the Cross the Glory the Deliverance
There is the brightness of Jesus’ face, and the cloud, as the expression of the glory of God.
“the miracle is not that Jesus glowed. It is that He did not glow all the time”. Chuck Missler
Veiled in flesh the godhead see, hail the incarnate deity, pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel
Jesus was discussing the things of the Kingdom of God with Moses, the emissary of the Law and Elijah, the
Primogenitor of the Prophets. Peter mistakes the event as somehow place Jesus at the same level as these two. But God is not willing to allow that misconception to stand, nor to allow Peter to continue in his verbose ramblings. We can listen to Moses if we choose, or look to Elijah as our standard, or follow Peter as some kind of head of the Church, but God would interrupt such idolatry and would have us hear Jesus-the Only begotten Son.
Some pastor has said that we Christians often suffer from spiritual Attention Deficit Disorder, ADD. I, personally, suffer from DIS-Delayed Intelligence Syndrome.
Faith & glory are related
Moses-Let me see Your glory (exodus 33)
The glory of the LORD descends like a cloud
Isaiah . . . the train of His glory filled the temple . . . Isaiah fell on his face ‘I am undone (falling to pieces), for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips’.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
11 This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.
Paul-sees the glory of Jesus, his appearance brighter than the noonday sun, and he is blinded and falls to the ground.
The statement of Peter in both cases is a misunderstanding of the nature of spiritual wisdom and the Kingdom of God. . . ‘may it never be Lord’ and ‘let me build three booths for you & Moses and Elijah’. He has misunderstood that the glory of God is seen in the sacrifice of His Son. The path to glory is the road to the cross.
Glorious Faith
The Weight of Glory
Moses’ face glowed when he spent time in the presence of God.
James-martyred shortly after Stephen-didn’t write about the glory, but John & Peter did
John
Stephen’s face glowed when he was proclaiming the Good News of Jesus (Acts 6:15)
And we are transformed from glory to glory
18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
What is it that transforms us from glory to glory?
Walking in the footsteps of Jesus toward the cross
Walking by faith, not by sight-
We miss out on this glory for two reasons: 1. Because we see by natural eyes, rather than by faith and 2. We focus our affections on those things which we see.
If a transtemporal, transfinite good is our real destiny, then any other good on which our desire fixes must be in some degree fallacious, must bear at best only a symbolical relation to what will truly satisfy. C. S. Lewis, the Weight of Glory
So, what is faith?
The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
“by prayer (& some manuscripts ‘and fasting’) . . .” (Mark 9:29)
prayer is the determination to look to God rather than man, to see the world from a heavenly, spiritual perspective rather than merely looking with fleshly eyes, to see behind the veil to the glory of God.
When they returned to the other disciples they discovered another deficiency-those who had not experienced the glory of Jesus were impotent to bring deliverance to a boy who had been oppressed by a demon.
Jesus said it was because of a lack of faith
And
That with faith, mountains could be moved.
Matthew 17:20 The Potentials of Faith
Trusting is natural. We learn not to trust . I wonder how many times we must trouble Him by our lack of faith that is manifested by our worry and anxiety over our situations.
Faith like a grain of mustard seed can move mountains.
By faith Enoch was translated into heaven without dying.
By faith Noah escaped the judgment of God that destroyed the earth.
By faith the walls of Jericho fell down.
Kingdoms were subdued.
The mouths of lions were stopped.
The three Hebrew children survived the fiery furnace.
Out of weakness they were made strong.
The armies of the aliens were put to flight.
Women received their dead to life.
Look what else has happened to men of faith.
They were tortured.
They had trials of cruel mockings.
They were scourged.
They were imprisoned.
They were stoned.
They were sawed in two.
They were slain with the sword.
They wandered about in sheepskins, destitute, afflicted, and tormented.
Faith did not keep Daniel from the den of lions, but it did sustain him in the den that they did not harm him. Faith did not keep Daniel's friends from the fiery furnace, but it preserved them in the furnace. There was a fourth man there with them, who’s glory shone, Jesus was with them.
Psalm 23-we all memorize and love, especially the still waters and green pastures. But there is also the valley of the shadow of death, and the meal prepared in the presence of enemies.
There is not a single case in the scriptures where faith was used for personal gain. Faith is not an instrument to get my will done, but to get God's will done. It may be that it is God's will that I should suffer. It was surely His will that His Son should suffer. Peter speaks of us suffering according to the will of God. The greatest faith is not manifested in my escaping all suffering, but to trust the keeping of myself to the will and purpose of God if it should call for suffering.
Chuck Smith
Isaiah 43:2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. 3 For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior
The price of Glory
Fredrick Lehman describes his conversion
One glad morning about eleven o’clock while walking up the country lane, skirted by a wild crab-apple grove on the right and an Osage fence, with an old white elm gate in a gap at the left, suddenly Heaven let a cornucopia of glory descend on the eleven-year-old lad. The wild crab-apple grove assumed a heavenly glow and the Osage fence an unearthly lustre.
• The Love of God (by Fredrick Lehman)
The love of God is greater far Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star, And reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled, And pardoned from his sin.
Oh, love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
When hoary time shall pass away, And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,
When men who here refuse to pray, On rocks and hills and mountains call,
God’s love so sure, shall still endure, All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—The saints’ and angels’ song.
(not written by Fredrick Lehman, but by a prisoner in an insane asylum)
Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky.
It is faith like this, which sees the glory of God even in our darkest night of suffering, which brings transformation to those who are oppressed, depressed and defeated. It is this faith that reveals the glory of God, and castes out demons.
The problem with us is we want the glory without the cross. We are like Peter—we see suffering as something to be avoided, and think of glory as something to be memorialized. God would have us see His glory in every day and every moment-to experience fully His glory and grace as it is revealed even in the worst of circumstances, even when it requires that we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
