Seeing God's Glory

Seeing God's Glory

My home church, under the leadership of our pastor, has been focusing on pursuing God's presence through praise and worship. Our services are focused on the goodness of God and seeking His glory.

Pastor Aaron has referred to Exodus 33 during this time and talked about Moses' request of God to see His glory (Exodus 33:18). While thinking on these scriptures I kept coming back to the thought that God placed Moses in the cleft of the rock before God let His presence, His glory, pass before him. God told Moses “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you" (Exodus 33:19) but Moses had to be in THE ROCK before God's goodness or His presence could walk past him. THE ROCK!  According to Psalm 18:2, The Lord is MY ROCK and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

If I want to be in God's presence I must be in the ROCK of my salvation! I am sure that I am not the first one to recognize this parallel. God placed Moses in a place of safety, deep inside the rock, and then, and only then, did God walk by and "cause all of His goodness to pass in front..."

When we live in and under God's glory, placed deep in the Rock of Salvation, we can experience all of God's goodness in our lives.

Meeting Calvin

I have shared this story over the years and usually get a laugh from those who listen...

During my senior year in high school I worked for a local convenience store. After working there for a few months I began to notice one customer in particular, even held out hope that he would ask me out. He had a head of thick dark blond hair, just long enough to curl and drove an old beat up white pick up truck. I was disappointed that he never asked me out and he quit coming in to the store. 

Shortly after this another guy started coming in on a regular basis. He was a character with short light brown hair and a full beard. Picture a young Duck Dynasty look-a-like. This guy asked me out on a regular basis, but I was not the least bit interested. I don't particularly care for the mountain man beard style. A neatly trimmed beard or goatee I find attractive, but as much as I like Duck Dynasty, I don't like their beard fashion. This Duck Dynasty look-a-like drove a maroon car that I can picture to this day. I liked the car, but eventually this guy quit coming into the store too.

Then along comes Calvin, but I didn't learn his name for awhile. He was clean cut, had short brown hair and a mustache. He came in regularly with a friend of his. They were both EMTs. I only knew that because of the uniform they wore when on call. Calvin's regular purchase was a bottle of RC cola and eventually he began to ask me out. What I didn't know at that time was that Calvin had a girlfriend. What he didn't know was that his girlfriend and I knew each other very well. She had been one of my closest friends for years, but during our senior year of high school we weren't spending much time together. I knew she had a boyfriend, but I hadn't met him...yet!

On rare occasion my friend, by the way, her name is Jerri, and I still both showed up on Sunday morning for church and we still sat together when we were both there. I was sitting in the usual spot when in comes Calvin, with my friend. Yep, that's how I found out he was her boyfriend. Surprise, surprise!  A few weeks followed and Jerri broke up with Calvin. The break up had nothing to do with me, but that's another story.  I guess Calvin was a little chicken at this point because he didn't ask me out, instead he asked out another friend of mine, Debbie. Let me add at this point that Jerri, Debbie, and I were sharing an apartment.

Calvin and Debbie had only one date. Thankfully she had her eye on someone else. Calvin never did really ask me out for a date. Somehow we became a couple within our circle of friends. If my memory serves me right, Jerri was encouraging us to get together, and once Calvin and I were together, we were together! We married just six weeks later!!

Now the fun part of the story...After Calvin and I married we moved to Alice, Texas for a short period of time. We hadn't been married long when I was going through some of Calvin's things that he had packed in boxes and I came across a shirt that I recognized. I carried it out to where Calvin was sitting and asked "this is your shirt?" When he said yes I was dumbfounded. I still remember that old tattered t-shirt. It was worn quite frequently by the customer that I had hoped would ask me out on a date. You remember, the one with the thick, dark blond hair, just long enough to curl. Calvin was working out in the sun and his hair was sun-bleached when he was first noticed by me. Hmmm...he never did ask me out!

Several months into our marriage Calvin and I were at his parents' house when a comment was made about Calvin having a beard. I was quick to speak up and say "I've never seen Calvin with a beard."  Calvin quickly corrected me and said that I had, but I was sure he was wrong, until his sister pulled out a picture to show me. Looking at me from a photo was the Duck Dynasty look-a-like guy who drove the maroon car! I was shocked to say the least and had never put the three together as one in the same, Calvin by name.

Strange I know, but all very true. 

Writing a Blog?

I've thought about writing a blog before and never really carried through. It would be a place for me to write about thought and experiences, and even share a few things I've learned along the way. I don't know if there will be many who follow the blog, but I'm going to give this a try and hopefully stick with posting on a regular basis.