Great Is Thy Faithfulness

First of all, I just want to say thanks to such great friends who have reached out to my family, my whole family, during this tough time of losing our sweet "Dearmom" so tragically. After the initial shock wore off, we all considered it a blessing from the Father that she is now happier than she has ever been and we know that "Boppie" was standing at the pearly gates waiting on her, cowbell in hand.

It was amazing to see the turn out at visitation on Thursday, to see how many people loved my grandmother and my family enough to wait, on average (from what we were told) an hour (some even more) in the monsoon to give their condolences and let us know how much they loved us and that we were being lifted up in prayer. It was a true testimony of the love you get reflects the love you give. My grandmother, and my grandfather, were just amazing people with amazing hearts and amazing love for others, that can only come from the Father himself. They both instilled amazing qualities in my mom, her two sisters and one brother. They have left an incredible legacy of the Gospel that is being carried out and will be carried out as long as there is Stone blood in our veins.

I want to leave you with the lyrics to one of my favorite hymns, "Great Is Thy Faithfulness." This song means more than you'll ever know to my family and it reflects the immeasurely love and grace of God. Through its words, we find comfort that God is the same, yesterday, today and forever and that is mercy flowing unending. He will never fail us, not matter how many times we fail him and his glory is revealed not only through his creation around us, but through his creation of us, failures and all.

The summer of 1997, my dad had a heart attack. He told us later that while he was in the emergency room, all he could hear was this hymn. It reminded him, and us, of God's divine ways of revealing himself to us, in the most desperate times of need. Five years later, it was played at my sister's wedding. Six years later, we sang it at my grandmother's funeral. Praise God for his faithfulness!

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.

Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

The Lord Is Good...

So it seems in the past year, I've been faced with more circumstances of death, illness, moral failure and natural disaster than I ever have before whether I was affected directly by it or have just seen it affect people around me. I don't know if it is that the circumstances have grown or that I'm just older and am more aware.

Two weekends ago, 12 people were murdered in Birmingham in two days. A week before that a friend lost just about everything she possessed in a fire two weeks before she was to leave for Brazil for eight weeks. This past week several countries in the Asia and Africa have been affected by natural disaster. Sunday a close family friend's body was discovered in the backwoods of Edwards, MS after a month of being missing. A co-worker lost her sister earlier in the year to cancer. Today, my roommate found out that her grandfather may have lung cancer. Also another close family friend found out her 9-week-old son may have a rare disease and today, my grandmother, who was going to turn 90 a week from Saturday, was killed in a freak car accident.
What happens when we are faced with such circumstances? How do we respond? Why does it happen?

When I found out about my grandmother, I cried a bit, talked to friends, started packing and then sat down to read the Bible. When I opened my Bible, my eyes fell on these verses in Job:

"God does all these things to a man - twice, even three times - to turn back his soul from the pit, that the light of life many shine on him"

"The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised."

I have to say that I'm quite surprised by the way that I've handled certain situations this year. Instead of wallowing in grief, my immediate response has been, "May God receive the glory from this."

Why? Because there is nothing that I can do to change anything in this life. God is the ruler of this universe and controls everything, down to the smallest detail. And I can't argue with the Big Man. I don't want to. The only thing I have is my faith, through the amazing grace of God, and peace through the abundant mercy that he shows his people.

Two of my favorite verses come from Psalm 71:8, 14-15:

"My mouth is filled with your praise, declaring your splendor all day long...But as for me, I will always have hope, I will praise you more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteousness, of you salvation all day long, though I know not its measure."

It's so fitting, I think. There's nothing else that we can do, nothing else that we were made for, no better way to spend our time here on Earth, than to declare the glory and majesty and love and salvation of awesome Mighty God.

No matter how bad things ever get for me, nothing will ever be as bad as if I was not a child of God. There are millions of people in this world who haven't ever even heard the name of Jesus. They are much worse off than I ever will be. So I can sit back and pity myself or I can join the mission of God and go and tell those people why I can face such hardship and still have hope.

I've learned that life is fleeting, people are perishing and eternity is coming. So I can either get involved or get out of the way.

In the words of Jonathan Edwards, the great man of God from the Great Awakening, I am "resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can. Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live." And "resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do , if it were the last hour of my life." Live for Jesus and the hope that he gives.

Please pray for my family, especially my mom as Dearmom's death came as such a shock. We were all praying that the Lord would take her on, but in a list of a million ways we imagined it would go, a car accident was definitely not one of them. God works in his own way.

Also pray for the family of Mark Ginn. Losing a father is not easy, but losing a father like they did is definitely hard to swallow. Pray for peace for his wife Regina, and for his children Matt, Marcus and Marianna. I know they have a lot of unanswered questions and I pray that they will seek the Lord for guidance.

Pray for my roommate's grandfather as he goes to the doctor to get a spot on his lung checked for cancer.

And pray for three friends who are abroad sharing the love of Christ. Amanda is in Tokyo for the summer, Leslie is in Brazil for eight weeks and Carrie is in Africa (for what amount of time I am not sure). May the love and grace of the Lord flow through them so that his glory can be seen. May he travel before and behind them and may they be his hands and feet to the lost of the places where they will go.

This may have made no sense but as a writer, this is my way of getting it all out. I'll just leave you with a few more of my favorite verses which show the complete awesome character of God.

Exodus 34:6-7
"The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation."

Following Suit

Maybe I should – work on updating some bios. But then again, this is more fun.

I love the smell of – freshly cut grass, the beach, apple pie and barbeques

People would say that I’m – I don't know. Ask them. No. Kidding. Way too sarcastic for my own good.

I don’t understand why – lots of things happen in life but praise God that he's got it all under control.

I lost my willpower to – work today.

Life is – fleeting. People are perishing. Eternity is coming. What are we doing?

My past made me – the person I am today. Of course.

I get annoyed when I – students park where there are four signs that say "No parking at any time" and block the flow of traffic.

Parties are not a good time to – run around naked. OR maybe they are. For me? Not so much.

Dogs are – the best thing God could give humans. Besides life, of course.

Tomorrow – is another day.

I have a low tolerance for – rudeness.

I’m totally terrified of – snakes. Katie don't do snakes.

I wonder why I thought my life would be – simple. Nothing is ever simple.

I always knew I would – not have an answer for this question.

Never in my life have I – been to an NFL game.

High school was- freaking eight years ago. What the heck?!?!?

When I’m nervous – pplay with my hair.

One time at a family gathering - my mom made me sing "Happy Birthday Jesus"

Take my advice - Let the boy come to you.

Making my bed – does not happen every morning.

I’m almost always - texting.

I’m addicted to – Big Brother. I don't know what to do now that it's gone.

Rainy Days Are Made For Staying In

There's only one word to describe today and that is "gross." It has not stopped raining at all today and now all the ditches here are starting to flood. I don't mind the rain though. It's much needed. Praise God for the blessing of rain. It was only eight months ago that we were praying for rain because of droughts in this area of the U.S. Now it rains at least once a week. I think today we got a weeks worth. I woke up this morning and just wanted to call and say that I wouldn't be at work today because it was a perfect day to just stay home and lay around.

Chris sent this to me today. The Mississippi State Alumni Association is pulling out all the stops for MSU baseball next year. They are offering a six day travel package of only $979 (which includes six nights hotel accommodations with the team at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Diamond Head Tower in Waikiki, a guided tour of Pearl Harbor, airport transfers and baggage handling, and bus transportation to games). All you have to pay for is you plane tickets. It's March 3-9 which I'm sure my mom wishes was her Spring Break. I definitely wish I got a Spring Break because I would sign up today if it weren't for my unpredictable schedule at that time of year. Who knows? Maybe I'll get a break and not have any home events that week. I can work away from the office. No problem.

I guess since I can't go outside and exercise (like I actually would have exercised if it wasn't raining), I will just stay in and follow the newest workout craze, Dave Barnes' first workout video. I received this in my email yesterday and could not stop laughing. If you don't find it funny, it's probably because you either have no sense of humor at all or have never experienced Dave's humor before. It's one of a kind. Enjoy.

Hello Goodbye

Today I said goodbye to a great friend (well, maybe not goodbye...just "see ya later"). Leslie had her last day as the marketing intern at Samford today and she is off in about five days to spend eight weeks in Brazil. I'm not going to talk about how jealous I am. I'll just tell you how awesome she is. I will outline for easy reading:

• She has one of THE MOST bubbly personalities of anyone I know.
• Her apartment burned down two weeks ago and she has not lost a step. She's been more up-beat and grateful and has not stopped giving the glory to God.
• She dresses unbelievably cute.
• And she's just too sweet.

I'm definitely going to miss her. She was my token "girl" in the workplace. I can't wait to here all about her trip.

Good Luck Del!

Also today my family said hello to a new sweet baby. My cousin Laura, had her first, which makes the twelfth great-grandchild on my mom's side of the family. Payne Adams Pennebaker was born tonight around 8ish and was a little last the 8 lbs. I hate that I don't have a picture to show but my mom said he has lots and lots of dark curly hair, which doesn't surprise me since his mom has lots and lots of dark curly hair as well. It's funny that there are 11 girls and one boy in the line of grandchildren and every girl that has had a baby so far has had a boy except for one. Welcome to the world, Payne!

Time flies when you're...well time just flies

Wow! It's May, already? The past month has flown by. I can't believe that the school year is already almost over with. This weekend my tennis teams wrapped up their season at the NCAA Tournament and now I'm down to just one sport. Finally! Track is still going but at least it's not as high-maintenance as the other sports.

Since I've not be blogging lately, I'll update you on what has been going on.

I actually got a weekend off a few weeks ago and got to actually go out and do something with my friend Chris, who came in town from Montgomery. We went to eat and then went to the Barons game. It was so fun to actually do something, without having to worry about getting home to write a story.

Last weekend I got to go visit Bethany in Knoxville and have a lazy girls' weekend with her. I did have to work a little while I was there but it was just track so it wasn't that bad. We did some stuff to spruce up her apartment a little like painting the chair in the collage below. Other than that, we went shopping and just watched fun movies like 27 Dresses and August Rush, both of which I hadn't seen and both of which were cute, cute, cute.


This past weekend, I went to Tallahassee with my tennis teams who were playing the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Florida State. They didn't win but they played extremely well and we all had a fun little weekend away from Birmingham. I made a little slideshow of the weekend activities which includes pictures from the teams playing, the cookout at the pool at the guys' hotel and dinner with the girls on Friday night.

We got back from Tallahassee at about 5:30 Saturday afternoon and I was beat. I was so tired. I went and got some food and went home, ate, unpacked and was in bed by 9:30. However, I had no idea what the night had in store for me. An hour into my sleep (for the second night in a row), I'm awoken by a text message from Chris. He's in town (unbeknownst to me) with is friend who is a Marine for his "send off". Well of course, after a few texts I'm wide awake so I turn on the TV. Good idea. There's a tornado warning for Jefferson County. Three tornado sirens and lots of window-rattling thunder later, it's 3 a.m. and I finally fall asleep. No one has to ask what time I woke up Sunday morning because it wasn't morning when I finally did. I decided to sleep in and go to the 6 p.m. service at church. I was pooped.

And last but not least, I guess I should give a shoutout to four amazing mothers in my life on this Mother's Day. My mom is the best mom in the world. Despite her tendency to nag every once in a while, she's the most amazing woman I have ever met. I could not have asked for a better role model. She has been through an incredible amount of things in her life and has come out a much stronger woman, having an even better faith in God. She has been and continues to be the one person I look to to see what a Christian woman looks like. She loves to have fun and has a song for everything. I guess that's where I get it. Yay for mom! Here is an old school picture of mom having fun.



My sister is the second mother I want to praise. This is her first Mother's Day and it even more special because her son, my nephew, William was dedicated at church. I was so sad that I could be there but I know it was special. Anna has become one of my best friends. Although, we had our ups and downs when we were young, I couldn't have asked for a better sister. She is amazing. She's really taught me how to be a strong Godly woman and she's only three years older than me. Besides my parents, especially my dad, she is my biggest cheerleader but she is also the one that will tell me I'm in over my head and put me in my place.



My two grandmothers are last but not least. Grandma is my dad's mom and just turned 80 in January. I don't get to see her very often and I miss her so much. Up until I was a freshman in college, my family would go eat Sunday lunch at Grandma and Papaw's every Sunday. They lived just behind the church so it was a must-do on Sunday afternoons. Grandma makes the best mashed potatoes and was a birthday cake master until her arthritis forced her to quit. She was a lunch lady and was the matchmaker for my mom and dad. Oh, and she loves the Braves and puzzles. Now I know where I get it from. Here is an old-school picture of me and Grandma.



Dearmom is my mom's mom and will be 90 in June. She's still kicking though. She's got four children, 12 grandchildren plus 8 spouses, and 11 great-grandchildren and one on the way. She has been a rock for my mom's side of the family and holds a great faith in God. She's got maroon running through her veins never misses a chance to talk about the Bulldogs.



Ok...I must go to bed now so I'll wrap it up. Thank you Lord for putting such wonderful, amazing Christian women in my life. I've learned something from each and every one of them.

Long Time Gone

Ok, so I must catch up. Work has been crazy busy the last few weeks and I can't believe I have NOT ONE sport to cover this week, that is, unless I choose to go score a little baseball on Saturday, which I may do just because. Anyway, I must recap what's been going on.

Two weekends ago, my best childhood friend, Lauren Brown, or as I like to call her, LB, married another good childhood friend, Joey Pape. It's amazing how you can sit next to someone in your first and second grade class picture and then end up marrying them almost 20 years later. It was a beautiful ceremony. Of course, my mom sang. I wish LB's mon, Mrs. Madonna, could have been there but I know she was looking down on the whole shindig, smiling as she always did.

Here a pic of me and the couple at the reception:

Last weekend I got to go to the OVC Tennis Tournament with my tennis teams in Nashville. Fun times. I wish I could've done a little bit more in Nashville because it's one of my favorite cities but I had fun getting to actually cheer for my team this time. It was fun because I've actually built relationships with the coaches and some of the girls and a few parents.

Both of my teams won the championship! The girls pretty much manhandled everybody and the guys' final match came down to one of our best players. He had to go to the hospital after the match, if that tells you anything. It was so fun to see it happen though. The guys have gotten so close to a championship for the past three years and finally got it this year. Fourth time is a charm! They were very close to winning the regular season title this year too but lost their last match to the other team that was undefeated too.

Our girls one the regular season again this year and then won the tournament title this time. They were close last year but lost in the finals. However, they did win the tournament title two years ago. But this one was special because there are only two seniors on the team and they have been doubles partners for the last four years. There rest of the team is freshmen so I'm excited to see how they will be next year. We did have the conference freshman of the year.

So now we are going to the NCAAs. Well, I say we...I hope I get to go. It's Mother's Day weekend so that's a bummer but it depends on where they go on if I get to go or not. If they go somewhere close, then I'll get to go but if they have to fly, I won't go. I'm excited either way. We will find out Tuesday when the selection show airs.

Here's a slideshow of all the pictures I took during the finals.

Missing Person

If any of you live in the Jackson area, please keep your eyes and ears open for clues about this. This family is a pretty close family to mine. The wife/mother worked and is friends with both my parents and the three children are childhood friends of mine. I talked to my dad today and he said that Mr. Mark had open heart surgery two weeks ago and this do not look good. This is incredibly sad and scary. Please keep the Ginn Family in your prayers.

XYZ...I'm done!

This alphabet game things was more work than I thought it would be. I'm a little bored with it and would like to get back to blogging about more important random things like my favorite foods and who got married this weekend.

So, I'm wrapping it up because saying...XYZ! I'm out!

The Marathon Blog: The Glory of God

Exodus 33:17 – 34:7
17 And the LORD said to Moses, "I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name." 18 Then Moses said, "Now show me your glory." 19 And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 20 But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live." 21 Then the LORD said, "There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. 22 When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen."

1 The LORD said to Moses, "Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. 2 Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain. 3 No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain." 4 So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the LORD had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. 5 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. 6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation."

Several things have happened in my life recently that have really made these 14 verses come alive in front of my face. I won’t go into detail about the things that have happened but I do want to go into detail about what I’ve learned and what God has taught me and shown me through all of this.

A few months ago, I went through a series with my church about being desperate for God and desperately wanting to know him more intimately. The dictionary defines the word desperate as follows: reckless or dangerous because of despair or urgency; having an urgent need or desire; leaving little or no hope; extremely bad, intolerable or shocking; making a final, ultimate effort; giving all.”

When I look at our lives on this earth, desperate is the exact word that describes our situation. We all are born into sin. There is nothing good in us. Nothing. In all of our wretchedness on this earth, there is nothing we can do to save ourselves. We deserve eternal damnation. Our lives are desperate. We are in constant danger. Our fate is sealed, made final, ultimate, we have no hope. BUT…there is a GOD who loves us, who made a promise long, long ago that he would never leave us and that he would send a final mediator who would sacrifice his perfect life to save our far-from-perfect ones. Someone who would bring hope to a hopeless world and light to darkness. And he kept that promise. GOD sacrificed his only son to save us. And what did we do to deserve that? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. But He loves us anyway. Through all the nastiness that we find ourselves in, he loves us.

So when we believe in the things I said in the previous paragraph, we become desperate in a completely different way. We now become more aware of our wretchedness but we also now know that we have hope through Jesus Christ. And our desperation becomes one where we are willing to do what the last definition says, and give all. We give all of ourselves to Christ and he gives us a new heart. A new heart that has the commands of God written on them with the Holy Spirit instead of on two stone tablets written in ink. Now, we are to be desperate everyday in seeking after the Holy Spirit and seeking to know God more. This new heart gives us, like the Bible says (“Then you will know truth and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32), freedom to do what we want to do now. However, what we want to do is not what we used to want to do now. It is now what God wants us to do because if we are really desperate for the Holy Spirit and earnestly seek to know God more, our desires now become what God desires.

As Christians, we all, at one time or another, have those moments when what we believe and what we put our faith in is tested and reinvented in a whole different way. We can be put in a “pit of despair” and choose to try to climb out ourselves (causing us to only dig ourselves deeper into the pit”) or we can realize that there is only one person who can hear our cry for help and only one who can rescue us from that pit. And that one person is GOD.

That is what has happened to me and around me in the past year. I’ve experienced firsthand God’s faithfulness and his miracles and his persistence to not let us give up. He’s said plainly to me, “Katie, I made a promise to you and I’m going to keep it. I don’t go back on my word.”

A couple of months ago, something happened that made my world come to a complete standstill. I couldn’t believe what was happening because things like this weren’t supposed to happen to people like me. However, I said something to a friend without thinking twice about it, and God used that one little phrase to wake me up.

As I told my friend the circumstances that I was drowning in at that moment, I said without blinking, “It’s okay though. Because God is going to get the glory from it.” This is not something that I usually say but in the past year, I’ve learned through the study of scripture that everything happens and everything exists, even us, to bring glory to God the Father and show how amazing his power is above anything else.

As details unraveled, God allowed me and those around me to grieve. He allowed us to cry out and ask why and to be somewhat angry. But all the while, he continued to tell us that he is unchanging and that he keeps his promises. So many scriptures at that point started to just come alive to me. One in particular: 1 Corinthians 10:13

“And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond
what you can bear. And when you are tempted, he will also
provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

God provided ways to get out of that pit of despair me and those around me. He showed how infinitely good he was. He displayed his power over sin and death. He showed us how He rules over everything and how He is in control, not anyone else. He demonstrated his love through protection and prevention. HE IS GOD! And we are so not!

A week after my world started spinning again, my pastor spoke on Exodus 33 and 34, the verses I included at the beginning of this. During that study time, God’s voice became so very clear. He said to me, “This is who I AM.”

The focus of that passage was verses six and seven in chapter 34. “And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”

This passage is the clearest picture of who God is. First of all, he is LORD. LORD over everything, heaven and earth and everything in it and under it. This is the outline of the characteristics of God that were presented to us:

· To the downcast, I am compassionate.
- The second part of verse six. He is “the compassionate and gracious God.” He has compassion on all of us. He showed that in with the cross.

· To the undeserving I am gracious.
- “The compassionate and gracious God.” We all are undeserving but he gives us freedom through the grace of the blood that was shed by Jesus Christ on the cross.

· With the defiant, I am patient.
- “Slow to anger” – That was God is. Time after time, we fail. We slip back into old habits and do things we know we shouldn’t do. But God is patient with us. He constantly pursues us.

· With the undesirable, I am loving.
- “Abouding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands” – There are so many people today that think that God could never love them because of what they have done or because no one else has ever shown them the love that they really need. But God continually shows his love to us no matter what we have done or do. He loves us in spite of that.

· For the doubtful, I am faithful.
- “Abounding in love and faithfulness” – This is exactly the characteristics that God made clear to me throughout my circumstances. He continually told me that he would take care of things, that he was in control and that he was undeniably faithful. And he was…and is! He keeps his promises to us. He will never turn his back on us as long as we put our faith in him.

· For the disobedient, I am forgiving.
- “Forgiving wickedness rebellion and sin.” Those three words (wickedness, rebellion and sin) sums us humans us quite well. We are unknowingly wicked, we constantly rebel and we are born into sin. And God forgives us of that. Think of all the bad things you have done in your life, big and small. Think of all the forgiveness you have had to ask for. This of the forgiveness you haven’t gotten. Everything we have done, every sin, has been against God. And he forgives us of that. Amazing love, how can it be?

· Regarding the demands of the law, I am just.
· Regarding the devotion of our heart, I am jealous.
- “Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.” I don’t know about you, but I’m glad that we have a God that will put us in our place. A God who punishes us for what we’ve done wrong. As an adult, I look back on my childhood and appreciate the times that my parents punished me for doing wrong. How would I have ever learned otherwise if they had not cared enough to teach me what was wrong, what could hurt me, what was bad for me? I wouldn’t have. So how much more will God do to teach us how to be like him? He is also jealous of the things of this world. He wants our whole heart to worship him. We can’t be 75 percent devoted to Christ. Would you be 75 percent devoted to your spouse? No, and that is definitely not how we should think God would want to be treat. We can’t be 75 percent, or even 99 percent devoted to God. He’s going to be jealous of that 1 percent. He wants all of us.

· To all who desire to see My glory, I am Jesus.
- The picture of God in these verses is still only a partial picture.

Let me just try to explain what is happening in Exodus 33 and 34 to you a little bit. Moses has asked God to show him His glory. A very bold statement. No one has ever seen God’s glory to this point. So God said, “Ok, I’ll do it but I’m going to put you in the side of this rock and cover you up and pass by you, and when I’ve passed by you, you can look at my back because if you look at my glory in its fullness, you will die.” So Moses is content with just seeing God’s back.

We see in Moses and throughout the rest of the Old Testament, a people who are constantly longing to see the fullness of God’s glory. (Psalm 27:4,8) Exodus 34:6-7 was quoted numerous times in the Old Testament. It sort of became the working definition of God. Then we get to the New Testament, John 1, he talks about Christ, the word, the revelation of God, becoming flesh and in verse 14 is says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Now we realize that the privilege that was reserved for Moses is not a rightful of all who see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Those who know Jesus have finally seen God’s glory, revealed through Christ. Fall on your face before him and see him for who he really is – all of these characteristics listed in Exodus 34. We have now seen what those in the Old Testament were so desperate to see.

Ok, so now I’m not really sure how to close this. I’ve shared with you what I’ve learned because I truly think that when you learn something you are supposed to go share it with others, especially when Jesus Christ is concerned. I hope you’ve been blessed through this and I hope that maybe you’ve learned something as well. Just remember, God keeps his promises and he will never leave us or forsake us.