The temple was the
place people went to acknowledge and deal with their sin against God. They would bring their offerings to be
sacrificed and receive God’s forgiveness.
It was a place of meeting with God and give praise and worship to Him
for all of His love and care for them. He
was at the center in the Holy of Holies and they were on their knees. They knew their position as sinners before a
Holy God and when they left they knew His love and His forgiveness. It was not a social club. It was not a debate forum. It was a meeting with God and it was sacred.
The temple was a
copy of things to come, things that would be revealed and fulfilled by Jesus
Christ, God’s Son. His offering for sin
was once and for all; he himself became the sacrifice, a single offering. God made a new and final covenant with His
people in the person of Jesus Christ.
Next time he comes he will come not to die, but to take God’s people
home with him, to dwell with God forever. He will take those who are eagerly
waiting for him where we God will be our God and the Lamb and the Lord God
Almighty will be our temple, not to deal with sin but simply to worship Him for
who He is. Oh, how I look forward to
that day!
My path to this
place of assurance and confidence in faith has not been without pain and
suffering. Death to the flesh is always
bloody; it doesn’t die easily and it doesn’t die instantaneously. It comes down to making choices, moment to
moment, day by day, and year after year.
I was given the right to become a child of God by receiving and
believing in the name of His Son. But
with rights come responsibilities. I
have to make the choice to listen and to obey Him.
The flesh dies
hard; its desires and will are strong and persistent. But it must die to allow the Spirit to have
the freedom to move and fill my heart, mind, and life. My way, truth, and life must succumb and
submit to His Way, Truth, and Life. That
takes time and sacrifice, but standing on this side of it, it is truly worth
it.
After forty plus
years I can look back and I wonder what the big deal was about. What I thought was so important to fight and
keep proved itself inferior and worthless in the end. Even the good stuff proved not to be the
best. I battled for my way until I was
weary; I hung onto the cliff of self defiance until my hands were bloody, and
then I just gave up, only to find my feet were only inches away from a solid
foundation of rock.
The self berating
and condemnation questions and the regrets filled my head but quickly they
ceased as I looked at the stories of many others just like me in the Bible and
in the lives of others who came to see how truly stunning God is and how much
He loves us. Now I see it all as part of
the growth process. All those battles
and experiences were like compost, that enriches the soil and helps produce
strong roots. I still have my moments of
tripping up along the way, but the choices are now made with haste, knowing
there is really no choice, simply obedience, and that makes me eternally
grateful.
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