a child of god
this is the way, run in it
On Friday, at Staff Morning Prayers (at St John's Church), the Morning Prayer service opened up with this.
O Lord, open our lips All: And our mouth shall proclaim Your praise. Your faithful servants bless You. All: They make known the glory of Your kingdom. Blessed are You, Sovereign God, Ruler and judge of all, To you be praise and glory for ever. In the darkness of this age that is passing away May the light of your presence which the saints enjoy Surround our steps as we journey on. May we reflect Your glory this day And so be made ready to see Your face in the heavenly city where night is no more. Blessed be God, father, Son and Holy Spirit. All: Blessed be God forever. This bit of liturgy caught my attention. At the start of it, it declares that God's faithful servants (that's you and me) bless the LORD God, and that our task is "to make known the glory of God's kingdom." How do we do that? The liturgy talks about the darkness of this age that we live in - well, we can all see that! Wars, rumors of wars, oppression, poverty, rioting, violence and violent rhetoric, uncertainty . . . and the list goes on. It then paints this lovely picture of the saints, God's people, walking through this darkness with steps of light, spotlights of light around their feet, around them, as they walk forward. What is this light? It is the reflected glory of God's presence. "May the light of your presence which the saints enjoy surround our steps as we journey on." As we spend time in God's presence, spending time with Him, His glory rubs off on us! Not for our glory, but to display God to the world. "May we reflect Your glory." In doing this, spending time with God, living our lives in such a way that we reflect Him to the world, we are preparing ourselves to see Him face to face one day. It's like someone you get to know through what they have written and what they have done, whom you then get to meet in person and see face to face. One day, we will see God face to face - those who belong to God through Jesus Christ, His Son. 1 Peter 1:8-9 says this, "...and though you have not seen Him (Jesus), you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls." In the Old Testament, the Bible records that Moses, a servant of the LORD God, got to see Him face to face. God said Moses was His friend, as well as His servant (Exodus 33:11). Exodus chapter 34 talks about how when Moses met with God, face to face, he would come out of the tent of meeting and his face shone, the skin on his face shone with the reflected glory of God and His presence. This was alarming to the people of Israel, so Moses would put a veil on his face so they would not be afraid. Moses would take the veil off when he was with God, but he put the veil back on when he came out of the tent to be with the people of Israel. That veil is a foreshadowing of the veil in the temple of God in Jerusalem. That veil (both in the tabernacle and in the final temple) separated the holy of holies where God's presence resided above the mercy seat of the arc of the covenant, just as Moses' veil separated the people from seeing the reflected light off Moses' face from His being in the presence of God. That veil in the temple was torn in two - broken, removed - when Jesus died on the cross (Mark 15:38). It is no longer necessary! Through Jesus, and His sacrifice on the cross for you and me when He paid for our sins, He made a way for us to be able to enter the holy of holies any time we want, as God's children (Hebrews 6:19-20; 10:19-25). We can with confidence approach God, through Jesus and His shed blood for us, as His children - cleansed, loved, forgiven, restored - we can spend time with God in His presence and live our lives in such a way that people see the glory of God, see Him, know Him, like we do.
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Franci Ballwatching and working for the kingdom of God in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham - UK Archives
January 2019
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