We need a vision of glory
Mark 3:1-6
The Pharisees are watching, always watching to see if they can catch Him out, to see if they can find something, anything to pin on Him and so cause His downfall. We see that over and over again in the gospel accounts and you wonder, don’t you, how is that possible, how could they watch Him, see His healing, His power, His gentleness, His love and not be moved, not be changed by it? But you see the answer in verse 5, their hearts were hard. They were blind to the truth of who He is, there was a callus covering their eyes and they did not even know it was there. They so wanted God to be made in their image, they wanted God to do what they would have Him do, to behave in what they thought were appropriate ways and most of all to approve of them and what they were doing.
Isn’t that a lot like us today? Haven’t we reduced God to manageable pieces? Don’t we try fit Him into our little boxes, reducing Him to what we can understand and manipulate? Don’t we sometimes present Him in the way we think He will be accepted rather than for who He is? Don’t we scale Him down to be just simply the One who will fix our lives and make everything better, make us happy? Isn’t that the Jesus we are proclaiming – the One who is love, love, love with no mention of His great majesty and holiness?
We do not appear to understand that when God is devalued then all of mankind’s ideals, hopes and aspirations are also devalued and the result is moral calamity. We must elevate God to His rightful place, we must forever hold Him up as He is – holy, invincible, almighty God – unchanging, omniscient, omnipotent Lord to whom we all owe unswerving obedience and love.
If we continue to devalue Jesus Christ, to present Him as the One who will simply satisfy our felt needs; if we, the church, the bride of Christ, do not elevate our view of Him then man’s view of himself will continue to be warped and he will not understand his need of the truth of the gospel, or his desperate need of the Saviour.
On our website you will find details of a conference that is coming up in September - called A Vision of Glory. Will you prayerfully consider joining us as we seek to see our Lord Jesus as He really is - the exalted God Man, the One who is coming soon to rule and to reign on this planet. Will you listen as He speaks, as He tells us of all that is to come so that you are ready to see Him face to face and in the meantime represent Him as the glorious King of kings and Lord of lords? Will you choose this day to do all that you can to lift up His name, to honour your King and to manifest His glory in every place?
O Lord, please remove our hardness of heart, cut away the callus from our eyes and help us to see You in all Your glory and to proclaim You for who You really are – the Great I AM, the Alpha and the Omega, the Creator and Sustainer of all things – Almighty, All-knowing, Everlasting God.
