Nashville, Tennessee, United States - The Upper Room Daily Devotional "The Light of the Cross" for Thursday, 25 September 2014 - Read 2 Corinthians 3:12-18

Nashville, Tennessee, United States - The Upper Room Daily Devotional "The Light of the Cross" for Thursday, 25 September 2014 - Read 2 Corinthians 3:12-15 With that kind of hope to excite us, nothing holds us back. Unlike Moses, we have nothing to hide. Everything is out in the open with us. He wore a veil so the children of Israel wouldn’t notice that the glory was fading away—and they didn’t notice. They didn’t notice it then and they don’t notice it now, don’t notice that there’s nothing left behind that veil. Even today when the proclamations of that old, bankrupt government are read out, they can’t see through it. Only Christ can get rid of the veil so they can see for themselves that there’s nothing there.
16-18 Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.
You are the light of the world.(Matthew 5:14 (NIV))
It is wonderful to me that God communicates with us in many different ways. We can hear God’s voice in the words of scripture or sermon. We can hear God in the words of a song, the melodies of music, or even in the sounds of nature. Sometimes, however, God gets through to us without any words at all. That’s what happened to me at our last Easter sunrise service.
For that service, our church sets up seats and an altar outside in front of our cemetery. From the seats, we can see our church building in the background. Then, if it is a clear morning and the timing is right, we can see the sun rising over the cemetery during worship. This experience by itself gives a powerful message to us about Jesus’ resurrection. But last Easter, something even more powerful happened.
As the sun rose that morning, the rays hit the cross on the altar and then reflected an image of the cross on our pastor’s robe. God spoke through that image, giving me a message without words. We are all invited to reflect the glory of Christ to others. We are not the source of that divine light; but if we are in the right place and allow God to use us, others can see Christ through us.
The Author: David E. Spivey Jr. (North Carolina)
Thought for the Day: How do I reflect the love of Jesus to others?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, help us in all that we do to reflect your glory and your love. Help us to let others get a glimpse of you when they interact with us. Amen.
Prayer focus: Worship planners
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