What life are we taking hold of?
1 Timothy 6:12,14 (NIV)
Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. [14] to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
C’mon, God, you’re kidding, right? Me … a temple of the Holy Spirit?
I was humbled before God in the deepest sense of the word early this morning.
How can this be? Truths that I have known and believed for years, and yet at this moment so clear and true, and so bewildering. Down the corridor past mental acknowledgement and intellectual assent God thrust me for who I am before his truth.
My body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.
We so easily agree sometimes with what we believe but haven’t absorbed in the presence of God.
I’m thinking I am not temple material …
I’m not going to tell you. How could I? You wouldn’t want to listen. And yet, God not only hears and knows but he is living inside this very imperfect, flawed person that he is fashioning toward holiness.
Part of my journey lately has been influenced by the writings of A.W. Tozer’s “The Divine Conquest” and an audiobook by Francis Chan – “Forgotten God.” Maybe we have been afraid to give God the Holy Spirit his due? Maybe to the point that we are dishonoring God and missing a vital element in our spiritual walk.
The truth about me being a temple …
Do you not know – your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you? Well, no, I mean, yes, but I mean that’s a lot to swallow. You know me, God. Are you sure that you want to subject yourself to this?
The true words that explain the how …
I am no longer my own – I was bought with a price. This is how I stumble past my incredulity and accept this amazing thing that God is telling me.
Because he tells me truth in his written word the Bible. And I believe past my ignorance and trust him.
I have no merit to stand on.
This is how I can receive this truth. If evidence from my life needed to be presented as to why God should dwell in me, none would be found. Not a scrap. I would stand naked and ashamed even considering the thought.
But I don’t need to deny or defend my awfulness. I do the opposite. I confess it before a holy God, a God who is a consuming fire, and I live because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
And I believe.
In Jesus we have redemption. My mess of a life is one day going to be the praise of his glory because he has made a way.
Now I get it! Kinda’ 🙂
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I’m okay with dying.
I really am. I am ready to die; ready to go to heaven; ready to see my Savior; ready to leave behind the pain and frustration of this world. Now, I don’t believe that this is God’s plan for me at the moment although I don’t know these things. But if it were God’s plan, I am ready.
I don’t mean any of this to be trite or flippant. I believe this would cause pain and sadness if Jesus were to “beam me up.” I wouldn’t like it that my “going on” would cause grief. I am just saying purely on my end that I am ready.
Dying is not a problem, but “not living” is. “Not living” is my true concern. I can’t stand the thought that I would be here on Earth for six to eight decades and only pursue my life, my happiness, my joy and goals.
My heart aches to honor Jesus Christ, to bring him glory while living in this present evil age. This is why I don’t really want to die now. I want to redeem the time, buy up the opportunities that will never come again to have the light of my love and loyalty to God stand against the dark, tragic background of sin.
Once in heaven we will never paint again on this canvas. We have one opportunity to bring the colors of redemption in contrast to the black of darkness. Never will we have the opportunity to reflect the goodness and salvation of our God as we do now.
Never, ever, ever!
So although I’m okay with dying, I can’t have that at the top of my wish list. I can remember as a young Christian wondering how great it would be to just die and go to heaven. Boom! Outa’ here. On to the blue skies and no pain and fear. Pearly gates and streets of gold …
No more opportunity to stand against the darkness.
Lost treasure sunken in the sea of my self-centered perspective. That is sadness and irony and foolishness wrapped up in one bitter pill. That can’t be.
Blessings gained or lost …
I treasure the moments to show my love without having my hand out for “a blessing.” What we call a blessing anyway, aka God making our life better regardless of whether or not he is honored. Oh, yes, we will thank him for the blessings, but will we thank him if he takes it all away to give us true life.
Which leads me to this.
To live we must die and if we try too hard to live we will die.
You see, even if you win the end game with the world, and I am speaking of the “dying with the most toys” foolishness here, even if you could be at the absolute top, what would the benefit be of losing your soul.
And that’s what we give away when we pursue life as one not bowed before the throne of God. We get what we want but not what God wanted for us.
It is neither the intricacies of life nor the complexity of theology which cause us to fall.
We stumble over God’s simple instructions for life because of our rebel hearts. We find ourselves in situations where we can’t quite trust God and his truth.
We don’t say it out loud but we rationalize away his clear, plain teaching with a common phrase – “It’s complicated.”
But usually it’s not complicated; it’s just disobedience.
Here are a few more simple, life-giving instructions from a God who loves and calls us to pure devotion.
Get rid of the bad feelings …
Be like Christ …
Ephesians 4:31-32 (NIV) Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. [32] Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
From Evernote: |
He who loves mercy … |
Luke 10:36-37 (NASB) "Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers” hands?" [37] And he said, "The one who showed mercy toward him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do the same."
So often, so simple and clear – Who proved to be a neighbor? The one who was quick to reach for mercy.
For some of us mercy is near because we are constantly drinking it in. Others the mercy vessel is far away for lack of need.
One more thought: Don’t miss the tremendous opportunity to extend mercy in this dark, competitive age we live in.
Micah 6:8 (NIV) He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
He/she who loves mercy …
Where do we have that – loving mercy – on our list of things that speak to our walk with God? We probably have a long list, if we are religious people at least. Is loving mercy on the list? Not do I agree that mercy is a good thing or a God thing, but do I love mercy?
Church attendance, being nice, friendly, courteous, moral … But we can do all those things without having a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, with no dependence on the indwelling Spirit of God.
So this really is a good one to ask ourselves, that is … if we want to know, where our heart is I am speaking of. Do I love mercy? Or as the following story illustrates – Do I show mercy?
Am I a mercy person?
So often, so simple and clear – Who proved to be a neighbor? The one who was quick to reach for mercy.
For some of us the pitcher of God’s mercy is near because we are constantly drinking it in. For others the mercy vessel is far away from lack of need.
When you drink the mercy of God, you cannot help but invite others to the table of his forgiveness and undeserved care.
One more thought: Don’t miss the tremendous opportunity to extend mercy in this dark, competitive age we live in. Don’t miss the opportunity to live “on earth as it is in heaven.”
