Forbidden Glory : Portraits Of Pride

None of us can accurately foresee the changes that time will bring. In 1973, my first book, Let Us Praise, swept across the Charismatic bookstore shelves and conference book tables. We were all excited with the glory of praise and how to release that glory verbally, melodiously, and demonstratively. The truths in that book fed praise conventions and worship conventions throughout the Christian world.

Like David, I can affirm that “I have been young, and now am old” (Psalm 37:25). In that first book, nearly sixty years ago, I excitedly embraced God’s glory, but in this, my final book, written while dying of bone cancer, I am concerned with another glory, the Forbidden Glory. It seems that the glory God chose to share with us was insufficient to fill our egos, and we have reached out to embrace the glory that belongs exclusively to Him.

This should not surprise us. Lucifer did it in Heaven, Eve did it in Eden and the disciples did it when ministering with Jesus on the shores of Galilee. But will we use this as an excuse for our prideful behavior? Or could we better use it as a tutorial to guide us around the destructive pathway into which pride seeks to steer us? I trust that your decision will be the latter.