Introduction to God's Glory

I am so thankful that you have joined me for the First Love course.

I hope that our First Love has worked through this experience so that you love God more - because you have tasted and seen how your First Love has loved you, does love you, and will love you.

Throughout the course, I've attempted to faithfully point us toward God. My study for this course has helped me understand what Paul meant when he said, "For now we see in a mirror dimly." It is so frustrating and humbling to teach a subject that is incomprehensible. I have never felt more inadequate!

And yet, it is because our First Love is so great, so glorious, so beyond comparison, that it is delightful to know that no matter how deep we go, we have only just begun. And to know that our First Love is here to help us know him, love him, and follow him because he is so incomparably great, and he loves us.

So as deep as we've gone together, we've just gotten started. We are drowning in the baby section of the pool.

As we wrap up this course, I want us to exult together as we celebrate God's glory!

And you already know that God is glorious - not just in a theoretical sense - but because to know God is to experience glory. God's glory is so great that, astonishingly, he shares it with us, so that we know it is true not only with our minds but with our entire being.

Consider what Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 3: "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit."

Our Triune God, by his Spirit, dwells within us. This is remarkable! Just as his glorious presence was once found in the Temple, and his glory was revealed in Christ, now, by some miracle of grace, his glory has come to rest upon us!

So why end with considering how our First Love is glorious?

First, because it is a central biblical theme about who God is. It merits attention as an important part of who God has disclosed himself to be.

Second, because it summarizes everything we have learned about and experienced with our First Love so far.

And third, because it points us in the direction we need to go as we wrap up this course.

O Lord,

I live here as a fish in a vessel of water, only enough to keep me alive, but in heaven I shall swim in the ocean.

Here I have a little air in me to keep me breathing, but there I shall have sweet and fresh gales.

Here I have a beam of sun to lighten my darkness, a warm ray to keep me from freezing. There I shall live in light and warmth for ever.

My natural desires are corrupt and misguided, and it is thy mercy to destroy them.

My spiritual longings are of thy planting, and thou wilt water and increase them.

Quicken my hunger and thirst after the realm above.

Here I can have the world, there I shall have thee in Christ.

Give me to know that heaven is all love, where the eye affects the heart, and the continual viewing of thy beauty keeps the soul in continual transports of delight.

Give me to know that heaven is all peace, where error, pride, rebellion, passion raise no head.

Give me to know that heaven is all joy, the end of believing, fasting, praying, mourning, humbling, watching, fearing, repining. And lead me to it soon.

In Christ's name, Amen.

(From The Valley of Vision)

Write a personal reflection on how this course has changed your understanding and love for God. Share it with someone you trust.