Isaiah 66:5 Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.

Yesterday I spoke to you about the mystery of His will. Here it is in Isaiah 66:5. Christ dwells in you. Let, allow, do not hold back, surrender to His will and let Him shine. Let His appearance be your joy. Anything less than this is vain glory and will not lead to the saving of those that are lost.

Galatians 5:25-26 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

Galatians 6:14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

What is vain glory? To explain that we first must properly define glory. Glory is the essence of God Himself, in person and reputation of His Son Jesus Christ, in whom all things exist. Vain glory is anything in which the end result is anything but His Glory. That is a vast number of things.

It begins with idol worship. The crude image of a wooden idol symbolizes something created by man. In this modern era it is proper to extend this image to anything and everything which gets the majority of your attention. Attending to the worship of Jesus Christ has in large part taken second place to all the creations of man. Television, football, the internet, music, movies, role playing games where players take on a character within the story line, and the list goes on and on. There is no end to the distractions. Notice I didn’t even list the lusts of the flesh. These were just attention getters.