ODJ: louder
March 22, 2015
READ: 1 Kings 8:1-27
O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in all of heaven above or on the earth below. You keep your covenant and show unfailing love to all who walk before you in wholehearted devotion (v.23).
Having proceeded with my fellow teachers to our seating for our school’s end of year ceremony, I was amused to find I was sitting directly behind the band. Just 18 inches stood between me and some skilled trumpet players. I wondered how my ears would fare after the first few blasts of “Pomp and Circumstance”. And later I stood in wonder as we began a congregational hymn. I couldn’t hear myself singing, however. Only the sound of the majestic brass instruments resonated off the church walls.
In that moment I considered this truth: the glory of God covers our frail humanity.
Commissioned by God to prophesy to a disobedient nation, Ezekiel records his encounter with the splendour of God—One so powerful that the prophet fell face down before his Lord (Ezekiel 1:27-28). Likewise, Isaiah, upon having a vision of God’s greatness, cried out, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. . . . Yet I have seen the King, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies” (Isaiah 6:5). Even Peter, James and John found themselves intimately acquainted with the dirt when God showed up, and all of Peter’s bright ideas and self-directed initiatives faded in the light of His Creator (Matthew 17:1-6). The glory of God reaches far beyond our finite understanding of it. We’re sinful creatures, but our stories don’t end there. Solomon prepared a place where God’s glory would rest. We too can become a living testimony that He’s greater than our most profound failures. When we rest in the truth of Jesus’ blood covering our sin, His glory resonates off the walls of our hearts, a glory we have only begun to see (Isaiah 40:5; Romans 8:18; 1 Corinthians 13:12).
365-day plan: 1 Samuel 8:6-22
Read Exodus 40:16-38 and consider how we should prepare our bodies (God’s temple) to be a place where God’s presence dwells.
What experiences in your life have taught you most vividly about the glory of God? How do we develop the art of learning to look for His glorious work in our lives?