Wanna share in God's glory?

Has God ever seemed like a mean person to you? He has to me. Growing up I always believed thatGod would punish me if I did something wrong. I always believed he was just up there waiting for me to mess up so he could come down on me and say, "yep, you should have listened, I told you so."

Having this misconception of God has caused me some damage in my life. Some of that damage is when I find out truth about God, it causes me to say, "This is too good to be true!"

One of those truths that I've had a hard time believing because it DOES SOUND too good to be true is what this blog willbe about.

I recently read a book called, Keepers of the Seed by Sandy Hathaway

She says that God wants us to be His glory on the earth. She also defines His glory as meaning "simply to show thetrue nature, character, and attributes of someone (God)."

I'm going to check this out for myself.

Is that really possible that God wants me to share in his glory? Is it really possible that there is a time and place on this earth that I will share in his glory?

In Romans 8:17 it states, and since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God's glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.

First question: What is glory?

Answer: According to dictionary.com it means many things including very great praise, honor, fame, admiration, resplendent beauty, or magnificence, prosperity, state of absolute greatness, contentment, gratification. Feel free to check itout for yourself just click on this link: glory.

Second question: Do I want it?

Answer: Of course I do. Don't you?

Next question: How do I get it?

Answer......

Chain of Events

God knew me before I was created, he planted within me desires, desires that were intended to draw me into a relationship withhim, therefore he chose me before I was born, the desire he gave me was to go to him and wanting to go to him, he gave me right standing with himself, through Jesus Christ, and because I have right standing, he gave me his glory!

Check out this picture of the sun before your read any further. Let's pretend that God is the sun. I know that he's not but let's imagine that he is. Any area within the circle surrounding the sun would be considered a part of the sun's glory.

In 1st John 1: 5 it states, "....God is light and there is no darkness in him at all. v 7. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin."

Romans 5:1-2 Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory.

So, If God is the sun and because of Jesus Christ we have right standing with God, then we are standing within the realm of God's glory. We can have fellowship with God because of Jesus Christ. Which means if we areclose enough to God to fellowship with Him, then we are close enough to be within the circle or haloor anti corona, whatever it is you wanna call it.

So, I'm in fellowship with God and because of that I'm already sharing his glory. Notice in the picture you don't have to be too far away from the sun to get a piece of the glory.

Forth question: Howdo I bring glory to God on this earth?

Answer: Fellowship with God, hear his voice, obey, be who God created you to be!

I don't know about you but once I've figured out how much God loves me and wants to share his glory with me, I'd like to return a little something to him. The bible also says that people or we can give or bring glory to God. How does that work?

God, show me. I do not get it. How can I bring glory to you when I'm getting my glory from you. You are the light and because of you I'm able to shine or share in your glory. How can I, as human, bring glory to you?

Within 24 hours after I prayed the prayer of, Dear God, please show me how I bring glory to you. I need a visual. Please help me understand. He showed up in the most unexpected place. I am a teacher. I use an overhead projector. During class as students were working independently, I had my overhead projector on waitingfor them to finish up so we could move on. I looked down at the overhead projector glass and saw an anticorona. An anticorona is defined as "a luminous edging around the shadow of an observer or the point where his or her shadow would fall, as thrown by the sun upon a cloud or fog bank."

When I first saw this definition it was under the definition of the word glory. I had to search for an image of this and here is what I found.

What this reminded me of was something that my husband and myself have seen a couple of times in the clouds. Never understood what it was until now. What we would see is a very small section of the outer part of thisanticorona in the sky. It wouldn't be the color of a rainbow but an orangish, redish, yellowish section of light in the cloud. We would always ask, "where is that coming from?"

Back to my overhead projector. I saw, just like in the sky, a smigid of an anticorona and asked the question again, "where is that coming from?" which in return led me to look at the center of the glass where the light was bright and shinning and that's when it hit me. How we bring glory to God is when he causes us to share in his glory then we reflect it right back to him.

When we are at our best, being who God created us to be, fully human but fully fellowshipping with our heavenly father, we can't help but shine. When we shine, people ask, "where is that coming from?" The answer, of course, is from our creator! Our creator shines so therefore we do too! How we shine as humans is in many different forms.

All I know is that I want to share in God's glory so I can bring him glory but I also want the definition of glory too. I'm not about to admit that I just wanna do it for God cause that would be considered lying and I'm trying not to lie today!

Some people are really good at serving others. They are very good at doing for others and not expecting anything in return. God, has given them this gift. It doesn't burn them out to do it and people look at them and wonder how they can be so selfless. If this is you, this is how you bring glory to God.

Some people are really good at entertaining people. They shine on stage and it just comes natural to them. God, has given them this gift. If this is you, this is how you bring glory to God.

Some people are really good at writing. They can organize their thoughts well on paper. They write when they are inspired. God, has given them this gift. If this is you, this is how you bring glory to God.

In what ways are you brining glory to God and how are you sharing in God's glory?

Dear Heavenly Father,

I am able to bask in your glory because of your son Jesus Christ. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to share in your glory and to also give glory back to you. Please help me to know who I am as your child and help me to bring you glory in all that I do.

Amen

Living Loved and Freely,

Elizabeth