"Unto him be glory...throughout all ages... Amen." - Ephesians 3:21.
God Himself must reveal His glory to us. Then alone are we able to know and glorify Him.
There is no more wonderful image in nature of the glory of God than we find in the starry heavens. The telescopes, which are continually made more powerful, have long proclaimed the wonders of God's universe. And by means of computer imaging, new wonders of that glory have been revealed. A computer imaging sensor attached to the telescope will reveal millions of stars, which could never have been seen by the naked eye through the best telescope. Man must step aside and allow the glory of the heavens to reveal itself. The stars, at first wholly invisible, and at immense distances, will leave their image upon the sensor.
What a lesson for the soul that longs to see the glory of God in His Word. Put aside your own efforts and thoughts. Let your heart be as an imaging sensor that waits for God's glory to be revealed. The sensor must be rightly prepared and clean. Let your heart be prepared and purified by God's Spirit. "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." Matthew 5:8. The sensor must be immovable--let your heart be still before God. The telescope and its digital sensor must properly focus on, and receive the complete impression of, the farthest stars. Let your heart take time in silent waiting upon God, and He will reveal His glory.
If you keep silence before God and give Him time, He will put thoughts into your heart that may be of unspeakable blessing to yourself and others. He will create within you desires and inclinations that will indeed be as the rays of His glory shining in you.
Put this to the test this morning. Offer your spirit to Him in deep humility, and have faith that God will reveal Himself in His holy love. His glory will descend upon you. You will feel the need to give Him the full time to do His blessed work.
"But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him." Habakkuk 2:20.
"My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him." Psalm 62:5.
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Andrew Murray (1828 - 1917)
Brother Andrew Murray was a well-known writer/preacher in South Africa who ministered amongst the Dutch Reformed churches. His writings now are widely accepted by modern evangelicals and he is published more than ever in his life-time.Some of his better known books titles are: "Abide In Christ", "Absolute Surrender," and "Humility." His burden for the body of Christ were teachings on the abiding Spirit of Christ in the believer, the life of faith with God daily, and the life of intercession and prayer in the Church.
Andrew Murray was possibly the strongest spokesman of the Philadelphian age to expound the Body's necessity to abide in Christ, like the Apostle John before him.
Murray was born into a family of four children in the then remote Graaff-Reinet region (near the Cape) of South Africa. Educated in Scotland, which was followed by theological studies in Holland, Andrew returned to his native land to work as a missionary and minister. Given the daunting task of ministering to Bloemfontein, a remote region of 50,000 square miles and 12,000 people beyond the Orange River, Murray already began to sense the need to for the "deeper Christian life".
Though successful in preaching and bringing many to Christ, Murray found many of his greatest lessons in the School of Suffering, as will all who follow in the path of obedience.
Andrew Murray was one of four children born to Pastor Andrew, Sr., and Maria Murray. He was raised in what was considered to be the most remote corner of the world - Graaff-Reinet, South Africa. Educated in Scotland and Holland, in 1848 Andrew, Jr., returned to South Africa as a missionary and minister with the Dutch Reformed Church. His first appointment was to Bloemfontein, a territory of nearly 50,000 square miles and 12,000 people.
Andrew and his brother John had been in close contact with a revival movement in Scotland, an evangelical extension of the ongoing Second Great Awakening in America. He prayed for the same sort of awakening for the church in South Africa and wrote, "My prayer is for revival, but I am held back by the increasing sense of my own unfitness for the work. I lament the awful pride and self complacency that have till now ruled my heart. O that I may be more and more a minister of the Spirit." (J. du Plessis, The Life of Andrew Murray)
In 1860, revival did come to the churches of Cape Town, South Africa, and subsequently spread to surrounding towns and villages. Even remote farms and plantations felt the impact as lives were changed. Where once the churches had not been able to find one man ready to be a leader for God, the revival raised up 50 in Murray's Cape Town parish alone. There were more conversions in one month in that parish than in the whole course of its previous history. (Leona Choy, Andrew Murray: Apostle of Abiding Love)
Greatly concerned for the spiritual guidance of new converts and renewed Christians, Andrew Murray wrote over 240 books. His writings reflect his own longing for a deeper life in Christ and his prayer that others would long for and experience that life as well.