The absolute glory of God has always been one of the lynchpins of my preaching and teaching. It is the umbrella that arches over everything. I agree with Spurgeon when he said that the truth of any doctrine can be measured by how it exalts God and debases man. Everything is measured by how high it lifts up God. He is God. Isaiah saw God in Isaiah 6. One of the first things it mentions there is that Isaiah saw God "high and lifted up." But I fear, at least among American, and perhaps European, Christians, we do not see God like that anymore. For many years, we have been fed a diet of man centered doctrines, beginning with the way we look at salvation. Instead of the miracle of the new birth, we are given a god who is powerless to act without the decisions of men enabling him. We are given the offer of the carnal Christian, one who has decided to make Jesus his or her savior, but who has not yet decided to make Jesus their Lord. We are then taught a Christianity that is easy and convenient and requires no commitment on the part of the professing believer. It is as little and as much as you want it to be. In the end, it is all up to you. It is the ultimate seeker friendly, non-threatening, self esteem building, feel good experience.

Beloved, this falls so far short of the Biblical idea of God and His gospel as not to even be in the same universe. Our God is an awesome God, He reigns from heaven above. He is power. His word creates. His word holds all things together. His will is reality. He speaks and nothing stops Him from accomplishing what He has said will be. He enters into the human experience with divine power bringing about the new birth. He calls His children by name and they hear Him and follow Him. He changes their hearts and minds and wills and sets them into the world to be living testimonies of His truth. he calls them to be living sacrifices for His glory. He sends them to their homes, their work, their communities, and into a dark and hostile world. Many die for His Name, and gladly, for they die to carry the glorious Name wherever people need to hear it.

Don't be fooled by cheap substitutes. In the Bible, Shishak took away the golden shields from the temple and replaced them with brass ones. Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of pottage (beans). Christianity Today magazine had an article a few months back that said that for most Americans, their god was just a little taller than they are. We are willing to allow that God rules over the universe, just not over us. Beloved, don't call brass gold or cheaply sell the birthright that you have a child of God. Our God reigns. He is our God and we are His people. If we don't learn to see Him "high and lifted up" we will not, indeed, cannot get anything else in the Christian religion correct. I challenge you, learn to see Him as He really is.