June 29, 2019 -- Revelation 15:3b-4 -- Clarity of Vision
/Great and awesome are your deeds,
O LORD God the Almighty!
Just and true are your ways,
O King of the Nations!
Who will not fear, O Lord
and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.
Revelation 15:3b-4 ESV
Recently Carolyn and I moved to Moncton. Things went quite smoothly, thanks be to God! Only one minor glitch was revealed when I opened my file cabinet. Since the file cabinet does not lock, I used packing tape to seal the drawers shut. Good thing. It must have been upended at one point or another and many of the papers and receipts and filed items got all jumbled together. What a mess to sort out. There were so many things I could throw out—things I had no idea I still had, coupons long expired, obsolete instructions for computers I no longer own etc, etc, etc.
As I read this powerful passage from Revelation—surrounded by the mess of files still being sorted strewn across my office floor—I realized something. We often cart around so much. Our minds are cluttered with details, fears, angers, burrs of lingering bitterness filed away ready to resurface if the wrong person crosses our pathway. Our lives are stuffed with things, hoarding piles of things we wonder whether or not we will need at some indistinct time in the future. We are surrounded with the clutter of our lives. In sharp contrast we read this morning of the hosts of heaven. Shorn of all such encumbrances and freed from all that is not worthy or excellent their eyes and minds, hearts and souls, hands and voices thundered praise to the LIVING, ALMIGHTY KING of the Nations.
The now-acclaimed master decluttering guru of the moment is touted to be Marie Kondo—KonMari. She invites people who are striving to clear up some of their life’s stuff to ask of each item: “Does this give me joy?” It is a nice, earthly philosophy. But it falls so far short of the splendor of our passage and the de-junking of our lives which is so necessary. As Christians we should ask of all the things in our life: “Does this clarify, or obstruct, my view of the glory of God?”
One day we shall all be gathered before the regal and dreadful majesty of the LORD on High and those whose lives were wilfully cluttered and defiantly distracted by things they chose to pursue in this life will fall before Him in terror mixed with praise and acknowledge Jesus as the Lord of All to the glory of the Father. Thereafter they will be cast into the Lake of Fire—the pitiless purging of hell where the torments will never cease. Those who know Jesus and ever sought to clarify their vision of His beauty will also fall in terror mixed with praise and acknowledge Jesus as the Lord of all to the glory of their Father in heaven and shall be welcomed to the unparalleled joys and wonder of eternity in the Presence of Him Who Is Holy, Wondrous, Excellent and Great.
Great and amazing are Your deeds, O LORD God the Almighty!
Thank You for this glimpse of praise which fills the heavens.
Thank You for this insight which clarifies our life’s work and mission: to honour You in all things.
Forgive us for the accumulated clutter of our lives and minds.
Spirit of the Living God, purge from us all that is not holy, all that is not true.
Spirit of Truth, lead us in the way of obedience to Jesus Christ here, right now, so that our lives with great anticipation will be fixt on that moment when faith finally becomes sight and we see Him Who is the Beloved: Jesus Christ. Amen.
