Ravi Zacharias - The Glory of God for This We Were Made
Talking about the glory of God is very hard in a society as dark as this. Two days ago I was in Washington speaking for my good friend Kirk Cameron in Revive Us 2. There were other fine speakers there like Ben Carson and Joni Eareckson Tada and a few others but the one sentence that really almost made it impossible for me to speak was given by a wonderful lady called Jennifer Rothschild. She was sitting to my right, her husband had ushered her in I don't know exactly I can't guess her years, maybe 40s I guess, I don't know I hope I'm not wrong, but she became blind from when she was 15, completely blind and she gave one line that made me nearly lose it. I couldn't imagine what it meant for her to say that.
She said when you wake up every day in the dark and when she said that, that's all I needed to hear to understand the plight of a person who opens their eyes but not only don't see anything all they see is darkness. A grim, unyielding darkness and how she lived like that just imagine oh, I've had a few eye issues over the last couple of years with the dry eye syndrome and so on and sometimes I wake up in the morning and I don't know whether I'm going to have that shooting pain all day or whether it'll stay and if I do have it, it'll stays for about 3 P. M. or 4 P. M. in the afternoon and that eye just keeps watering all the time and it's very, very discomforting, but that slight discomfort makes such a mark in your life to make you worry about just the next morning.
Imagine knowing that no matter how long you live in this earth you're going to see darkness and nothing more. That was a moving, moving, moving, moment but then she went on to say something like this. She said but I console myself with the fact that this is only temporary, I'm in this world for a short journey, in eternity I will see as brightly as possible especially in the presence of the bright, very bright and luminous Son of God. It's a short journey but in this short journey I want to talk to you a little bit about how we put the bright light of the glory of God for which we were made.
You see if you talk about the glory of God, it is not just that you're talking about something transcendent and distant and essential and defining but in understanding that essential nature of that luminosity of God and the weightedness of God meaning there's nothing hollow about God, there's something substantive. That's what we get from the Hebrew 'kavod', 'kavod' literally means wait and that's why C.S. Lewis takes off on punning in the title: the weight of glory. He takes the Hebrew word 'kavod' and so when the glory departed it was 'ekavod' or what we would say in the anglicized pronunciation ekabod that the substance has gone from the people.
But that luminosity is what we often think about and that comes from the Greek 'doxa', the brightness, the brilliance and when you take a precious Jewel, often times the Jeweler would not just put it down on a glass pane and show it to you, he would take out a box with a black velvet background or a dark blue background and put that diamond on top of that background and then shine the light on it so the radiance coming from outside and the background that is dark from behind the luminosity and every facet of this diamond shines brilliantly.
And so I want to talk to you a little bit about this luminosity of God, what does it mean? Why does Isaiah cover his eyes? Why does God say to Moses you cannot see my face and still live and tell him to get behind the rock and you will see the after effects of my presence which is what it literally means, not so much my back but as I have passed through and have been there, you will know that I have been there. What kind of a background are we living in?
Many years ago Neil Postman wrote a book in the mid-1980's "Amusing Ourselves to Death", and in that book he began with this introduction: "What George Orwell feared were those who would ban books, what Aldous Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book because there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information, Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us, Huxley feared that the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared that we would become a captive culture, Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy and the centrifugal bumble puppy. As Huxley remarks in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalist who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny fail to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distraction. In 1984 it was said, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will driven us, Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us".
And Postman goes on to say in his book about the possibility that Huxley and not Orwell was right. That the pleasure syndrome would take over and create a kind of a darkness in the pursuit of exhilaration and ecstasy we would actually become hollow and trivial and empty people until the most sacred things of life, sexuality and life itself had been trivialize and so the entertainment is a combination of killing and perversion. That's what entertains us now, the substance of the real has gone and the hollowness of the trivial has become real.
That's what we are battling in our time, but that's why the younger ones are struggling even to want to live because by the time, they are 12 and 13 and 14 they have felt and tasted and seen that which was only reserved for mature years. They have now tasted it, seen it and experienced it and they end up saying I have nothing left to look forward to and when you have nothing left to look forward to you want to make an exit and live a hollow existence. It's not just the young, some of the loneliest people I've met are those who have experienced it most or have been able to afford it the most. It's like being surrounded by all the wealth in the world and saying I'm bored.
The glory of God has a lot to say about this. In the book of Ezekiel we have a remarkable story and I would like to just read a few verses to you. Ezekiel was a 30 year old man in captivity. For him the glory had gone. Why had it gone? Because they thought Jerusalem would never be destroyed. Jerusalem is that sacred city, when you take even those who once lived in Jerusalem and were evicted from there you come back with them to Jerusalem and they are walking down that cobble stone they would look at you and tell you there is no expression that I can give to you that fully explains what it means for me to walk in Jerusalem again, that city that was intended to be the city of peace and a place that would symbolized the eternal city that has now become a city of warfare and constant contention.
So Jerusalem is gone, he is now in captivity. He is a 30 year old young man, God pours into him physically and emotionally what his calling was going to be like, if you just read the first ten chapters you will see exactly what that means, the physical pain, the loss of his wife, all of these tragedies that were taking place and having the dreams that they would be dragged away and taken to a place where they did not want to go. But then he comes to chapter ten and I wanted you to hear this, it's very important that you hear very carefully what it is he's saying.
"I looked and I saw the likeness of a throne of sapphire, above the expanse that was over the heads of the cherubim. The Lord said to the man clothed in linen, go in among the wheels beneath the cherubim, fill your hands with burning coals from among the cherubim and scatter them over the city and as I watched he went in, now the cherubim was standing on the south side of the temple when the man went in and a cloud filled the inner court and the glory of the Lord rose above the cherubim and moved to the threshold of the temple, the cloud filled the temple and the court was full of the radiance of the glory of the Lord, the sound of the wings of the cherubim could be heard as far away as the outer court like the voice of Almighty God, when he speaks".
That's the line I want you to take note of. God is moving away from his people, he is departing from them almost like in the New Testament Jesus said you know, hence forth you shall see my face no more until you shall learn to say blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, it is amazing to me that even when despair comes God always puts a comma there to say 'until'. He's never really abandoning his people. I'm moving away from you, goes to the threshold, he pauses, he doesn't really want to leave but they betrayed him again and again and again repeatedly now over a thousand years of repeated betrayal.
Isaiah talked about it, Daniel talks about it, Ezekiel talks about it, Jeremiah talks about it and now as this departure is taking place, he pauses and then he departs from the Eastern Gate and if you are into prophecy you will see how fascinating the rest of it is. But when you move towards the end of the book in chapter 43 it says this, "Then the grand man brought me to the great facing the East", this was where they had last seen him begin to depart. "And I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the East his voice was like the roar of rushing waters and the land was radiant with his glory".
If you'd noticed what happened there, Ezekiel 10, Ezekiel 43, you go to Exodus 3, Exodus 33 similar things happen. Moses in the wilderness and he sees the bush burning and the bush is not being extinguished and he walks over to the bush and the voice of God comes from the bush to speak to him, "Moses, Moses...". 33 when he says look I don't want to go, Sarah mentioned that this morning, I don't want to go without the assurance that you are going to go with me and I want you to show me your glory. It was a very audacious prayer from Moses. God says alright you're going to see my glory but you're not going to see my face, you will see the after effects of my presence, and God speaks to him there.
You come to the New Testament, you have these three disciples going right to the top of the mountain and they are not sure what they're going to see. It comes immediately after Jesus says you know some of them still alive are going to see the Kingdom of God coming in glory. People say what did he mean? Well the very next verse begins by telling us that he took three of them up to the Mount of Transfiguration and when he takes the three of them up to the Mount of Transfiguration...
Thomas and Sange traveled with me, they will remember when we were in Israel last year or the year before I told them I want you to see this place. I know many of you have been there, but that to me was the most beautiful spot I've ever wanted to be in. Margie was with me years ago when we went, you go up that Mount of Transfiguration it's so Edenic, so restful, so quiet and your mind begins to wonder about what had gone on up there. The rest of the disciples are asleep at the bottom of the mountain there and then far to the distance the other followers, these three boys are brought up to the front, Peter, James and John and when they come up to the front, the Bible says the body of Jesus began to glow with the whitest white that the human eye could see.
Just imagine that. The whitest white that the human eye could see, but the eye could not contain it, they fall prostrate before. The fascinating thing to me is the two men for whom God was the undertaker, Moses and Elijah, God buried them. Elijah just took off, one chariot of fire and God buried Moses. They're sort of unnatural departures from this world. He brings them back onto the mountain. I would have thought Peter and all would have said, "wow I didn't know Moses looked like that", "wow, what a thrill to see Elijah, that great prophet". No they are blinded with the transfigured body of Jesus. They were seeing the kingdom as had not been vouched safe to any other eye.
We had colonel James Dutton one year, many of you remember he was one of the pilots for the Space Missions and he took pictures from, he landed the plane back safely when they returned, he took pictures right from the space ship and he was listening to one of my sermons when in space "Who is God", so he took that CD, put it in a frame along with a flag from Indiana, a flag from the Unites States, framed it, came with one other astronaut to our office to present it to us.
And James Dutton said to me, "you know out there, thousands of miles away and you're looking at this tiny speck we call earth and home". He said "the grandeur was unexplainable. The incredible vastness of the universe that we live in and we live in this tiny little speck we call earth", he said, "I was so overwhelmed that I would look out of that spaceship and say, 'How majestic is your name, o, Lord'".
That's why the astronaut in 1968 on Christmas Eve could go nowhere else except to the Scriptures and they went around the dark side of the moon and saw earth rise over the horizon in that brilliant combination of blue and white garlanded by the glistening light of the sun against the black void of space. The only thing that came to their mind was, "In the beginning, God". Only God was big enough to capture this awe inspiring reality, the glory of God and when the glory of God departed what happened?
Ichabod was writ large. Eli was an old man and unfortunately he'd messed up with his boys and two boys were killed in the battle and the messenger comes and says I got bad news for you. Your two boys had been killed, but then they said the Ark of the Covenant has been taken from our midst, which signified the presence of God. And his daughter in law was about to give birth and his daughter in law said I'm going to call my son Ichabod because the glory of God had departed, no more substance, no more light, no more presence. These three realities is what glory actually signifies and you hear the voice of God where he is present, where the glory of God dwells there the voice of God is heard. That's why in Ezekiel 10 his voice, Ezekiel 43:7 here "The voice was like the sound of many waters".
Now what I want to talk to you about is after that transfiguration experience. When they go back, Peter talks about it as an apologist. He says we are not following cunningly devised fables, but we were eye witnesses to his majesty. We are not following cunningly devised fables, but we were eye witnesses to his majesty as a light shining in a dark place, and you will do well to pay heed to it. And then he says this, but now we have the word of the prophets made more certain, more dramatically certain than just the voice of God in a display of glory is the Word of God that carries the narrative of what he intends for you and me, so if you really want to know what the glory of God intends it is what he intends in your life and mine and if you don't understand his glory you don't understand how fearfully and wonderfully we are really made. We are made to reflect that essential splendor, that essential splendor of God's substantiveness and God's luminosity we need to be bright lights in a dark world.
Now why does the glory depart? I will race through this very quickly. The glory departs number one because there was no internalization of the truth. Truth is never intended to be a mere externality, truth is intended to be internalized. It has to be that which comes from within you, not just that which comes from outside you. That's really what happens at conversion when you are newly born, when you and I have that new birth, and the presence of God comes and lives within us, the divine imperative takes over, yea nay, yea nay, that voice that comes from within and when that voice gets garbled it is the word to which you go to find the clarity once again how he intended us to live in this dark world today we go anywhere but here to find out what God's will is of how we should live, hence the darkness.
We are as confused a culture as I have ever seen in 45 years of ministry. There are no answers out there. In fact there are only questions after questions after question and when you see a person from whose eyes you see the brightness of God's presence and from whose words you hear the substantiveness of what life is all about you understand why knowing Christ brings that brilliant light in your eye. As we were listening to Jack and Shawna last night, he saw something in her eyes that he never saw anywhere else. He saw that beauty, he saw that brilliance. Why in heaven's name are you looking so happy? What makes you shine like this?
You know there are two great soccer players in our time amongst many others. One is Lionel Messi from Argentina and the other is Cristiano Ronaldo from Portugal and they're always at each other as to who is number one and who is number two. And Ronaldo was being interviewed by the media and he made the comment that he believed God had sent him into the world so that people could learn how to play soccer and show how soccer ought to be played. So when he finished that statement another interviewer went to Lionel Messi and said so what do you think of Ronaldo's statement that God sent him into the world in order to teach people how to play soccer. Messi said: I honestly tell you I don't member sending him.
We have this extraordinary opinion of how great we are and athletes I suppose it goes with that kind of ability to be braggarts as well very few people brag as much as an athlete does of course when you can pitch a no hitter you feel pretty important. When you can hit a Grand Slam you feel you've really made it big, millions have watched you do that, but then the body begins to get frail and you're no longer in control like that, you no longer can hit like that and then you wonder where's the glory, wherein lies the glory?
The people I have seen who have that glory most are those who have really lived with the internal imperatives of how God wants you to live. I'll tell you truth and I'm not making this up. Many a time I wished to myself, I could say I'm done. I've paid my dues 45 years, millions of miles I can tell you what every aircraft looks like, feels like and who does the best service and who doesn't do a very good service. Who makes the worst tea, I can tell you all of that stuff, but there's only one thing that keeps me going, and that is the firm belief that more than ever this Gospel is the only shining light against the dark background of a confused and messed up world.
Robert Jeffery was a great preacher, the last three years of his life he spent in a Japanese internment camp. He was heir to Canada's largest newspaper the globe and mail but he started to study Chinese and the standard oil company wanted to hire him, he decided instead to become a missionary. I have some of his books in my library, Robert Jeffrey, and finally the standard oil company offered him a huge salary to come and work for them instead of being a missionary, he turned them down. They wrote back and doubled it he turned it down, finally they sent him a telegram, "Jeffrey at any price". He wrote back with one line as well, "Your salary is big, your job is too small". Your salary is big, your job is too small. You see, your job and my job is to be that bright light wherever we are to do it and to shine in this very dark world it's the Jeffries of the world that opened up China so that today we see the results of how profoundly they had an impact. The internalization of truth, there was no internalization. Number two, there was no concern for the poor and the marginalized in society.
When I started Wellspring International my heart, Shalini was very correct, I did what I did for Wellspring because I was raised by a mother who never ever walked by somebody with need without doing something for them. Even when I moved to Canada when I would pack my suitcase she would ask me to take two suitcases, one for the needy and the poor and I could come back with that suitcase empty if I so chose. Clothes, money, goods, watches things like that, my mother wasn't a very wealthy woman, but she had a very tender heart and God is called us to be a compassionate people, to be there for the needy.
I always love it when I see Naomi presenting that need, many of you here were involved in buying that land for the building of a hospital that is the next great stage to treat burn victims, but many of you may know that the greatest blessing I ever received, the greatest benediction I ever received was from a beggar in Delhi. As I saw him walking with one leg out there, pushing himself, one leg gone, the other bandaged up with pus marks and blood marks on the other and pushing himself like this, I felt so much pity and compassion for him I wanted to give him something immediately, but I didn't do it because I knew, I'd be invaded by several others.
So from a distance I walked behind him until he pushed himself across the road somewhere and there were little less people on the other side, I went over to him and I said "Brother sir, pause a minute", and I knelt beside him and I put a little money into his hand it was a $100 rupee note and I said "In the name of Jesus Christ, I'm giving this to you respected sir". He opened his hand like that to see it was a $100 rupee note I don't know if he'd ever received that in his life. It was big for him, for me it was a $1.50 and he looked at it like that and looked at me and his eyes flooded with tears and he said "Respected sir, may God richly bless you".
It's the best benediction I ever received from a man who couldn't have given me anything except his good wishes and his prayer and what happened in those days as the poor were ignored and lost their way for the needy, God said my glory is going to leave your presence. It was not internalized. Secondly, he told them: the most powerful were gonna be humiliated.
Chapter 27. I won't go into the details. They had become so confident in themselves, so confident in themselves: the self-aggrandizement, that they could do it and wing it on their own way. How tempting that is for you and me when we meet success to think we have done it. Winston Churchill said to a corporal once, who looked at him and said, "I want you to know, sir, I am a self-made man," Churchill said, "You have just relieved God of a very solemn responsibility". We're not self-made. The lines fall in the right places. The right people come into your life. And that's why my book "Walking from East to West" has very little to do, really, about me, but the people that came into my life that opened doors and made it possible for me to study, to work, to prepare.
And my professors: still this day, I revere my professors so greatly: Norman Geisler, John Warwick Montgomery, John Gerstner, John R.W. Stott, J.I. Packer. I was studying under the best of them. Kenneth Concer I owe so much to them. I'm afraid this being recorded, that some of them start to explout that now. Just three days ago, I got a letter from Norman Geisler, "We have to have you. I know you'd want to do this for me". I said, "I will do it for you, sir. If I am free, I will be there because I studied at your feet. I learned at your feet. Without you, no doors would have been opened in philosophical thinking and this kind of argumentation for me".
But if you think it's all about you, all of a sudden a sickness or a disease or something fells you and you find out you are not what you thought you were. The body begins to weaken and the body begins to fail. But here's what I wanna tell you. Even in weakness, even in that brokenness, God's glory is the only hope you can have to lift you above that brokenness. That's what God shows to them.
You know, I used to love track and field. I used to be a runner. I would never have made it to the big leagues, but I used to love, I must have had early hip issues and back issues early in life. I wanted to be a sprinter. I couldn't make it, so I became a long-distance runner. I love to run the long distances. And every time the Olympics come, I would watch the track and field. It was the highlight for me every time, especially the 100 meters, all the middle distances, 800 meters all the way to the mile or the marathon. I'd watch it. Running is an exhilarating thing. And when you watch the finest runners, it's a beautiful thing to behold.
In the Olympic games of Barcelona 1992, there was an English runner by the name of Derek Anthony Redmond. I don't know how many of you know that name. He was a very brilliant runner. They were expecting him to win the 400 meters. Derek Redmond was it. They came to the finals and the gun was sounded. He's running towards the 400-meter mark. At the 125-meter mark, he stops and clasps his leg. He's pulled a hamstring. He falls. They come and bring him a stretcher. He says, "No", and he gets up and he's hobbling over. And out of the crowd, there's a man running down and the security's trying to get to him until he just said these words, "I'm his father".
And Derek's dad, big guy, he is pushing everybody aside. He comes onto the track, and they don't know who he is. He's pushing them aside, said, "That's my son". And the father comes beside Derek and he's hobbling like this, and he comes and puts his arm around him and he said, "I'm gonna do this myself, dad". He said, "That's fine, son: let me help you at least half the way". And so he puts his arm around Derek and Derek's got his hand on his shoulder. See it on the Youtube. It's beautiful. In the background is the music playing, "He lifts me up," "He raises me up". And there he is, on the shoulder of his dad, hobbling.
And the dad did something amazing with about five meters to go. He pulled away and let Derek burst the tape on his own. I don't know who won that event, but I know who was the real winner in what happened that day. And when you know that he raises you up when your head is on his shoulder, he lifts you up when that hamstring has felled you, he comes to carry you out of a crowd of people, "That's my son: I'm his father". I want you to know that the glory of God is at it's greatest when you and I are at our weakest and he comes and says, "Put that head on my shoulder: I'm going to care you through".
The longer I live, the more I realize everybody lives with at least a partially broken heart, at least a partially broken heart if not a totally broken heart. And it has been said when you preach to a hurting audience you will never lack for one. You unpack people's hurt and pain and you will hear a lot of hurt and pain. The glory of God is at its greatest when you put your head on his shoulder and say, "I can't finish this race... Help me". And he will do it in such a way, when you come to the finish line, he'll say, "You've done". Just like he brought Peter half the way and said, "Now you'll find Rhoda's house: you'll get there the rest of the way," as he sent the angel.
The glory of God is at it's greatest when we are at our weakest and we realize "I need his shoulder on which to put my head". When you and I learn that, the weightedness of God and the luminosity of God shines in the path ahead and you know you're in secure hands and shoulders that are holding you up. Derek's victory was a victory of a father and son, and of a crowd of people, the glory of that. So you see how it was not internalized, how the most powerful realized they needed a shoulder.
Thirdly, but the silence of God intensified when he was gone. Martin Luther cried a prayer once: I have never forgotten. "Bless us, Lord, yea even curse us: but please be not silent". "Bless us, Lord, yea even curse us: but please be not silent". How do you hear the voice of God? There are only two or three ways that I know. Number one, by reading his word. Number two, by living out that word, because that draws you closer to him and he knows you mean business. Number three, by spending time with people who listen to God's voice, and you draw that strength from them. Make friends of those who will inspire and bless you and equip you. Sooner or later in life you're gonna need that voice of God through somebody else to come into your life.
When I was ready to graduate in Toronto, I had developed some vocal nodules because I preached in Vietnam, I preached three or four times a day for four months and my voice was shot. It was gone. And I came back and my throat was hurting every time I spoke, and so I went to see a medical doctor. And he looked at my throat, examined me, and he said, "What are you gonna do in your life"? I said, "I'm planning to be a speaker". He said, "No, not gonna happen". He said, "You don't have the vocal cords to use it professionally. You don't have the vocal cords to do it professionally".
So the next day, I went to school and I was just walking around. I was really down. I said, "Is that true"? I thought I was gonna do just that, speak for my Lord. And the chancellor of the college, Dr. Stewart Beemer, I already knew him well, too, he saw me walking and said, "Are you okay"? I said, "No, sir". He said, "Come on up to my office," so I went up. He said, "What's bothering you"? So I told him. He said, "Ravi, don't listen to him". He said, "I've watched you preach, I've heard you preach... God's got his hand on you. I'm gonna get you in touch with the best laryngologist that I know in this country. If he tells you that, I'll believe it. Otherwise, I won't".
So he sent me to see a Dr. Silverthorne, and Dr. Silverthorne looked at me and he said, "No problem: we'll take care of it. It may take you off the road for about five weeks, but you'll be fine". Here I am now, 45 years later, speaking all over the globe. If it weren't for Dr. Stewart Beemer and those doctors, I don't know if I would be here. Always listen to godly wisdom. You and I may think we have all the answers. Make friends of people you revere and respect. Their voice needs to be heard.
I love my board. I love my board. We just come through a tough time with personal attacks on me, and it's my board members and colleagues that had that voice of encouragement: my colleagues at work: Vince, Michael, others. I can name all of you. Sending me scripture verses, you know. "God's gonna carry you through". "God's gonna carry you through". And it's what carried me through, his word and his presence to that. Through all of that, he will not abandon you if you will listen to his voice through his word, live out that word, and make friends of those whom you revere and trust. Otherwise, the silence of God will intensify.
And lastly, he set their theology straight. They kept saying "The days are prolonged and every vision faileth". They were moving to cynicism. They said, "Perhaps a single righteous man can save us... Noah or Daniel or Job". They were moving to escapism: cynicism, escapism, and lastly, "Well, the fathers of Eden saw grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge". We've got fatalism. Cynicism, escapism, fatalism. He says, "No, I am going to return into your midst". The last words of the Book of Ezekiel, "God is there". It was the last words of the Book of Ezekiel. If you just ever get back to it and turn to it at home, it ends with the words, "...The new city," the new radiance, the new everything, and the word, "The Lord is there". Jehovah Shammah. Yahweh Shammah. The Lord is there.
What do I wish for this ministry? More than anything else, as I hear these young voices, it inspires me. Absolutely inspires me. I couldn't ask for a better team to work with. My greatest prayer is that no matter what happens at RZIM, people will always be able to say "The Lord is there". The Lord is there. The Lord is there. That if people look at my life, they will say, "The Lord is there in Ravi's life". As people look at you, may they say, "The Lord is there". You're our friends. You face the same struggles we do with your family, with your children, with grandchildren, whatever. But if the Lord is in your life and present in your life, it's the only hope in a dark, dark world.
The luminosity of God, the substantiveness of God. Glory 'kavod' in the Old Testament. Glory 'doxa' in the New Testament. You don't have to wake up every morning in the dark. You can wake up every morning in the light if the Lord is with you and the Lord is there. The more you understand his glory, the more you will understand why you were made. Without that glory, you'll be sent over to nothing more than dust.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal: 'dust thou art, to dust returnest,' was not spoken of the soul". You are not just a body. You are a soul. No, the soul doesn't return to dust. It returns to it's Maker. And that shining light and that substantiveness of God is what you and I desperately need. The world needs it. You need it. I need it. And I just say to you, are you willing to believe it? And are you willing to live it? For this purpose you and I were made. Understand that glory. Put your head on his shoulder today. Let him help you finish the race. God bless you.