Psalms 24:8: “Who is the King of glory?  The Lord strong and might, The Lord mighty in battle.”

I believe as I continue in this time of silence I am beginning to understand what the glory of God really is. Many have described the glory of God as a cloud, or a mist.  I heard one pastor say that the glory descended in his church and it was like a fog. Some have described the glory of God as a heaviness that overcomes them such that they are unable to even stand.  The Bible talks about the glory of the Lord filling His temple or the tabernacle such that people could not even enter.

Perhaps the glory of the Lord is all these theses, I cannot testify to any of these things as they have not been a part of my personal experience. I suppose the word glory is an all purpose word to cover many of the various manifestations of God.

The word in Hebrew for glory is kabod which is sometimes rendered in English as honor, abundance riches, splendor, reputation and reverence.  If we trace the word back to its Semitic root we find it has the idea of weightiness, heaviness or a burden.  What does heaviness have to do with abundance, riches, splendor, reputation and reverence?  They all have one common element, they are an expression of the love of God.

Love can feel like a heavy weight and even a burden.  We speak of an outpouring of love when one is showered with gifts and praise. Love becomes such a burden that it cannot be contained, that it has to be expressed.  I heard people who are widowed or single by divorce say that they wish to be married again as they have so much more love to give.  It is like love is overflowing from them and it must be shared.  In fact love is not love unless it is shared.  Couples find they are so full of love that sharing with their mate is just not enough to relieve them of this heaviness of love so they have a child or even spend thousands of dollars to adopt a child so they can express the love that is contained in them.

We are all created in the image of God and part of that image is not just the ability to love but the need to love and be loved.  The enemy’s primary goal is to pervert that love, to confuse us with it, to make it into something physical.  Our entertainment industry coined an expression that when a man and woman who barely know each other have a one night stand they call it making love.  That very phrase shows how the enemy has perverted love.  God created us with the capacity to love we don’t make or manufacture love yet the enemy wants us to think so.  We understand so little about love.  We turn it in, making it something selfish as we want to be in love because it feels good, it feels good to receive love but the enemy has turned it into something so selfish that if a partner does not love us enough we just leave, divorce and try to find someone who will love us the way we deserve. Sometimes that person can be so selfish in love and demand to be loved in the way that makes him or her feel right or good that they will turn to abusing the person whom they want to receive love from, they will cheat on that person and get their love elsewhere and show them how they failed to love them the way they feel they deserve to be loved.  All is an attempt by the enemy to pervert the concept of love which originates from God.

God so loved the world we learn in John 3:16, but the world does not return that love, the world does not love him back, yet He still loves.  Jesus commanded us to love our enemies.  An enemy does not love you.  But we are commanded to love anyways.

One of the founders of the monastic system Bernard of Clairvaux back in the 12^th Century was commissioned by the Pope to go on a preaching crusade.  His weapon was not a sword like other crusades but the love of Jesus.  His was the most successful of all crusades but you rarely hear about it. Bernard of Clairvaux was so filled with the love of Jesus that it just poured out of him.  He could not contain it, it was like a burden that had to be lifted and the only way to lift it was to just give it away.  He was sent to the Muslim world, to a place of the most radical Muslims of that day, like ISIS today.  He walked among them as a Christian knowing his life could be taken in a moment, yet he was so filled with the weight of the love of God that he could not contain it.  This love was so heavy that it just fell on these radical Muslims that they literally fell to their knees before God and received Jesus as their Savior.  They picked up crosses and knowing it would cost them their lives they paraded down the streets of the radical Muslims declaring their love for Jesus.  Again this love was so heavy they could not contain it and it spilled off on other Muslims creating a great revival that is still felt in Muslims communities today where there are Muslims who still worship Jesus.

During my time of silence this week I have felt the love of God so overwhelm me I could barely walk. I saw no cloud, no fog, nor was I forced to the ground on my face.  But I have felt a heavy weight, a weight that made it difficult to even walk, it felt like a cloud of love descending upon me, asking for nothing in return.  I did not even break out in praise or worship, I only received it as I felt God wanted to give this love to me and ask for nothing, not even praise in return.  Could that have been the glory of God? Did I indeed experience the glory of God at the Abbey during my time of silence?

What do we call this heaviness of love, this love that is so heavy in us that we cannot contain it. A love that becomes almost a burden to bear that we must find someone or something to pour that love out of us and relieve us of that burden and weight.  Yesterday I was so full of that love of God, I could not contain it.  I found a small wifi hot spot here at the Abbey that gave me a few moments of internet accesss.  I used it to just send out to a friend an expression of the love of God that I felt and when I did it was like a weight or burden had been lifted just to share a few words of how much I loved Him.

What is this that I felt?  I call it kabod, or glory and Who is the King of Glory?