Friday, May 7

Lift up your heads, O you gates; life them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Psalm 24:9

Begin your time today by asking the Lord to open your heart so that the King of glory may make his presence known to you today through his word and by his Spirit.

Read:
Ephesians 3:14-21
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

A couple of weeks ago a volcano erupted in Iceland. Quick, other than this story – when was the last time you thought about Iceland?! But that volcano in a seemingly remote location wreaked havoc on worldwide travel as the plume of volcanic ash spread across the skies over Europe. In other words, that volcano had tremendous impact – albeit negative impact – on the world.

Paul here uses the word “glory” to describe the church of Jesus Christ. What is “glory”? In our culture we tend to think of glory as fame, success, renown – even celebrity. And, course, glory does contain elements of all these – but more! The Old Testament Hebrew word for glory is “kabod.” This word carries the root meaning of “weight” or “that which is heavy.” Something that has glory has great weight. And to change analogies a bit, when something that has great weight falls to the earth it makes a tremendous impact – it leaves a crater.

Paul is saying that the glory of God was fully expressed in Jesus; and that therefore the church is to also be the bearer of that same glory – or weight.

Here are a couple of questions to consider:
Is our church heavy?
Is our church making an impact? If so, what kind of crater are we leaving?
Is your life heavy?
Is your life making an impact? If so, what kind of crater will you leave?
Will the crater we leave be the impact of truth, love, compassion, joy and holiness? Or will we just leave a lot of smoke and dust in the air?

Close your time with the Lord this week by asking him how you might contribute to the glory, weight and impact of his church through your worship, service, generosity, love and obedience.

Brian Coffey