On Wednesday evening, November 11, 2009, Taylor Swift made Country Music history as she became the youngest singer to ever win the Entertainer of the Year award.
By night’s end she had won all four categories in which she was nominated. She won, “Album of the Year,” “Music Video of the Year,” “Female Vocalist of the Year” and “Entertainer of the Year.”
When she was awarded the Entertainer of the Year award, she called to stage her band, gave them a big hug and said; “I’ll never forget this moment because in this moment everything that I have ever wanted has just happened to me.”
On Wednesday evening, Taylor Swift experienced the highest glory a Country artist can experience.
But for Christians, our glory is not an award or the recognition of an accomplishment. Our glory is far more precious. Our glory is so special that it is literally supernatural. Let me explain.
In Acts 16: 16-34, you find the Apostle’s Paul and Silas. They had been traveling from city to city preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ and now find themselves in a Philippian Jail. What was their crime? Preaching the Gospel and casting a demon out of a young slave girl. It’s important to note that not everyone in this world gets excited when you and I share Jesus with them. The slave girl’s owners had Paul and Silas thrown into prison.
There they were, two great men of God, cold, beaten and bloodied, chained like common criminals. But God was with them. At midnight, Paul and Silas began to pray and sing hymns to God. They encouraged themselves in the Lord and God moved mightily upon their stand of faith. The foundations of the prison were shaken and the chains fell off their feet. God had delivered them.
If we were there we probably would have shouted; “Let’s go!” “Let’s get out of here!” But Paul and Silas did not leave. They had a bigger picture in their mind then simply running from the prison. The guard came in and would have killed himself because he thought he prisoners had all escaped. Yet, Paul yelled to the man and told him they were still there. The man trembling, fell to his knees, convicted of his sin, believing that the God Paul and Silas preached about was strong and mighty. The man cried out; “What must I do to be saved?”
That is what Paul and Silas were waiting for. The Christian’s glory is not an award or the recognition of some feat. The Christian’s glory is when God uses the experiences and testimonies of our lives to bring another person to the knowledge of Jesus Christ as their Savior. On that day for Paul and Silas, the jailer and his family were their glory.
Someone once said that we cannot take anything to Heaven with us except the souls we led to Jesus while here on earth.
1 Thessalonians 2:19-20:
For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For you are our glory and joy. NKJV
