We Are Telescopes

WE ARE TELESCOPES

To the world, God is merely a minute abstract entity—perhaps a sheer array of ideals. For God to become the axis upon which all of life is hinged, to them, is acting in pure absurdity and imprudence. In their mind, for any person to see God as more than a mythical being is damning evidence of their gullibility. In condemnatory pity, they gaze upon the devout as a congregation of the naïve. They inquire, with arrogance, “Where is your God?” To them, at the minimum, God is seen as a particle of light that is hardly perceptible in the night sky. We, who are in Christ, should understand through the studying of the Word of God, that our purpose is to enjoy the grace that He has bestowed upon us and extend His glory to the ends of the earth. In John Piper’s Don’t Waste Your Life, the reader collides with the simple, yet not uncomplicated, question, “What does it mean to glorify God?” The world’s view of God is greatly skewed. Sadly, not only the world’s view of God is off-center, but many in the Church have a minimal view of the Almighty God. Our God is perfectly holy, perfectly just, perfect in love, and exceedingly glorious! Our job is not to magnify God in a way that manipulates people into believing that He does things that He never promises. Our job is to reveal His infinite greatness with His truth. We are not, as John Piper notes, to magnify God in the sense of “making something tiny look bigger than it is,” as with a microscope. Rather, we are to reveal that tiny particle of light that the world sees for what it truly is! The object that, to the naked eye, looks like fragments of light are actually billions of stars gathered into a vast galaxy. The world perceives God as being small and insignificant; we are to be the telescopes that reveal that our God is so much more! This is what it means to glorify—or magnify—God. Not only should we take on the task of glorifying God, but we should enjoy it! People have this misconstrued idea that one either glorifies God with their lives or they pursue their own joy. In actuality, they are the same path. If you want immeasurable joy in your life, then live to the glory of God. If you want to glorify God with your life, then delight in Him! Be a telescope that reveals the greatness of God.