Glory

Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell facedown.

Ezekiel 1.28

How can we possibly describe the glory of God? Even the prophet Ezekiel strains for words; he writes of “an appearance” of a “likeness”. That appearance, that glimpse of glory is enough to make him fall facedown. .

As I prepared to speak on glory a few weeks ago, I was typing this verse on a grey day. I looked out of my window. I could hardly believe the timing. A rainbow crowned the dark clouds, bathing the trees in gold.

If today, your life is like a grey day, may you know the radiance of God’s presence which shines brightest when the clouds are darkest.

Wonder of wonders, in Christ, God’s glory entered the dark clouds of sin and today, he places that glory, the radiance of his presence, in us.

Paul writes,“God who said “Let light shine out of darkness!” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)

You can’t find the end of a rainbow let alone contain it but God places this glory in our hearts. God wants to fill us with glory.

One of the highlight moments of the Old Testament is when God filled his temple with his glory. Now he calls us his temple and wants to fill us with his glory (1 Corinthians 6:19)

Can that be true? Sometimes I feel more like a demolition site than a temple fit for God’s presence.

What a relief to discover that it isn’t about me. God has chosen fragile jars of clay like you and me to be his temple. It’s not about the container. It’s about the content.

And as we turn from obsession with our own glory to gaze with the eyes of our hearts on the glorious face of Christ, the promise is that we too will be transformed from glory into glory. Like Moses who gazed on the face of God and shone, we too will shine.

What does that mean? I think of all the saints in history who have shone with God’s radiant love and grace - feeding the poor, caring for the sick and brokering peace. I was reminded this week hearing the historian Tom Holland that those values of caring for the poor and the sick didn’t exist in the pagan world. In that darkness, Christians shone.

I know that Christians are a mixed up bunch and we don’t always show God’s glory but the promise is true that gazing on Christ transforms us. Those who seek his face are radiant (Psalm 34:5). This week, I was talking with my dad about the East African revival. He described meeting one of the leaders in the 1950s and how his face literally shone. Amazing! It makes me think of those people who have shone with Christ, lighting up my memories, like my youth leader, Heather, who turned up week after week when I was 14 and played silly games with us and patiently encouraged me. I saw her recently and she still shines with Jesus.

I am deeply thankful to God that we had a touch of that glory at the conference last week. A number of people told me that it reset their lives to live for the glory of God. If you missed the morning, you can catch up here.

May God fill you today with the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.