shame and guilt and glory

My previous post was the most random thing ever.  Sorry guys. o_O

I did just order The Weight of Glory on Amazon Marketplace.  We'll see what it's really like when it gets here.

All joking and Spongebob madness aside, "glory" is something I ponder about...

I think of glorified bodies...

the glorified body picture again.  Ok, so maybe I don't take glory that seriously... well, considering the context of the week this picture was taken...

I think about 1 Corinthians 11, what it means for men to be the glory of God and women to be the glory of man... how thems fightin' words for so many feminists, yet after studying what the Bible says about femininity and masculinity, I'm okay with it.  I'm still an image bearer of God and His glory as His creation and as a daughter of His Kingdom; glory of man is an added bonus!  "A ministry of beauty." :) And men need to hear more often that they're the glory of God.

My favorite fictional example of a woman being the glory of a man: Sandra from "Big Fish"

I also often think of glory as the opposite of shame.  Then many things come up when I think of shame.

Shame is a nasty little thing we can live under instead of Jesus' freedom.  It is often said that America has "guilt culture," where our operations and daily life revolve around administering and avoiding guilt.  Our law systems are built around guilt or innocence.  When someone "becomes a Christian" in America they often speak about how they were "guilty of sin" and Jesus cleared them from it.  This is all good.  But the other culture that exists in most of the world is "shame culture" which is a lot like guilt culture, except it adds into it a sense of community and relationships, where you fear adding shame to yourself because it removes you from a group, or adds dishonor to your group.  Daily activities and decisions are done to avoid shame.  Most of the non-Western world is shame culture, and most under this culture who either "become Christians" or just say they are "a follower of Jesus" rejoice in how Jesus clears their shame and is the answer for how to know God for their whole community.  Jesus died to free people from both shame and guilt, to make us right with the most important Relationship in our lives.  His death on the cross makes good relationships with others possible, too.

I don't know if it's because I hang out with so many Asians now or what, but I feel I associate more with shame than guilt in my life now.  Not exactly something to be applauded, because that's still not where God wants me.  But perhaps that's why I do love and identify with the stories of Jesus restoring people out of their shame and into glory.  The end of the Five Aspects of Woman study highlights the sinful woman in Luke 7 and the woman at the well in John 4, as well as David's songs of repentance and forgiveness in Psalm 32, 38, and 51.  And another story I've commented on before that I relate to a lot is the thief crucified next to Jesus.  All of these are stories of glory found from God's forgiveness and ultimately Jesus' sacrifice. I suppose all of them can be read as coming out of guilt too.  I guess that's the cool thing.  Jesus saves from guilt and shame, so we can live in freedom and love.  Wow.

Then Philippians 2:1-11 blows my mind.  talk about shame turning to GLORY!  And that's what God did for us!

Jesus the Messiah paid the ultimate sacrifice for me so that I don't have to live under shame or guilt, for it is taken away.  I can live in the freedom of forgiveness, and worship Him, as the Luke 7 woman did wiping His feet with her hair, or the John 4 woman who rejoiced and told her whole village of her redemption from "everything she did," or the thief who is still and will forevermore will be praising God for the life he received at the end of his sinful life.  And then He receives ultimate glory for taking that ultimate beating, through us being His bride that will live with Him in His kingdom forever!

So those are my real thoughts about glory ^_^