A Young Person Who Makes a Difference! |
Those Who are Called |
The first time the God of glory appeared to Abraham was when he lived in a place called Ur of the Chaldeans. If you read Joshua 24 you will see what he was doing when God appeared to him. Verse 2 says, "And Joshua said to all the people, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt across the River long ago, Terah the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor; and they served other gods." Not only this, verse 14 also says, "Now therefore fear Jehovah, and serve Him in sincerity and faithfulness; and put away the gods whom your fathers served across the River and in Egypt, and serve Jehovah." What was the situation of Abraham when the God of glory appeared to him the first time? It was a situation of idolatry. Abraham had idols. He served other gods. We know that there are no other gods. There is only one God (Isa. 45:21b-22; 46:9). So, who was Abraham serving? He was serving demons because idols are always related to demons (1 Cor. 10:19-20). Before God appeared to Abraham, his life was the life of an idolater. You may say, "Well, I don't worship idols, I don't have this problem." Young one, pay attention: An idol is anything that is more valuable to us than God. Everything that I love more than God is an idol to me. Whether it is good or bad, whatever it is, if I love something more than God, that is an idol to me.
Where are you today? You can say that you are in the ark. But, maybe in some aspect of your life you are still in Ur of the Chaldeans. Maybe you are still between the rivers of Mesopotamia with some things that are very valuable to you. They may be so valuable that you even forget about God. Do you know what this is? This is an idol. Maybe you don't have images at home or pray to them, but you value something more than the Lord. That is an idol to you. It does not matter what it is. It may be something that is really good or really bad, but you cannot leave it. Do you know why you value it so much, why you like it so much? Because God is still not so precious, so valuable, so good, so lovable to you. That is why you are still not willing to abandon those things and follow Him alone.
A principle in human life that affirms this is: "A man will only leave a thing that he likes when he finds something that is better". Have you ever noticed this when two children are fighting over the same thing? Someone with more experience comes to them and shows them something else and tells them, "Look at this, it is bigger; it is better and it is prettier." Many times the same thing happens to us. When we find something better, what do we do with what we have? We forget about it. Our problem is that we do not always realize that in every area of our life, God is better. As long as we are not seeking the Lord, we will place more value on other things, people, events and feelings.
So, what do you need? You need the Lord to appear to you. When He appears, when He shows Himself to you, then you will realize and say, "Hey! The Lord is much better than what I have valued so much." And what do you do? You leave it. Young one, are you convinced that God is good? Yes, but there are things in your life that you also consider to be very good. You know which ones, it is not necessary to give examples here. You know better than anyone because it is your life. Do you know why you place so much value on other things? Because you haven't seen that God is more precious than this thing to you. Do you know what you need? You need the God of glory to appear to you.
For example, when you are participating in a young's people conference, you are in an intensive course to become convinced that what you have in your hands is not valuable at all; that God is more precious than everything else. In a conference we enjoy how superior the Lord is. He is superior to everything else. "The problem is that I don't know, or I forget. When I am in a conference or living with the other young people in the church life, God is superior to everything. He is superior to my friends, to entertainment, to the TV, to the Internet, to magazines, to vain talking. But after I leave this environment I forget about the superiority of the Lord and I come back to all those things. What do I need then? I need the God of glory to appear to me. The God of glory needs to continue appearing to me and I need to be willing to seek Him and to see that He is better than the other things, no matter what".
Young one, this is what God did with Abraham. This is good news. God loved Abraham, chose him, appeared to him and called him. It is the same with you. The fact that you are reading this book is proof that God loves you. One day God appeared to you and called you, and today He is appearing to you once again. Now, you need to open your eyes; otherwise you won't see Him.
We are already in the fourth chapter of this book; we are already more than half-way through. If you have still not had an experience with the God of glory, you are wasting time, because He could have shown Himself to you many times and you would have seen how precious He is.
The God of glory always wants to appear to us. Sometimes we get discouraged. We look at ourselves and say, "No, there is no way. I go to the conference or to the young's people meeting, I gain the Lord, the environment is very good, but I have to go back home. If only I could stay here, I believe I would escape certain things." It seems that the problem is when we come back home. Do you believe that the God of glory will only appear in a conference, in a special meeting or at a special time? No! The God of glory appears everywhere. It doesn't matter where you are. The Lord can appear to you today and tomorrow also. Everyday you can have the appearing of the God of glory. You will not see an external splendor, but you will be enlightened in your spirit. You must seek this every day; you must have contact with the Lord so that the God of glory will appear to you.
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