From darkness to glory | God's glory, our delight

This is our final episode in our much-beloved series, God's Glory, our delight! What a journey! Our conclusion today calls us to step from darkness to glory. Stephanie spends a moment reminiscing on the journey we have undertaken together. Over the 12 episodes of this series, we have sought to create a new perspective through which to view the world, our life, our circumstances, our choices, and our identity –by learning to see God as He is.

We have wondered, How can I delight in God’s glory in…

-        My identity

-        My choices + behaviors + thoughts = ever deepening work of the Cross in me

-        My circumstances – past, present, future.

-        My relationship with God

-        Others

We've looked at understanding what keeps us from delighting in God’s glory - misunderstandings about...

-  who He is

-  His heart for us

-  the depth of our sin nature and ability to overcome and our need for Him

-  His utter ability to save us from ourselves and give us His resurrection power.

-  who we truly are in His sight

-  what glory is, and what delight is

-  what humility is

We've pondered our lack of beholding the perspective of heaven, through His eternal purpose in creating us and our eternal glorified state (in body, soul, spirit). We've started on the path to step into His ultimate purpose for our life – delight in His glory. We've studied practical habits of growth in Christlikeness, individually (with a focus on humility as meekness; dependence on Him; correct beholding of Reality/Truth; love), delight through individual spiritual disciplines of Bible intake, prayer/fasting, journaling, worship) and corporately (church, mentoring, love).

We've tried to approach a definition of the glory of God – who He is, and who we are. He says, " I am, and there is no other." So we are called to choose: His glory, or mine?

What a journey! So today we are pondering: How can I be different because I delight in His glory? How delighting in His glory changes me?

Today's verses: "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." (2Corinthians 3:17-18)

Let's be practical...

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GOD'S GLORY, OUR DELIGHT | THE GOSPEL SPICE SERIES

Delighting in the glory of God. Does this concept strike you as reserved for spiritual contemplatives? What if, instead, it proved the highly practical, deeply foundational perspective you need right now?

Why does God’s glory even matter in our day and age? How can we learn from Jesus to make His glory our true North and lifelong quest? What keeps us from fully stepping into this God-ordained purpose for our life? How do we kindle delight for God on a daily basis? And, once we have embraced God’s glory as our heart’s true delight, how can we then come alongside others?

Join us to cultivate a sincere delight for God’s glory, rooted in an honest, hard look at the depth of our need, and in the much deeper Reality of His grace. Trace the glory of God through Scripture and in your own life. Behold the exact radiance of God’s glory, revealed in Jesus. Learn to see yourself as Christ does—through the lens of the Father’s love at the cross. Jesus offers to overwhelm our deadly self-centeredness with His resurrection power. He carries us every step of the way, even as He calls us to true humility on the path to glory.

Who has time to cultivate the delight that comes from pondering the glory of God? And yet, nothing could be more urgent today. Marthas and Marys, Peters and Johns—we are all invited to dare to dream of a lifestyle of God-centered delight. Nothing could be more practical.

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