GLORY to
GLORY – WHAT ABOUT THE “to”?
Today I talked to a good friend traveling
across three states to take his son to school. He was experiencing car trouble,
financial drama and now his son was having a terrible allergic reaction that was
causing the boy’s eyes to swell nearly shut. Traumatic! But he still had a good
attitude and continued to pray and look for the blessings. 2 Corinthians 3:18
tells us that when we seek the Lord we are being changed from glory to glory. “But we all, with open face beholding as in
a glass [mirror] the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from
glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” It’s not just
the one time, when we get born again, but the many times we are required by God
to drop aspects of our old nature and put on the new nature of the Christ
within. The glory part on either side, is awesome, but what about the “to” in
between?
CHANGE – OUCH! Keeping the status quo may not
be exciting, but at least it’s somewhat comfortable—it’s what we’re used to. But
when we’re looking in the mirror, wanting to see more of the Lord in our lives,
we’re going to be going from glory to glory. The increasing levels of glory are
great, but we have to get through that little “to” and it can be kind of tough,
as my friend was finding out: new level, new devil.
I learned something amazing about Psalm 23
just yesterday, that I think applies here. The Psalm reads: “The Lord is my
shepherd; I shall not want [lack]. He maketh [is making] me to lie down in
green pastures: he leadeth [is leading] me beside the still waters. He
restoreth [is restoring] my soul ” (vv. 1-3). Remember that when you read a
word in the King James version, the “eth” is not past, but an ongoing action.
The teacher/guide had a group in the Negev
desert. The guide had the students look across the way at a bare hillside
traversed with well-worn sheep paths. The group watched as two shepherd girls
led their flock across the landscape. He told the group that in this area, this
was called “green pastures!” It looked totally brown and barren in the video.
The guide said the sheep paths were just far
enough apart so that a sheep on either side could reach into the area between
paths to eat. Eat what? It didn’t look like there was anything there. He explained
that there was a little moisture in the morning and it only was enough to
moisten around the bottom of the rocks. That’s where small tufts of grass would
grow. The video panned in and sure enough you could see the damp darkened part at
the bottom of the rocks and there popped up 3-inch to 5-inch thin tufts of what
looked like a small weed-like grass. The take was so little, the sheep had to
keep moving from one tuft to the next, but as they went they were rewarded with
enough food to satisfy them.
That’s how it is when we traverse the “to”
between the glory spots. It is in these times that the Lord does some restoring
of our souls. Our spirits are perfect the minute we get born again, but our
souls need some help and it’s in the times between the glory levels that the growing
pains take place in our souls. A great example of this is with Joseph.
Joseph was the youngest son and the favorite of
his father. He was happy and blessed, but he had one recognizable downfall: his
pride. He had a dream and instead of keeping it to himself, he bragged about it
to his brothers, who already didn’t like him because their father liked him
best.
“Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, ‘Listen to this dream I
had: We
were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and
stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.’
“His brothers said to him, ‘Do you intend to reign over us? Will you
actually rule us?’ And they hated him all the more because of his dream
and what he had said” (Gen. 37:5-8).
Joseph was young and excited about his dream.
He wanted everyone to know how blessed he was, so he told his brothers and his
parents about the prophesy God gave him. But this was rude. The prophesy was
for him alone. It was prideful of him and unthoughtful to blatantly blast his
family with his private revelation. He was a child and probably meant no harm,
but sometimes we as adults also want to blast people with how great and
righteous we are as Christians and all the wonderful things we’re doing. But as
we go through the “to” from glory to glory, the Lord has the knack for humbling
us so we remember that we are not so smart, really, without Him!
Joseph’s brothers were so jealous and hateful,
they intended to kill him. The older brother talked the others out of it, but
they decided to leave him a pit to die. Then they sat down to eat and when they
looked up they saw a company of Ishmeelites and decided they could sell Joseph
instead and make some money. But there was another tribe, the Midianites, who
came by just then.
“Then there passed by Midianites
merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph
to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into
Egypt.
“And Reuben [the older brother] returned unto the pit; and,
behold, Joseph was not in the pit; and he rent his clothes” (Gen. 37:28-29).
And
this was just the beginning of Joseph’s travel through the “to,” between his
glory with his father and the glory he ended up having as Pharaoh’s right-hand
man.
What
do you think Joseph thought about? What emotional trauma did he go through
during this time? He found out his brothers hated him enough to want to kill
him. They not only stole his prized jacket, a gift from his father, but they didn’t
even leave him with any water. He never knew that they were going to come back
for him and sell him instead, though the idea they would trade him for money
would hardly be much of a consolation in such a situation. Then he was probably
tied up by the Midianites, then handed over to the Ishmeelites, who also probably
treated him harshly as a foreigner and a prisoner till they could get him to
Egypt, where they’d also sell him as merchandise.
Then
when Joseph got to Egypt he had some glory times and went through more “to”
experiences as well. But you never see that pride coming up again. He grew in
the “to.”
God
is with us in these tough life experiences so that we can grow. Each experience
where we are challenged to get rid of some old man characteristic like pride,
or bitterness or anger or laziness, or whatever it is, we come through to a
higher place of glory in Him. As Joseph said about his experience: “But as for
you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass,
as it is this day, to save much people alive” (Gen. 50:20).
Love, Carolyn
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