For His Glory

Dear Faith Family,

Everyone who called my name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made...(Isaiah 43.7)

When he was seven his mother noticed something special about her son. Encouraging his love for poetry, his mother sat her son down at their kitchen table and told him to write a poem. He obliged. Using the letters of his name he penned the following (at s-e-v-e-n!):

“I am a vile polluted lump of earth,

So I’ve continued ever since my birth;

Although Jehovah, grace doth daily give me,

As sure this monster Satan will deceive me,

Come, therefore, Lord, from Satan’s claws relieve me.

Wash me in Thy blood, O Christ,

And grace divine impart,

Then search and try the corners of my heart,

That I in all things may be fit to do,

Service to Thee, and sing Thy praise too.”

Wow! Just wow!

In contrast, in his late twenties, another young man encountered Jesus and seized the opportunity. He smithed his own words in the form of a question: “What will you give me if I deliver Him over to you?” (Matthew 26:15) Judas saw Jesus as a means for personal gain.

Here’s where I’m going. When Isaac Watts encountered the living Christ he wrote: “When I survey the wondrous cross, On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride…. Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all."

It would seem that Watts saw himself as a means for Jesus’ glory in contrast to Judas who saw Jesus as a means for his own gain.  I guess the question before us is as follows: “Are our lives an attempt to use Jesus for our gain or are our lives a gift (first received and then afforded to gift back) to use for His glory?”

For His Glory,

Pastor Karl