To God be the Glory

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. (Luke 2:13-14, KJV)

The word of God is filled with verses which speak about giving glory to God. Man was created in the very image of God and was created to give back to God the very glory that has surrounded everything that God has done from time immemorial. Too often we get caught up with the mechanics of worship and fail to realize that everything we do should give God His due.

There is a story in the Old Testament of a grievous sin that was committed after the miraculous conquering of the city of Jericho. God had specifically given instructions that the children of Israel were to take nothing for self but rather keep all of the items of silver and gold to put into the treasury of the Lord. However, one man took some of the things and hid them under his tent. God knew that he had sinned and so when the Israelites went to battle again against the city of Ai, they suffered defeat. Joshua couldn't understand what had happened but God explained to him that there was sin in the camp. Notice the statement that Joshua makes to the man, Achan, when Joshua discovers that it is Achan's sin that has brought trouble on the entire nation of Israel.

Then Joshua said to Achan, "My son, give glory to the LORD God of Israel and give praise to him. And tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me." (Joshua 7:19)

Joshua's answer almost seems strange. Most of us would have simply said, “Tell the truth. Repent.” Repent is what Joshua is commanding Achan to do, but before that he wants Achan to give glory to God. God's very being demands that men and women the world over give glory to Him.

Someone asked me in what ways did I see God being robbed of His glory, specifically in the church. I do not have all of the answers to that one, but here are some of the things that I have seen over the past four decades.

First of all, when decisions are made about conducting activities in the church, before the activity is begun, have we spent time in prayer, asking God how He may be glorified through this activity? We often hear little prayers like, “God, may you be glorified through this.” But more often than not, we haven't really taken the time to learn God's will in the matter. There is a scene in the movie, “Shenandoah” with Jimmy Stewart that is about a family caught up in the Civil War. The family is working a farm and Stewart does the praying before each meal with these words, “Lord, we cleared the land, we plowed the fields . . ., but we thank you for it anyway” or words similar to that. In other words, we did all of the work, but we are supposed to give you thanks for everything, so here it is. Does that give God the glory? Isn't that often the feeling we have, not just in our homes, but in our church activities?

When churches choose leaders, whether elders, deacons or preachers, is God truly glorified through the decision-making process? Often preachers are hired for churches based upon the man's voice, ability to keep a sermon to a certain time limit, his physical presence, his ability to do visitation in hospitals, etc. In reading the Bible, I find men chosen by God for other reasons. Who would really want to hire the apostle Paul to preach in their church? He had weepy eyes, he himself says that his speech wasn't all that great sounding, and he evidently cried a lot for churches and their members. God did the choosing and took a man who clearly had a temper to become one of the greatest apostles of the Lord's church.

Fanny Crosby VanAlstyne wrote thousands of hymns and constantly gave glory to God. How about “To God be the glory, great things He hath done...” Or, “blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh what a foretaste of glory divine.” We are here on this earth to glorify Him. And he will be glorified.

When men and women push their way in churches to take control of God's church, they miss the real purpose of worship and in trying to get glory for themselves, they fail to get that glory and they fail God.

One of the great missionaries of the 19^th century was an Englishman named J. Hudson Taylor. To read his biography is to learn about a man who truly loved God and truly loved the lost. An interesting side note to this is about his brother. I heard this story many years ago, so I am not sure of all the facts. But the story goes that Taylor's brother was dying to get his name in “Who's Who” in England. Finally, he accomplished his goal and his name was put in the book. In the note next to his name, as each name had included in it's own entry, was the reason why he was being included in the book. Evidently the brief note said, “brother of J. Hudson Taylor.”

Next to my name, in the book of life, there is an entry. I haven't seen it, but I am almost positive it says this: “a child of God.”