There are some parts of scripture that are not easy to read.
What makes them so challenging to read is because they are so rich and heavy with detail. Such is the attention to detail that you cannot just read it as you would a piece of narrative.
For example Exodus is exciting for the story of how God delivers his people from slavery in Egypt. Once they are across the Red Sea and God starts to outline His specifications for their life standards and His tent of meeting, I’ve found it to be rather intricate. I can imagine practical and creative types getting a real buzz enacting the requirements. Logistical types would love those parts of scripture. Seamstresses, architects, those types will get their teeth into that.
As you might have gathered, I am not necessarily that way persuaded. So I’m glad that in the middle of all that is Exodus 34, where having smashed the original tablets due to the Golden Calf episode, Moses takes two tablets for God to write on it.
The last part of the chapter, though, is one the part that grabs my attention. Spending so much time engaging with God that when you return to people you don’t notice, but others certainly do that your face is radiant. So much so that you need to call the leaders and then have a veil thing going on. That is the degree to which your relations with God impact you.
That is a great definition of a radiant relationship.
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
I love how Paul in his second documented letter to Corinth contrasts that radiant relationship, with one that we get to partake in because of our relationship with God through the Spirit.
You can see a gathering of God’s people today being about people who spend their lives focussed on God and allowing Him to shape their lives. As a result of that the radiance not just from one person, but from the gathering should really shine the light of God. That light shouldn’t just be an experience in gatherings, but have an impact on how we radiate that light to the world around us.
In the same way that God liberated the people from slavery, the radiate light of His Spirit should inform others, even as Paul stated, that where His Spirit is there is liberty. Liberty from all types of inner turmoil and slavery. Liberty to embrace and be shaped iinto the image of God,
What a glorious and radiant relationship indeed.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 