If you just had a few moments to call out a warning to people you love, what would you say and how would you say it? What would you be willing to risk? If you knew that the warning would be scoffed at and ignored, would you still give it? I ask you to consider these questions and more in a series called, “The Three.”

In the last letter of the Bible, there’s a lot of symbolism; a story being told with vivid imagery. In that letter we find an urgent message in Revelation 14:6-11.

What does it mean to give God glory?

Several commentators have noted that John pulls a great deal of content from the Old Testament so he can give context to and describe the visions he is given. When it comes to glory and it’s relationship to respecting God (what is often translated as “fear God”) it looks like John was thinking of Moses’ appeal to the Israelites as they were about to enter Canaan.

Here’s one example: Deuteronomy 10:12-13

Repeatedly, Moses connects being in a close relationship with God with keeping the commandments, obeying him, walking in his ways. This is the promise repeated throughout the Bible: When we are in a relationship with God he transforms us into people who don’t make things into little gods in our lives, we let our yes be yes and our no be no, we rest in him as Creator and Redeemer, we become respectful towards others and we release contempt and our desire to destroy others, we become faithful, don’t take what’s not ours, live with honesty, and be content with what we have.

In other words, when we allow God to transform us and restore his image in us, we give glory to God: who he is, what he is like, and what he can do.

If you’ve been around Christian communities for a while, I likely haven’t told you something you don’t know. And yet, just making this a matter of doing some things right is not seeing just how deep giving glory to God really goes.

If you just had a few moments to call out a warning to people you love, what would you say and how would you say it? What would you be willing to risk? If you knew that the warning would be scoffed at and ignored, would you still give it? I ask you to consider these questions and more in a series called, “The Three.”

In the last letter of the Bible, there’s a lot of symbolism; a story being told with vivid imagery. In that letter we find an urgent message in Revelation 14:6-11.

As we consider the loud cry of the first angel, we hear the invitation: Give glory to God.

If you hang around Christians long enough you are going to hear the word glory more than a few times. One of the problems that comes when we use a word a lot is, it kind of loses it’s meaning and power.

A pastor friend of mine tells of a time when he was standing at the front door of the sanctuary and he could see a family driving up to the building. The parents were obviously upset with the kids and each other; he could see them shouting at each other. Then they parked and got out of the car, doors slamming, walked into the building muttering their irritation and impatience at each other. When the pastor met them he asked, “How are you this morning?” The father replied, “Wonderful, pastor, wonderful, all glory to God.”

Is that what the loud shout is calling people to do – simply add the phrase “Glory to God” into sentences? Is there something more? What difference does it make?

Artist Chris Medina wrote a song his fiancé who was terribly injured before they were married. The song, “What are Words” is about living the words we speak. The chorus goes:

“What are words
If you really don’t mean them
When you say them?
What are words
If they’re only for good times
Then they don’t?
When it’s love
Yeah, you say them out loud
Those words, They never go away
They live on, even when we’re gone.”

Would you like to discover what it really means to give God glory?

If you just had a few moments to call out a warning to people you love, what would you say and how would you say it? What would you be willing to risk? If you knew that the warning would be scoffed at and ignored, would you still give it? I ask you to consider these questions and more in a series called, “The Three.”

In the last letter of the Bible, there’s a lot of symbolism; a story being told with vivid imagery. In that letter we find an urgent message in Revelation 14:6-11.

As we consider the loud cry of the first angel, we hear the invitation: Give glory to God. Giving glory flows from giving God respect.

Why should we respect God? Because he said so: God said it so I believe it! Does God want blind obedience? He’s God and that demands respect but can you demand respect? The thing is these characteristics are part of Satan’s methods. God forces no one to love or worship him.

In the Bible, there is what I like to call the lovingkindness principle. God initiates a relationship with us by demonstrating his lovingkindness for us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. What do we do? We respond by loving him back and in that love there is respect, reverence, and repentance. What happens when we love God back? We’ve engaged with him so he is able to pour out even more lovingkindness on us which inspires us to respond even more and so on.

When we embrace God’s love and begin to live in his grace – we are respecting him – giving glory will flow out from us naturally, almost unconsciously. The irony is, trying to give God glory without being completely grounded in God’s love and grace will eventually degrade into works righteousness – a position that makes us think God owes us.

Are you living in the stream of God’s lovingkindness?

If you just had a few moments to call out a warning to people you love, what would you say and how would you say it? What would you be willing to risk? If you knew that the warning would be scoffed at and ignored, would you still give it? I ask you to consider these questions and more in a series called, “The Three.”

In the last letter of the Bible, there’s a lot of symbolism; a story being told with vivid imagery. In that letter we find an urgent message in Revelation 14:6-11.

Last post, I asked you to consider the first angel shouting at those who dwell on the earth: “Fear God!”

The problem is, John also wrote that, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” 1John 4:18 Those who dwell on the earth already fear God.

Without getting too technical, in Revelation 14:7 the Greek word behind fear is phobeo. Phobeo comes up a handful of times in the Bible. Here’s an example from Ephesians 5:33: “However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she phobeo her husband.”

When I noticed this, I went to my wife, pointed to the text and said: “Fear me, woman!” The rest of the conversation did not go well. Fear is not a good building block in marriage. This is a good thing to keep in mind because marriage is the deepest and most intimate pictures of our relationship with God. God is frequently pictured as a husband and his people are the bride. Fear seems very out of place in such a relationship, doesn’t it?

Maybe this helps. The English word for phobeo in Ephesians 5:33 is respect; in this case respect based on deep, unconditional, love – God’s love.

So how do we put this altogether? As I wrestled with this, a thought came to me from back in my lifeguarding days at the public swimming pool. When a person is drowning, he or she is out of their mind. Because of everything going on they can’t hear, they’re panicked, they don’t know what to do.

When you go into the water – which is a last resort because it’s a huge risk likely to get you killed – the lifeguard must approach the person and assume a defensive position. Then you shout in a loud voice – “Calm down, I’m here to help you, I going to grab on to you and take you to safety, and so on.” You have to risk coming across forceful because it’s urgent and you have to try and get through to the person so you can save them.

To me, this is another picture of our amazing God. He’s reaching out to people who have a terrible picture of who he is and yet he’s willing to take risks, even put his reputation on the line, do whatever it takes to rescue the perishing. Have you ever heard of a God so good? Have you ever seen such love?

Can you respect a God like that?

If you just had a few moments to call out a warning to people you love, what would you say and how would you say it? What would you be willing to risk? If you knew that the warning would be scoffed at and ignored, would you still give it? I ask you to consider these questions and more in a series called, “The Three.”

In the last letter of the Bible, there’s a lot of symbolism; a story being told with vivid imagery. In that letter we find an urgent message in Revelation 14:6-11.

The first angel says with a loud voice, “Fear God…!” For God to send a command to fear him is kind of strange. It seems out of character. Remember back in the beginning, after Adam and Eve broke relationship with God, they felt afraid; they ran and hid from God. The Creator didn’t lash out at them but instead sought them out, initiating the reconciliation process from the very start.

Years later the apostle John, the author of Revelation, is writing about a reconciled and healthy relationship with God and he says: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” 1John 4:18

To John, fearing God is a negative thing. If you fear God; your love relationship with your Creator is broken. If you fear God, you haven’t “been made perfect” – in other words, your heart is untouched by God’s love.

Now remember who the message is for: those who dwell upon the earth. Those who dwell on the earth believe the worst about their Creator. One author made this observation, “The law of Jehovah was burdened with needless exactions and traditions, and God was represented as severe, exacting, revengeful, and arbitrary. He was pictured as one who could take pleasure in the sufferings of his creatures. The very attributes that belonged to the character of Satan, the evil one represented as belonging to the character of God.” Those who dwell on the earth have bought the lie.

Wouldn’t it be really dangerous for God to command those who dwell on the earth to fear him?  Maybe he didn’t.