Wheels of Glory! Blog

Uniting Teaching and Worship – VOTD.08.30.16

Posted in Verse of the Day | August 30th, 2016 | by

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and advising one another in all wisdom and singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.  Colossians 3:16

Today’s verse comes right in the middle of Paul describing what it looks like to follow Jesus in the midst of a non-Christian society. So the entire passage is important to understanding how to get through each day. But, interestingly, right in the middle of it, he mentions two keys: teaching and worship. And while there’s many ways to express our love and awe to our God, the specific form of worship he talks about here is “singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs”.

Paul does something similar in Ephesians 5 where he uses singing out our thanksgiving as an introduction to his teaching on marriage and family relationships. In today’s church culture, where worship and teaching are firmly separate activities (with announcements and offering in between <grin>), why would Paul see teaching our Christian faith and worshiping our awesome God in such an integrated way?

Why is worship so important? For that matter, with all the ways we might worship God, why is singing our worship so important to Him? Why would God give music and song such a prominent place, not only in official “worship services”, but in all of life? (more…)

Wheels of Glory! Blog

Ooooh… Aaaah…Woooww! – VOTD.08.29.16

Posted in Verse of the Day | August 29th, 2016 | by

To this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away… But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 2 Corinthians 3:14-16

This summer I had the opportunity to spend significant time hiking in the spectacular Southern Cascade Mountains. The vistas were the “Ooooh… Aaaah…Woooww!” kind. During that time, we saw many. For view-junkies like my family, it was perfect.

Our final days were spent hiking in and around Mt. Hood. Its signature pointed peak is one of the most beautiful in the Cascade Range. The views on our first day were gorgeous, though clouds rolled in in the afternoon and obscured the peak at times. The next day provided a few good views but most of the time the peak was in the clouds.

As we gained elevation the third day we found ourselves literally in the clouds, themselves. So much so that we could barely see twenty meters in front of us; just thick, gray, soupy fog. We had reached McNeil Point, the place of spectacular vistas. They were right in front of us. We knew about beauty. We could imagine the grandeur, but…we couldn’t see it for ourselves. No “Oooohing and Aaaahing and Wowing!” for us that day. (more…)

Wheels of Glory! Blog

Seeing the Beauty of God – VOTD.08.23.16

Posted in Verse of the Day | August 23rd, 2016 | by

Open my eyes so that I can see all the wonderful things in your teachings.Psalm 119:18

God is awesome. He’s superlative beyond anything we can imagine. The Bible proclaims this often; any number of Christian songs have repeated the message from time immemorial. Even otherwise antiseptic doctrinal statements elude to it. Many Christians catch a glimpse of it occasionally when a prayer is answered or in an especially moving Christian meeting.

God’s greatness is a central theme of the Christian faith.

The problem is, much of the time, much of the Christians don’t see His wonder. They don’t see His glory, His beauty…and so, like much of the mainstream around them, they mark time. That’s military marching step where soldiers march in place, moving their legs as if marching, but without stepping forward. It looks pretty cool in a parade, but in real life it gets pretty monotonous.

But even in a parade, if you mark time long enough the whole parade stops…maybe. Or maybe the band behind you just keeps marching forward and runs you over. That’s a pretty intimidating thought. Point is, if God does not open our eyes to behold His glory, we’re marking time in the Christian faith…we’re putting in time and going nowhere. (more…)

Wheels of Glory! Blog

Growing in the Image of Jesus – VOTD.08.22.16

Posted in Verse of the Day | August 22nd, 2016 | by

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. Romans 8:29

There are a lot of reasons why Christians listen to one teacher or another. Some Christian authors appeal to some groups of people better than others. Some of us like humor, others want exciting stories or erudite language.

But by-and-large, the purpose of our reading or listening to Christian teaching is so that our eyes will be opened—that we’ll discover the truth more clearly—that we’ll be changed by the information imparted. God’s truth never changes, but our understanding of it does change and should change as we grow closer to Him, and the Spirit conforms us more and more to His image.

As the Holy Spirit enlarges us as Christians to receive more of what God has for us, we become ready for deeper teaching. Truths that might have just passed over us with a nod five years ago now go off like fireworks in our spirits. The eyes of our hearts are further opened and we see spiritual things more clearly. (more…)

Wheels of Glory! Blog

Seeing Clearly – VOTD.08.16.16

Posted in Verse of the Day | August 16th, 2016 | by

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light you think you have is darkness, how great is that darkness!” Matthew 6:22,23

Last time we talked about casting down and defeating every imagination that exalts itself against the true knowledge of God (2 Cor 10:5). That means that our beliefs and views can and do fall short of the truth and God is out to change that. In fact, God has every intention of tossing out what is wrong and refining the seedlings of real truth that He’s planted in us.

It could be our interpretation of a Bible passage, or our view of What He is like which can cause us to remain a prisoner of our past untruth. When this happens we only hear God in line with our upbringing and what we’ve been taught, what we’ve picked up on TV…

So God comes along and introduces something from outside of our understanding of the truth and right away we want to shut Him down and say, “This is what I’m comfortable with; this is what I believe; this is what my tradition is.” (more…)

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Walking Among the Giants – VOTD.08.14.16

Posted in Verse of the Day | August 14th, 2016 | by

We cast down and defeat every imagination and sophisticated argument that exalts itself against the true knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought and plan in order to make them obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5

I was recently walking through a grove of tall trees in Redwood National Park. Trees of amazing stature were everywhere. At times the canopy was so thick and so high that I had no idea what the weather was like outside the forest. It brought home the idea of walking among the giants.

In the Old Testament, God sent His people to the Promised Land. It was a great place to live but it also was inhabited by giants which they would have to face and defeat. We too live in a land of giants which we must face if we are to have the capacity to know God’s presence in our lives—if we are to be united with Him in an ever-deepening relationship. (more…)

Wheels of Glory! Blog

Lifestyle Glory – VOTD.08.09.16

Posted in Glory, Verse of the Day | August 9th, 2016 | by

Be filled with the Spirit. Speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Ephesians 5:17-21

Last time we were looking at what being filled with the Spirit looks like: First of all, it looks like worship, Public Worship, Private Worship, Experiential (thankful) Worship and Lifestyle Worship.

We saw that lifestyle worship is treating our brothers and sisters in Christ as if they were Jesus. If we are involved with sins against our brothers and sisters in Christ and we have not made things right with them the Holy Spirit’s filling is still available but we won’t experience it.

How do I know that? In introducing the passage in Eph 5 that we are looking at, Paul says “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you (Eph. 4:30,31) (more…)

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Resulting Glory – VOTD.08.08.16

Posted in Glory, Verse of the Day | August 8th, 2016 | by

Understand what the Lord’s will is: Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Ephesians 5:17-21

The result of the continual presence of God in our lives (what we’ve been calling Remaining Glory) is that it makes us different people. It is not the other way around. I want to look at a few areas in which the growing presence of God in our lives changes us as believers: Here are 3 areas we will look at; as the presence of God fills us day by day:
1) God is worshipped
2) The Word of God is revered
3) The characteristics of God are manifested in our lives (more…)

Wheels of Glory! Blog

Remaining Glory – VOTD.08.02.16

Posted in Glory, Verse of the Day | August 2nd, 2016 | by

To the faithful you (God) show yourself faithful,
to the blameless you show yourself blameless,
to the pure you show yourself pure
but to the unfaithful you show yourself a wrestler. 2 Sam 22:26,27

In some ways today’s verse divides us as Christians into two categories: those who bask in God’s presence and those who wrestle in it.

Last time we saw how tempting it is to think that people who seem to have a greater degree of the presence of God in their lives are just particularly pure, but that’s not the case. Not one of us is particularly pure, but some are more aware of God’s presence than others.

God shows Himself to those who fix their eyes on Him. His glory (presence) is on them. The picture they see of Him is of a faithful, righteous and pure God. This God of ours comforts us with words like “I will never leave you nor forsake you. I will never drop you.” God is Loyalty itself. (more…)

Wheels of Glory! Blog

Remaining Glory – VOTD.08.01.16

Posted in Glory, Verse of the Day | August 1st, 2016 | by

For if what is fading was came with Glory, what remains is even more glorious!
2 Corinthians 3:11

Last week we talked about the temporary experience of God’s presence that happens to Christians from time to time. Although this temporary experience of the overwhelming presence of Jesus is wonderful, Paul declares that even greater than this is the glorious presence of God that can be with us always.

Part of the New Covenant that Jesus provides for us is the indwelling Holy Spirit. All Christians have the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit has greater affect in some of us than in others of us. The reason might have less to do with how “spiritual” we are as much as how much we know and understand we are useless without God’s presence. Only those who know they can do nothing seek the Spirit of God earnestly. (more…)