My Prayer for our Leadership Team (and myself)

Posted by Traci at 10:44 PM

Ok so in my previous post I mentioned I was struggling with John 15:1-7, which has a lot to do with the vine and the branches.  But as I was working that out, I ran into this verse about the word glory:

2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

Which is kinda crazy, because earlier tonight, before I found or even thought of this verse, I was praying through the prayer that Jesus said for his disciples and for us in John 17.  Now I’ve never actually prayed through a passage of Scripture before but our church’s planning retreat is this weekend and I really felt like the Spirit was leading me to pray though something.  And when I started flipping through my Bible this prayer of Jesus seemed appropriate since it’s all about unity.  But I was surprised by one thing I read (The Message translation):

John 17:22 “The same glory you gave me, I gave them, so they’ll be as unified and together as we are.”

Ok so Jesus is saying that the reason He and the Father are one, and the way His disciples are going to be one is… His glory.  Um, okay.  What does that mean exactly? I wasn’t sure but since I was praying through the passage I just prayed that all our church leadership would have His glory, and that it would make them unified in mind and spirit.  I wasn’t sure if all their faces would start glowing or what but that’s an advantage of praying through scripture.  You don’t have to understand everything you’re saying.  Groanings and all that.

So anyhoo I prayed through Jesus’ prayer and then decided to go back to the where I had been reading this week – the above mentioned John 15:1-7.  And circle back to where I ran into the verse about glory in that passage.

2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

So now I'm totally intrigued about this glory thing that I can't understand. Trying to put it all together, and praying the Spirit will work it out in my brain, I googled the verse and came to this from Barnes Notes on the Bible (alot but totally worth it, bolding is mine):

"With open face:  Tyndale says this: "and now the Lord's glory appeareth in us all as in a glass." The sense is, "with unveiled face," alluding to the fact in verse 13 that the face of Moses was veiled, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look on it. In contradistinction from that, Paul says that Christians are enabled to look upon the glory of the Lord in the gospel without a veil - without any obscure intervening medium."

"Beholding as in a glass:  On the word glass …Macknight says this, "we are all reflecting as mirrors the glory of the Lord." The mirrors of the ancients were made of burnished metal, and they reflected images with great brilliancy and distinctness. And the meaning is, that the gospel reflected the glory of the Lord; it was, so to speak, the mirror - the polished, burnished substance in which the glory of the Lord shone, and where that glory was irradiated and reflected so that it might be seen by Christians. There was no veil over it; no obscurity; nothing to break its dazzling splendor, or to prevent its meeting the eye. Christians, by looking on the gospel, could see the glorious perfections and plans of God as bright, and clear, and brilliant as they could see a light reflected from the burnished surface of the mirror. So to speak, the glorious perfections of God shone from heaven; beamed upon the gospel, and were thence reflected to the eye and the heart of the Christian, and had the effect of transforming them into the same image."

"Are changed into the same image:  The idea may be, that the glory of God, the splendor of the divine perfections, was thrown on the gospel, so to speak like a bright light on a polished mirror; and that that glory was reflected from the gospel on him who contemplated it, so that he appeared to be transformed into the same image. Locke renders it: "We are changed into his very image by a continued succession of glory, as it were, streaming upon us from the Lord." The figure is one of great beauty; and the idea is, that by placing ourselves within the light of the gospel; by contemplating the glory that shines there, we become changed into the likeness of the same glory, and conformed to that which shines there with so much splendor."

"It is a law of our nature that we are moulded, in our moral feelings, by the persons with whom we associate, and by the objects which we contemplate. We become insensibly assimilated to those with whom we have social contact, and to the objects with which we are familiar. We imbibe the opinions, we copy the habits, we imitate the manners, we fall into rite customs of those with whom we have daily conversation, and whom we make our companions and friends. It is on the same great principle that Paul says that by contemplating the glory of God in the gospel, we become insensibly, but certainly conformed to the same image, and made like the Redeemer. His image will be reflected on us. We shall imbibe his sentiments, catch his feelings, and be molded into the image of his own purity. Such is the great and wise law of our nature; and it is on this principle, and by this means, that God designs we should be "made" pure.."

So back to The Word! What Jesus told his disciples to stay or abide in. (God is so awesome, the Holy Spirit is so awesome! Call out to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things – uh totally!) When Jesus prays for us to have God's glory he isn't asking that we become glowing orbs freaking everybody out. He's praying that as we look into His word, we’ll start to look like His word.  More and more and more. That’s the glory.  When we're all doing that, when we’re all copying from the same picture, then of course we’ll be unified.  

So I’m praying that myself and our leadership team will develop an insatiable appetite for the Word.  That facebook and Netflix and whatever else will seem as boring as checkers, chess, and other granny games (google Julian Smith granny games).  Because it’s there that we will, in some mysterious way, find His person.  God himself.  Deep and scary and difficult and so very very good.  So very glorious. It will be an interesting year.  It already has been.

ps I was going to spend the night watching Little People, Big World. This was way better.