Let the Glory of Your Name Be the Passion of the Church

Let the glory of Your name be the passion of the Church
Let the righteousness of God be a holy flame that burns
Let the saving love of Christ be the measure of our lives
We believe You're all to us.      Chris Tomlin, full lyrics

This is so correct.  This is what we should all aim for.  What is our passion?  What animates and kindles our fires?  If we are honest, we would have to say that we are aroused, motivated, enraptured by things: earthly things, common things and even sinful things.  Things that are passing away.  We do not see that eternity is but a heart-beat away and it will last forever.  We are insensitive to the reality of the all-holy, all-mighty God, transcendent yet present everywhere in His creation.  We are completely clueless that next to our puny 3-Dimensions, Heaven lays open as a vast, immeasurable country where thousands upon thousands are joined together in rapturous song and worship as they surround the Throne with praises.

So, let us make sure that our passion is the glory of God's Name.  What does that mean?  One example is Phinehas in Numbers 25.  He saw the disgraceful sin that the Children of Israel were engaged in; he saw leadership start to take action against the sin; then he saw the wickedness continue.  That when he took matters into his own hands: following the command that the Lord gave to Moses (Num. 25:4), he killed the two who flagrantly and publicly violated the Lord's laws.  Note that

•   he acted within the guidelines of the legal code of that time;
•   he was motivated by a sense of zeal for the honor of God's Name;
•   he acted quickly and decisively.

Applying this to our lives, are we quick to cut off known sin from our own behavior?  Do we speak out against those around us who suggest doing something wrong?  We may not stop others, but we can certainly speak and refrain from joining in.

Then, let the Righteousness of God be a holy flame that burns.  These should not be mere, empty, idle words.  God's Righteousness.  That is all the Rightness and Correctness that is the natural out-flowing of being Holy should guide our thoughts and actions so that it figuratively burns up the unrighteousness that is in our lives.

Finally let the saving love of Christ be the measure of our lives.  How will they know that we are Christians?  By our love.  Not a warm, fuzzy feeling love, but a love first for God and then a love for one another.  But notice how God says we should love Him: with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul and with all our strength:

• Heart—our affections; 
• Mind—our logic and reason, employing our will; 
• Soul—that part which He made alive that can now respond to Him whereas before we were dead and unresponsive; 
• Strength—loving God takes energy and hard work, it is not a "if I feel like it" sort of love, but a laboring with all strength that He gives. 

And how does this love express itself?  By doing what is right and good in His sight.  What is that?  All His Laws and Commands.  We can only measure our love for God by actions.  That is why the Apostle John wrote, "let us not love in word or in talk, but in deed and in truth"  (1 Jn. 3:18).  Deed and truth.  With actions aligned with what is true; and what is true can only be found in God's Word for He alone is True (let all men be liars.)

If we do this in increasing measure, Jesus Christ truly will be all to us.

It's a Matter of the Heart

"There was nothing that Hezekiah did not show them."
2 Kings 20:13

So he showed the envoys from Babylon everything?  I think he didn't.  He did not show them the LORD God of Israel!  Why had they come?  News had reached them about Hezekiah being healed, but even more than that, they had seen the great sign that had accompanied the healing.  The writer of Chronicles emphasizes that they wanted to know more about what had happened: "...envoys were sent by the rulers of Babylon to ask him about the miraculous sign that had occurred in the land..." 
        (2 Chr. 32:31)

       Let that sink in for a few moments.  

The king of Babylon saw the sun do this amazing Backup Thing in the sky.  This was unprecedented.  He wanted to know what happened and why.  He started by asking his wise men, then his vassal kings and rulers.  They all said, "Yeah, we saw it, but we don't know what happened."  Finally reports came in from the Kingdom of Judah that their God had given the sign to their king.  So the Babylonian king sent envoys to find out more about this sign and the God behind the sign.

They showed up—probably with royal gifts—and Hezekiah was tickled pink that these Important People™  were all here to see him.  Thus he showed them around the palace and the city, trying to impress them with how impressive he, King of Judah, really was.

Let me repeat: Babylon wanted to know about God but Hezekiah talked about gold.  Babylon wanted to understand the Sign but Hezekiah showed off his signet rings.  Babylon wanted to hear more Words about who this God was that could command the sun like that, but Hezekiah told them more about this World. 

Hezekiah gave them Stuff^® when only one thing was needful! 

Why?  Out of the heart the mouth speaks (Lk. 6:45) and he was storing up treasures on this earth so his heart was there with his treasures (Mt. 6:19-21).

This explains why he was so sad when Isaiah told him it was time to die.  He was attached to Stuff^® and didn't want to let it go.  He hadn't been living correctly so there was no way that he could die correctly. 

It really matters what we set our hearts on.  And his young son, Manasseh, learned well and stuffed all sorts of worldly things into his heart so that there was no room for the LORD God of Israel. 

Where is our heart, our love and our affections?  Time will tell.  But don't wait till then; tend to the matter now and stoke the love and affection of God and Godly things!