God's Temple

The temple of God is not in Jerusalem. It is not made of brick, marble, or gold. The temple of God is made of flesh and bone. We, believers in Jesus Christ, are the temple of God. (I Cor 3:16) This does not mean, as some pagans would suggest, that we are gods or God. It does mean that when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we receive God The Holy Spirit indwelling in us. Thus, we have an intimate relationship with our God. God the Holy Spirit indwells us to mark us as His own, to love us, to teach us, to fill us with hope, and to empower us to preach the Gospel and to be sanctified and made holy. Because of the work of the Holy Spirit in us, we grow in wisdom and knowledge of the Lord.

Are you a temple of the Most High? If not, you can be!

Today's Reading: Matt 19; Gen 19; 1 Cor 3; Titus 1; Job 19; Ps 19; Prv 19; Jsh 19; Isa 19; Acts 19 AND Psalms 119:81-112

Love, Admire, Trust, and Depend

Driving is a great time to think, meditate, or pray. Today's subject was "being an effective Christian". Most of my several decades of Christian walk have felt rather ineffective. Perhaps you know what I mean: unanswered prayers, decidedly un-noteworthy ministry efforts, and generally always feeling like you just aren't quite getting it right. Ineffectual. Not, truly, due to a lack of effort or want-to or love for God. Just, lacking that something something that some other Christians have.

Satan would love for us to believe that those of us seemingly trapped into this perpetual ineffectiveness are just doomed as second-class Christians. Bridesmaids who just aren't quite good enough to be the Bride. We reject this hogwash. Or at least, we try to. But, some little bit of it manages to stick. We try not to be jealous of the Christians for whom answered prayers -- downright miracles -- are the norm rather than the exception.

We can change things. We can join the ranks of the effective Christians. We don't need a secret decoder ring or to learn a special handshake. There is no Bible Code that will unlock special top secret secrets that will let us into the inner circle. Nope. The great mystery is no great mystery at all. Communion.

Communion with God through Bible reading, meditation, prayer, fasting, and giving. Driving home today I found myself repeating four words: love, admire, trust, and depend.

Love: read and meditate on the word; pray; share God's love with others.
Admire: meditate on His attributes; worship Him
Trust: pray believe He will answer; give ...trusting there will be more where that came from
Depend: make Him your source for wisdom, love, provision...

I'm doing some spiritual housecleaning with the intention of living a more effectual Christian life. Care to join me?

Today's Reading: Matt 5; Gen 5; Rom 5; 1 Thess 5; Job 5; Ps 5; Prv 5; Jsh 5; Isa 5; Acts 5