17/01/10

Splendor, Beauty, Power and Glory

Psalms 96:6 - Honour [splendor] and majesty [beauty] are before him: strength [power] and beauty [glory] are in his sanctuary [Holy Place].


Someone questioned me last time as to why (in what authority) I use the substitute words in the scriptures. In directly saying the scholars who translated must have known best.

Let us assume there is a word whose translation is both the words 'bright' and 'glow'. Now both these words show the property of light emitting but each gives a different level or restriction of the light emitting. The Word of God (Truth) is compared in the Bible to a pomegranate fruit, each scripture (understanding) is like its seed. The seed as many faces, some faces are small and some large. One will never know the original place of this seed unless all the others are also put in their original place for each one has an almost unique shape and size. It is only when we have the perfect understanding of the whole Bible only then we would also be confident of the translated word.

Today's scripture hits at the 4 things mankind pursues throughout his life on earth; splendor, beauty, power and glory.

Splendor
Man wants life to be exciting and not dull. He is therefore always pursuing adventure, entertainment, new ways of fulfilling his desires and always extending the boundaries of achievement in his flesh. This is one reason he has not understood Heaven and always compared it with earthly things and activities.

Beauty
Man has built into him a balance of proportions, colours, shapes etc. and wants to see them always in that mindset. The ways of the flesh are also considered by him in this manner because of his limitation of not being able to see beyond the flesh. It is the flesh that decides which is beautiful and which is not, since he is bound in the flesh.

Power
The one thing that is stronger than any wine and the root of most vices. Power can blind the best of man and make him break his morals like they never existed.

Glory
Human glory is one high, of which there is no boundary and one only knows when one has passed its boundary when it has turned to ugliness. No worldly man has been able to really define glory to its really meaning and therefore does not really know what they are pursuing and where to stop.

The Lord is telling us all these belong to Him alone and can be received or experienced in Him and by Him alone. The things we pursue in this world as them are just illusions and we will never receive or achieve them. Jesus as man therefore said that God alone is good and was upset when the rich young man called Him good. Although Jesus was perfect as man yet He knew that all these belonged only to God.

We need to put a break to our flesh engines and start seeing things via our spiritual eyes and we will then have better balance of what we need on earth, how much of it we need and how to control it. Only then we, like Jesus will know that these are out of our hands and belong to God alone and will be in control of our flesh.


[ Prayer Starter ]
Lord God, You alone are good. All power and glory belongs to you alone. You alone are beautiful and true splendor is found in You and your ways alone. Lord, help us to realize it is foolish to pursue these in our flesh and we will have them only when we come unto You, to our eternal Home...

We make this prayer in Jesus' Name, Amen.


[ Reference Scriptures ]
Mark 10:17-18
17 And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?
18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.

Exodus 28:30-35
30 And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim; and they shall be upon Aaron's heart, when he goeth in before the LORD: and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the LORD continually.
31 And thou shalt make the robe of the ephod all of blue.
32 And there shall be an hole in the top of it, in the midst thereof: it shall have a binding of woven work round about the hole of it, as it were the hole of an habergeon, that it be not rent.
33 And beneath upon the hem of it thou shalt make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, round about the hem thereof; and bells of gold between them round about:
34 A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the hem of the robe round about.
35 And it shall be upon Aaron to minister: and his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before the LORD, and when he cometh out, that he die not.

Exodus 9:13-16
13 And the LORD said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
14 For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth.
15 For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth.
16 And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.

Job 36:18-26
18 Because there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee.
19 Will he esteem thy riches? no, not gold, nor all the forces of strength.
20 Desire not the night, when people are cut off in their place.
21 Take heed, regard not iniquity: for this hast thou chosen rather than affliction.
22 Behold, God exalteth by his power: who teacheth like him?
23 Who hath enjoined him his way? or who can say, Thou hast wrought iniquity?
24 Remember that thou magnify his work, which men behold.
25 Every man may see it; man may behold it afar off.
26 Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.

Psalms 21:13
13 Be thou exalted, LORD, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power.

The Word of God was given free to us, therefore we should also share it freely with others. (All rights are with God)