Glory. I recently learned that despite what I thought I knew, the word when it’s connected to God of the universe means a quality or characteristic of His nature that is too weighty for me to observe face-to-face. That should be evident if I had really grasped the import of Moses’ request at one time to see His glory, and that God’s response was ‘no’ (Exodus 33:18-23). And yet, there are other places in which God-in-the-flesh Jesus, and then one of His apostles named Paul, expressly say that we mere humans will somehow be able to share in this glory. Once was during Jesus’ prayer (John 17; and see the artwork here that depicts Jesus giving His farewell discourse to 11 of the Apostles, recorded in John chapters 14-17, the occasion on which He prayed to His Father about glory in several ways), and that was one that evidently struck Andrae Crouch, motivating Him to write something himself about glory in “My Tribute” (also known as To God Be the Glory). Andrae wasn’t the only one who was involved in this exchange; read on about someone named Larry Reed.
Glory to God! Hallelujah! Imagine someone calling out those words really loudly, and that was Larry Reed, though most people who knew him not too much earlier in his life would never have guessed that this same Larry would ever shout those words. Larry was a teenage drug addict that Andrae befriended at a rehabilitation house in central Los Angeles in the early 1960s. Though he was an atheist, Larry would hang around the house just a little longer whenever Andrae coaxed him to stay and listen to some music. Eventually, Larry’s mental and emotional barriers to God broke down, especially as he listened to Andrae sing about God’s blood one day, and it wasn’t long before Larry became an on-fire Christian whose trademark was the phrase that began this paragraph. He telephoned Andrae once, years later after they both had moved out of that central LA house, to persuade him to read Jesus’ prayer in John 17, with the confident prediction that Andrae would write a great song based on that prayer. Though Andrae was skeptical, he did write ‘My Tribute’ and shared it with some friends who had also met Larry and were likewise dubious about loudmouth Larry’s premonition. But, upon re-reading John 17, they all immediately recognized why Larry had been so confident. The rest is history, as someone has said. You can hear Andrae re-tell the story in his own words with the link below, and see how the power of God’s glory can be so inspirational in a rendition of My Tribute sung by a group of believers (see another link below). Those links say it better than this blogger can!
Glory is pretty awesome stuff, but what is even more amazing beyond its meaning (see it described via one of the links below) is that believers get to be part of it. It’s in John’s gospel 27 times, including five times during Jesus chapter 17 prayer, and twice in that prayer (John 17:10, 22) He indicates the Apostles have actually participated in this glory that is God’s. It must have been something that the great apostle Paul picked up on too, especially as you read his letter to Romans. (See Romans 1:21-23; 3:23; 4:20: 5:2-3; 6:4; 8:17-9:23; 15:6-16:27 [21 times in all of Romans].) It’s not something easily captured however, as Paul’s opening words relate that humans had been in the habit of casting aside this glory (1:21-23). The whole dissertation by Paul to the Romans reads like a progression or an arc of gradual evolution regarding His glory and we humans. If/when humanity gets over itself (in Romans 1), we can only begin to navigate successfully to meet God and His glory by exercising something pretty basic --- humility. Read Romans 3:23 and see if you can manage that. Then you can press forward and react perhaps like Abraham (4:20), and press onward like others who’ve pursued God (5:2-3 and 6:4), so that you might actually do the incredible (8:17-18, 21, 30 and 9:4, 23) and share in this glory. When that is part of one’s life, your end result might be what also was in Paul’s overflowing cup as he thought and wrote about glory (11:36; 15:6-17; 16:27). Could that be what touched Larry Reed and Andrae Crouch too?
The song story is shared in the following: the book Celebrate Jesus: The Stories behind Your Favorite Praise and Worship Songs, by Phil Christensen and Shari MacDonald, Kregel Publications, 2003; and the book I Could Sing of Your Love Forever, by Lindsay Terry, Thomas Nelson publishers, 2008. See here also: https://www.staugustine.com/story/lifestyle/faith/2015/09/03/story-behind-song-my-tribute/16265280007/ and here, straight from the composer’s mouth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw7SQq1LZa4 (at about the 6:53 – end of video).
See/watch/hear/experience a stirring rendition of the song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RZTYDPavEY
Read about the word ‘glory’ here: https://firmisrael.org/learn/the-weight-of-glory-and-the-hebrew-word-kavod/
See information on the artwork image here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christ_Taking_Leave_of_the_Apostles.jpg... The author died in 1319, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1931. ...found inside this document: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farewell_Discourse
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