Cursed Glory: The Watch Letter

Many of us have said we want to live a life that glorifies God.

But is our definition of glorifying Him, God’s?

I grew up being taught that glorifying God simply meant praising him. A worship leader may say, “Come on and glorify God,” when compelling the congregation to praise during service. But thanks to the teaching we receive at the Body of Christ, Inc., I have learned that the glory God seeks and is owed is more than that. And we’ve been robbing him of it.

In Matthew 15: 7-9, Jesus said: You are hypocrites: You draw near to God with your mouth and honor with your lips, but your heart is far from God. In vain you worship, because you only teach and obey the commandments/traditions of yourselves/mankind.

Our Pastor, Chief Apostle Gunn, taught us a few weeks ago that the glory God is seeking is in how we’re handling things in our homes and with those we claim to love.

Chief Apostle Gunn asked:

How are you living among your household (family)? Is it in a way that glorifies God?
How did you leave your household and how did you return to it?

He said:

In our homes, we should practice (actively pursue) showing care.
We can’t love and be bitter at the same time.
We must examine what we do for ourselves that we won’t do for others.
Many of the circumstances we’re facing are caused by our selfishness, which is destroying us.

Selfishness, bitterness, being uncaring, and coldheartedness do not honor God. So the prayers, testimonies, and praise we think are carrying honor are wreaking dishonor instead.

The word of God bears out what Chief Apostle Gunn has been teaching. In Matthew 15, Jesus was emphasizing to the church folks, the scribes and Pharisees, that they were breaking God’s commandments and making his word of no effect in their lives. He revealed to them by example that they were breaking the commandment about honoring their parents. Though they appeared to honor their parents publicly, they were not honoring them privately. He said they were in fact cursing their parents.

How?

They were taking money that could be used for their families and hiding it in the temple or pretending to do religious things with it. Historical references revealed that they would ask crooked priests to hold the money for them and say it was “a gift they gave for God." Then they would have the priest return it to them later in secret after they took a percentage off the top. It was a ploy often used to avoid giving money to their families out of selfishness and Jesus saw right through it. Because they had worked to make themselves free of the responsibility to care and support with their substance, they had transgressed the commandments of God and cursed their family members.

Matthew 15:4-6: Honor your father and mother… Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death. …But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is 'devoted to God,' they are not to 'honor their father or mother' with it.

The commandments of care are the 10 Commandments. They were given to make us responsible, help us to do what God says first, teach us to show care to others, and require us to put ourselves last.

Every time we fail to do them, we are robbing God of Glory and cursing others and ourselves.

When you go back and read them, you will see. Here’s a few examples:

Don’t have other gods before me. (Care about God first.)
Don’t make any graven images. (Don’t be selfish and have idols.)
Honor your father and mother. (Care about your family.)
Don’t murder. (Care about human life.)
Don’t commit adultery. (Care about your spouse.)
Don’t steal. (Don’t be greedy and take for yourself.)
Don’t covet your neighbor. (Care about your neighbor. Don’t be jealous and bitter.)