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The world titled boxer Muhammad Ali
(Cassius Clay)
is pretty well known even today and the catch phrases he used
are almost as famous as his name and titles.
I dance like a butterfly and sting like a bee!
was one. Another and perhaps the most famous was
I Am The GREATEST!
He came back to my mind the other day when I read something
about the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach who lived from 1685 to
1750. Bach is still famous for music he wrote 300 years ago. Every year
thousands still attend and applaud concerts of his music.
It seems that at the end of his compositions Bach would sketch
the letters
SDG.
They had nothing to do with his name at all but indicated the Latin phrase
Soli Deo Gloria
. Loosely translated this phrase means: To God Alone Be The Glory.
This is rather like the Psalmist who sang:
Psalms 292.
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due to his name;
Worship the LORD in the splendour of his holiness.
And the prophet who said:
Isaiah 211
The
eyes of the arrogant man will be humbled
And
the pride of men brought low;
The
LORD alone will be exalted in that day.
I guess Bach had got the picture. It’s one thing to appreciate skills,
abilities and prowess which people exhibit, not least when they’ve applied
themselves to developing these. But it’s quite another thing to
mistakenly exalt them so they blot out God from our lives.
Does God have His rightful place in your life?
Or are you giving His glory to someone (something) else?
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