Glory

What brings glory to God?  Or, better stated, what can we do to bring glory to God?

We could study God's Word.  And I do believe this does please God that we are interested in what He sent us through the patriarchs, the prophets, the wisdom authors, the Gospel writers, the historians and the letter writers of the New Testament.  It is all worth knowing and, I believe, essential to our foundation as Christians.  But Bible Study isn't enough.

We could do lots of things but I think Paul, in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, summed it up best "If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing."   

Paul had tried these things and found them wanting, not because they did not have virtue but because they are all empty without the one thing that gives them meaning, purpose and life.  We love ... God, people, ourselves.

Two witnesses show these kinds of love in The Revelation.  They express their love for God by 1) telling their world what God says, 2) suffering for their faith in the one true God, 3) following their God even unto death and 4) sharing in Jesus testimony, life, death and resurrection.  They express their love for people by giving their world the truth of God.  They express their love for themselves by accepting and living out the life of calling and witness God has given them.  They are symbols/images of our faithful witness of following God into whatever the world throws at us.

Our talk about God is fine in the midst of plenty, prosperity and security.  But our witness glorifies God most when our love for Him is shown in circumstances that challenge us and shake us to our very core.  In those places we come to really know our God, our neighbor and ourselves.