Personal Revival: Reflecting Glory
Basically, the moon is just a reflector. We see it because of the sun shining on it. On its own the moon has no glory of its own. Isn’t that a great picture of how we are as Christians. We are devoid of any real glory of our own. When Christ touches our lives, we should be reflectors of His glory for all to see.
This illustration of the moon reflecting the glory of the sun being like that of the Christian reflecting His likeness, however, I feel is not perfect and only partially applicable. I believe we get a better understanding when we combine this with another one.
I used to love visiting and staying at Pluscarden Abbey in Elgin. From the outside, the window doesn’t look very impressive. However, when you go inside you see that it is rather beautiful. You see, God wants to shine in us and change us from the inside out. We shouldn’t necessarily be influenced by outside appearances.
There is a beautiful passage in the bible that talks about how a woman’s beauty should not come from outward adornment with things like hair style, makeup, jewellery etc. but from an inner beauty. (1 Peter 3:3-6). Like so many things in the bible, you can apply this to men too (apart from the makeup lol). Look at Samuel anointing David for instance. Samuel looked at his brothers, but the Lord chose the least impressive looking because He judges a person by their heart not just on mere outward appearances.
Being reflectors of God’s glory is the subject of 2 Corinthians 3:7-18.
Do you recall what happened to Moses after he came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets with the ten commandments written on them? Having been in the presence of the Lord, he wasn’t aware that his face was radiant, glowing, to such an extent that the other Israelites could not cope with it and he had to put a veil over his face. (Exodus 34).
What did the commandments that Moses received accomplish? Well, it showed mankind how much they fall short of the glory of God. Yes, they are good laws to try and live by. But the point is, we can’t do it on our strength. Therefore, ultimately, they should bring us to a death of ourselves. We need to be changed from the inside out to be able to live like this. Also, the law of Moses only gave a limited atonement for sin. Every year, a sacrifice had to be made for the atonement of sin.
So, what Paul is saying that if Moses had a face with such radiant, short lived, glory after receiving a temporary and partial solution to mankind’s problem then surely, shouldn’t we be expected, having received something far greater; that being Christ and the New Covenant, to be absolutely radiant with His glory?
The veil that Moses used to hide God’s glory, does of course signify the veil that is around a person’s heart until they are born again and able to see the Truth. I can clearly remember the day the Lord lifted the veil from my heart, and I suddenly got revelation and understood my need for salvation and the means by which it has been provided for me. You see, before I was born again, as often as I tried to read the bible, it made no sense to me. But praise the Lord that the veil has been lifted for me and hopefully for you too?
This is what Paul says right at the end of this passage, in verse eighteen:
`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.`
So, how can we truly become great reflectors of God’d glory in this increasingly dark world?
An illustration from a photography perspective may prove helpful:
If a photographer is faced with a poor light situation, in order to produce a good representation of what they want people to see, then they have a few options.
APERTURE
Shoot wide open at the lowest aperture available for that lens. I have a 50mm and the widest aperture would be F-1.8. This would decrease the exposure time but would result in less depth of field.
Isn’t that a great illustration? You see can be tempted to decrease our quite time, spend less time in His presence but then this will result in less depth. We will be shallow, and the picture people will see of Christ will not be the full picture.
ISO
We can ramp up the ISO, again this will again reduce the exposure time. However, the quality of the end picture will not be good at all and certainly not good for printing and keeping on the wall. A printed image is better for longer term use and memory. The illustration for us being that, again the less time or exposure we have with the source of light, our Lord, then the image that people will get is only worth a partial glimpse not worthy of them wanting to even buy into it and keep it as their own.
SHUTTER SPEED
The vest solution would be to keep an aperture setting so that the photo has depth, keep the ISO as low as possible for great quality but decrease the shutter speed to allow a long exposure to the available light. Then the image we produce will be a truer representation of what we want people to see and hopefully they might even want to buy into it!
So to sum up:
- Spend more time in His presence (long exposure)
- Be a person of depth to reflect the vast revelation of Christ (Higher F stop number)
- Be a person who makes a lasting impression (lowest ISO possible for quality)
There are 168 hours in a week. Most people wont even bother to go to church, but if they do, they might say, get 2 hours exposure. What about the other 166 hours? That’s where we come in. People might get to see Jesus at work, when we have leisure time etc. That’s when we need to reflect the Lord the most! Amen.
