Soli Deo Gloria: To the Glory of God Alone!

Would you like to spend eternity with a group of dour, self-righteous, ritual bound, judgmental people? Would you even want to be around them? Probably not! Then why would God?

Often so much of what we can know and love about God seems obscured or absent in the religious people who end up doing more to harm our perception of him than reflecting his true character. Even when so much information is at our fingertips, we know and communicate alarmingly little about God’s personality and his true character. Above all, we’ve missed Jesus’ message and misconstrued our main job description as believers.

Do you remember the very first question in the Shorter Catechism: What is the chief end of man? The answer is: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.”

So do you know enough about God to enjoy him even for a single hour? Many of us who name the name of Christ find that we’re increasingly dissatisfied with our lives, often turning to food, entertainment, alcohol, pornography, affairs, drugs, the internet, and other electronic addictions to fill the void. And one day we ask ourselves, I’m doing all this, but I’m still missing something—what’s wrong?

The simple answer lies in the way we’ve been hardwired by our Creator. He has programmed us to be joyful (we’re by nature joy machines—do you feel like one?), and the only way we can be so is by glorifying and enjoying him. He is the only one who can fill the void in our life. If we seek any one else or any other way, we’ll only end up in more disillusionment and hopelessness.

So how do we enjoy God? The invitation and answer is simple, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

In Acts 16:34, we read, “The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family.” Notice that wherever the Gospel was preached and people saw the wondrous things that God did for them, great joy was the most notable result (Acts 8:8).

The delirious joy the first Christians experienced came from the knowledge of who and what God was like, and that this God had come to dwell personally and permanently in their midst.

Similarly, through the ages, the more people got to know about God, his promises, and his plan for all the ages, the brighter the light became and the greater the joy and love they experienced. The blazing truth about God is just as powerful for us today as it was then. It changes everything—it permeates our lives, families, and communities. Wouldn’t you like to be a part of this?

Join with us in worship on Sunday as we consider this and more about our wondrous God.

Soli Deo Gloria: To the Glory of God Alone!