We can glow just like Moses' face
did after he had spoken with God. We can glow even more, because of
the work of the Holy Spirit within us and due to the fact that we
are part of Jesus' Body.
Jesus glowed while He was on earth.
Everyone that was not threatened by Him, loved Him and experienced
God's love and peace just by being in His presence. And when He was
transfigured on the mountain His appearance changed to what He was
really like:
'As the men watched, Jesus'
appearance changed so that His face shone like the sun, and His
clothes became dazzling white.' Matthew 17:2
Paul also writes in 2 Corinthians
4:6 that Jesus' face shone:
'For God who said, "Let there be
light in the darkness," has made us understand that this light is
the brightness of the glory of God that is seen in the face of
Jesus Christ.'
And therefore we need to shine too,
we are part of His Body. We need to reflect His glory for the world
to see, due to His light and power shining within us:
'This precious treasure - this
light and power that now shine within us - is held within
perishable containers, that is, in our weak bodies. So everyone can
see that our glorious power is from God and is not our own.' 2
Corinthians 4:7
We have the power and the light
within us and we need to show it to everyone. But why don't we glow
and shine like we are supposed to? We seldom find a Christian on
fire, glowing with God's love and radiance. Why? I think the answer
lies back in Exodus 34:12-14
'Be careful never to make treaties
with the people in the land where you are going. If you do, you
soon will be following their evil ways. Instead, you must break
down their pagan altars, smash the sacred pillars they worship, and
cut down their carved images. You must worship no other gods, but
only the Lord, for He is a God who is passionate about His
relationship with you.'
This was the first thing God told
Moses when He renewed the covenant with them. Why is it the first
thing? Because God knows how quickly our hearts can turn away from
Him. He knows that our hearts are intrinsically evil and will turn
away from Him the moment it gets a chance. Today we might not have
pagan altars standing around for all to see, but we can so easily
compromise with this world and with the 'gods' of this world -
money, fame, recognition, selfish time consuming interests etc. We
can so easily shift God out of the way to promote our own selfish
motives. We tend to rationalize away sins that we have in our
lives, because we don't want to leave it and frankly rather enjoy
it. We tend to buy modern day carved images like Buddha statues (I
see them being sold everywhere these days), because we think it
looks nice and peaceful. We tend to watch whatever we want on
television and we excuse it because we just need to relax once in a
while. We tend to rush around in a frenzy and when we need to spend
time with God we are too tired. We tend to leave our Bibles at home
when we go on holiday, because we just want to let go and be
ourselves just for a little while. We tend to excuse other people's
sins and try to soothe them that it is okay to do it, because we
don't want to offend them. We tend to join others in doing wrong,
because we feel left out if we don't. We tend to walk all over
other people in the name of 'ambition'. We tend to exercise 10
hours a week, but we don't have 5 minutes to spend with God.
I can go on and on, but I think you
get the point. We don't display God's glory, because we shift God's
Spirit out of the way to make room for the world and its standards
to enter. And when we do that, we can't expect God's glory to shine
through us. His glory can only shine through us, if we make time
for Him and make space for Him to occupy our lives. We cannot allow
the world and its standards to enter into our lives. We need to
focus on God and on His truth, and ask His forgiveness if we do
notice the world creeping back in.
We have the ability to shine
brightly, make sure that you do. Make it your top priority. God
wants His glory to be visible for all to see, especially to a lost
world.
Lord, please forgive us that we
make more time and more space to this world and its standards, than
for You. Please help us in our daily walk to rather focus on You
and on what is good and true, than on the negativity of this world!
Please Jesus, we are nothing without You. Amen