

What does the verse at the beginning of this blog post, from the Book of Philippians, promise us when we come with gratitude to God with our requests? It promises that we will have:

“… the peace of God, which transcends all understanding …”

Does all this seem too much to get our minds around? Perhaps, but that’s the kind of powerful result we will see from praying through our fears with thanksgiving.

During all fearful and impossible situations, I challenge each of us, including myself, to live in the place of thanksgiving. Let’s see what God will produce in us to replace all our fears!

 

 

Godly Ophthalmology

 

“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.”

—2 Corinthians 4:4

I once had cataracts. The cataract clouds the vision of the lens of the eye and can be blamed for the majority of human blindness across the world. I am grateful that here in the United States, we have routine cataract surgery, easily done and usually without serious consequences.

What a contrast between blindness and the brilliant glory of Christ. Eugene Peterson defines glory as:

… the open display of God’s good will, his loving salvation, his redeeming purpose.  ¹

The brilliance of God’s glory as referred to in Exodus 34:29-35 caused Moses’ face to shine so intensely that he had to wear a veil when he spoke to the Israelite people. God’s glory, brilliant and dazzling, lies in contrast to the blindness of the human race, struck sightless by the sin we bear.

Just as a cataract fogs the lens completely if not removed, so sin takes away the sight of all of us until God gives us the ability to see again. All of us know the phrase, “I once was blind, but now I see” from the hymn Amazing Grace. ²

A graphic picture of this comes to us in the story of St. Paul on the road to Damascus, found in Acts 9:1-18. Religious and obedient to his faith in every way, Saul thought persecuting this new sect of “Christians” fell on him, and he went about the country making “murderous threats” and imprisoning them. The day that glory of Christ Himself shone on Saul, knocking him from his donkey and blinding him, Saul heard God speak to him from this “glory” and Saul turned to God in repentance and new faith. God then changed Saul’s name to Paul.

Acts 9:18 tells us that after Paul met Ananias, who laid his hands on Paul:

…immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again.

Like the removal of cataracts to restore our physical sight, God miraculously removes the spiritual blindness of our hearts caused by the clouding of sin. He comes to us with that unique life-changing encounter with Him. We then begin to see in a new spiritual way things we never could see before.

We can now observe the brilliant colors of God’s truth that once was a drab absurdity. We understand in a new way God’s wonderful love and His amazing provision for us. Christ Jesus, who once dwelt so far away that we could not see Him, now is seen up close, with clarity and definition.

Let us rejoice today, if God has removed our spiritual cataracts so that we can see Him and know Him. We must pray for those we know who still stumble in the darkness, and ask God for opportunities to allow us to share with them the transforming vision we have received from Him. He has made this operation available to them, as well, through His birth life, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension. The Great Physician waits to heal spiritual eyes and restore sight!

______________________

1 Peterson, Eugene. A Year with Jesus. San Francisco: Harper Collins Publisher, 1989. p. 321.

2 Newton, John. Amazing Grace. Public Domain.