Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Art Works

You can read my experiences trying to learn to fly here.

When the glory leaves.

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::We've been using K.P. Yohannan's book Reflecting His Image in our Sunday School class. Here is the lesson from last Sunday that I taught, using chapter one ("Clinging to the Shadows").::

Passage of scripture: 1 Samuel 4:1-10

Q. What happened here? Why were the Israelites not victorious, like they had been in similar battles in the past?

The Israelites assumed past experience and victories meant that God was still with them

Q. Were their actions or the method of how they took the Ark into battle wrong? i.e. Didn't they do it like they always had in the past, or was their failure due to something they forgot to do?

Their actions were the same as they'd always done it. Or, as Yohannan put it, they had "genuine actions" that were tied to "past shadows."

I. God's Glory Leaves?

God's glory had left Israel, and they did not even know it.
We are like the Israelites; sometimes we find ourselves clinging to the shadows of the past victories when God's glory was still around.
God's glory can leave a fellowship, an organization, a ministry, a church...our lives.
When God's glory leaves, say, an organization, does this mean that they no longer do good or valuable work? (No, we may still value what they are doing.)
Often, a ministry or organization started as genuine before God, and He blessed it, but it became rehearsed and mechanized and started operating in the flesh and on the power of man.
There is no room for God's glory if the glory is going to man. God will remove his glory and let us have the personal glory we are seeking.
What causes God's glory to leave? (Self-centeredness, a desire to protect or preserve the organization above all else, a loss of God being the absolute focus and purpose and reason for being, when self-preservation and our own goals take center, etc.)

II. Keeping God's Glory

How do we keep God's glory from leaving? We lay aside our plans, wishes, and ambitions.
What does this do? It forces us to focus on Him daily, since we aren't substituting these other things as our lifeline.
It is a daily effort! It needs to happen each day, this setting aside and refocusing, and it takes effort.
Daily we need to: humble myself (James 4:10); seek things of God above (Col. 3:1); repent (a humbling act); turn from what causes our hearts to wander.
What causes our hearts to wander? (Materialism, personal glory, seeking comfort and ease, seeking other's approval, spiritual pride, lack of concern for suffering and needy, seeking honor from others, pretense, etc.)

Final thoughts:

Do I daily stop and see if I'm clinging to shadows, spiritual experiences and victories from the past as a substitute for God in the present?
What kind of spiritual fruit do I exhibit? What kind of spiritual fruit might a person who God's glory no longer inhabits exhibit?
What happens to my spiritual life if God begins to remove His glory? (Rehearsed spiritual "performance", emptiness, distance from God, feelings of being abandoned by God, etc.)