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Seeking His glory is the way

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“The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” Eccl. 12:13–14 ... the Bible in many ways presents the glory of God as the chief end or purpose of human beings. He made us in His image to reflect His glory and to enter His glorious presence through Christ (Gen. 1:26–28; Heb. 12:18–29). Moreover, the Lord redeems us so that we will finally see Him face-to-face (1 John 3:3). In light of God’s purpose for us in creation, redemption, and worship, then, we should have as our ultimate aim to live our lives to the glory of God. If we want to bring ourselves in line with our Creator’s loving purpose for us, then seeking His glory is the way to do it. Consequently we must ask this question: Since the meaning of life is the glory of God and living in such a way that we aim to know and make known that glory, how do we acc...
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Isaac's removal of the Philistine rubbish

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.. a renewal of the life of the church as the result of the direct action of the Spirit of God upon an individual or a group of people, a church or even a group of churches, or perhaps even more or less a nation. It is a visitation of the Spirit, an outpouring of the Spirit, a phenomenon, nothing that man organizes or arranges or produces. It is a sovereign action of God. I ended on that note last Thursday evening, and this is a most important point, this clear definition as to what we mean by revival, and I considered some of the objections which so many people seem to have to this whole notion and tried to show how they were unscriptural. I still would repeat that I believe the greatest factor in causing the whole notion of revival to recede in the thinking of the church has been due to the prevalence of an Arminian type of teaching which is activist and believes that men can do things, both the preacher in the pulpit and the one who listens. It is this assertion of the will ...
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Moses and I Am — v. 2

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{meditation with analysis - partial text} Moses said: “Now if I have indeed found favor in Your sight, please teach me Your ways, and I will know You and find favor in Your sight. Now consider that this nation is Your people.” Then He replied: “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Q This is the text. What do you think about it? Claude.ai This is a beautiful, distilled moment from Exodus 33:13-14. What strikes me about this scene is the simplicity and intimacy of it. By titling it "Moses and I Am" and presenting just this exchange, you've isolated something profound: Moses asking to truly know God, and God's response being not a teaching or a set of rules, but presence and rest . The structure is almost like a poem - Moses's request is earnest and somewhat complex (teach me, let me know you, consider your people), while God's answer is remarkably direct and personal: "My presence will go with you." T...
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Bowed Down in the Presence of God

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Sinclair Ferguson ... What have been your most memorable experiences of worship? I imagine if this were a phone-in program, we could spend the rest of it listening to one another giving very different stories about our memories of worship that has brought us into the presence of God. For some of us, it might be the first time we were in a very large gathering and listening to people praising God together. For others of us, it might have been worship in a rural place in a faraway country with Christians who had very little, but hearts full of praise. And for some of us, it might be an occasion when we felt the density of worship in the singing, or the power of the Word of God in the preaching, or the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. No doubt, each one of us has his or her own special memory. But the thing that binds them together, as we’ve been reflecting, is that on those occasions, we have become conscious of the presence of...
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I Will Remember Their Sins No More

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Sinclair Ferguson I’m very tempted to remind you that these past few days, we’ve been thinking about things that we tend to forget. But I think it’s a good idea to round out the week by thinking about something that we actually need to forget. Yesterday we were thinking about remembering God’s covenant with us, because He remembers that covenant with us, and He promises that He will never forget it. But I find it intriguing that in that covenant, He actually promises that there is something He will forget. You remember the promise of the new covenant made in Jeremiah 31:34—and cited in the New Testament in Hebrews 8:12 because it’s fulfilled in Jesus Christ—where God says, in the New Covenant, “I will remember their sins no more” (Jer. 31:34). He makes a similar promise in Isaiah 43:25: “I am He Who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins” (Isa. 43:25). You can think about it this way: the only thing that God says He forgets is your s...
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