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The Holy Spirit residing in us? God that close? What a privilege to be a temple for Him to reside. How frightening! And yet how glorious! God is good, and this is a gift like no other.
Recent Entries
God? Who Needs Him?May 31, 2013
Self-sufficient humanism. Paul saw it coming – “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”
Imago Dei
September 12, 2012
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Why Can't I Pray?
August 18, 2012
The bible gives us several reasons, but according to Jeremy Taylor, a deceitful heart is at the root of prayerlessness.
It's Not Rocket Science
July 23, 2012
To keep in step with the Spirit should be our daily quest. And if we are successful at that, all of life falls into place.
Theological Steak
April 10, 2012
These words by P. T. Forsythe on the magnificence of Christ's work are to theology what Ruth's Chris is to a good steak.
Describing the Indescribable
February 11, 2012
What we have in Christ will take all eternity to describe. But for one segment of one sermon, a great preacher made a mighty attempt.
Making Sense Of It All
January 30, 2012
Where are things headed? Is there rhyme and reason to the endless cycle of summer, fall, winter and spring? Is there a plan in place, or is randomness the explanation?
The Gift of God
February 24, 2009
We are the temple of the living God. 1 Corinthians 6:16
This didn't happen at first. Consider George Herbert in ZION, showing how God transitioned in His place of residence. The temple that Solomon built had the privilege of housing the Holy One.
Lord, with what glorie wast thou serv’d of old,
When Solomons temple stood and flourished!
Where most things were of purest gold;
The wood was all embellished
With flowers and carvings, mysticall and rare:
All show’d the builders, crav’d the seers care.
It was wonderful, yes. But it was temporary.
Yet all this glorie, all this pomp and state
Did not affect thee much, was not thy aim;
Something there was, that sow’d debate:
Wherefore thou quitt’st thy ancient claim:
And now thy Architecture meets with sinne;
For all thy frame and fabric is within.
In other words, God had other plans. He wanted to reside in us. We were His ultimate residence. And He is undeterred by our sin, willing to take it on, head first. He is not willing to co-exist with sin, but to subdue it.
There thou art struggling with a peevish heart,
Which sometimes crosseth thee, thou sometimes it:
The fight is hard on either part.
Great God doth fight, he doth submit.
About the best we can do in this fight is to utter a moan. And John Donne does exactly that.....
O Holy Ghost, whose temple I am, but of mud walls, and condensed dust, and being sacrilegiously half-wated with youth fires, of pride and lust....
THE HOLY GHOST
John Donne
Herbert in ZION continues, showing the difference between the temple and the human heart....
All Solomons sea of brasse and world of stone
Is not so deare to thee as one good grone.
And truly brasse and stones are heavie things,
Tombes for the dead, not temples fit for thee:
But grones are quick, and full of wings,
And all their motions upward be;
And ever as they mount, like larks they sing;
The note is sad, yet musick for a King.
In MAN, George Herbert prays.....
Since then, my God, thou hast So brave a palace built (the human frame) O dwell in it, That it may dwell with thee at last.
Jones Very in his poem ENOCH picks up this theme of the Holy Spirit residing in us. We are still more comfortable with a God "outside," and prefer to restrict Him to a building. It's too threatening to let God take up abode in our hearts. We would rather keep God at a distance, understanding the state of our hearts.
God walked alone unhonored through the earth
For Him no heart-built temple open stood
The soul, forgetful of her nobler birth,
Had hewn Him lofty shrines of stone and wood
And left unfinished and in ruins still
The only temple He delights to fill.
This didn't happen at first. Consider George Herbert in ZION, showing how God transitioned in His place of residence. The temple that Solomon built had the privilege of housing the Holy One.
Lord, with what glorie wast thou serv’d of old,
When Solomons temple stood and flourished!
Where most things were of purest gold;
The wood was all embellished
With flowers and carvings, mysticall and rare:
All show’d the builders, crav’d the seers care.
It was wonderful, yes. But it was temporary.
Yet all this glorie, all this pomp and state
Did not affect thee much, was not thy aim;
Something there was, that sow’d debate:
Wherefore thou quitt’st thy ancient claim:
And now thy Architecture meets with sinne;
For all thy frame and fabric is within.
In other words, God had other plans. He wanted to reside in us. We were His ultimate residence. And He is undeterred by our sin, willing to take it on, head first. He is not willing to co-exist with sin, but to subdue it.
There thou art struggling with a peevish heart,
Which sometimes crosseth thee, thou sometimes it:
The fight is hard on either part.
Great God doth fight, he doth submit.
About the best we can do in this fight is to utter a moan. And John Donne does exactly that.....
O Holy Ghost, whose temple I am, but of mud walls, and condensed dust, and being sacrilegiously half-wated with youth fires, of pride and lust....
THE HOLY GHOST
John Donne
Herbert in ZION continues, showing the difference between the temple and the human heart....
All Solomons sea of brasse and world of stone
Is not so deare to thee as one good grone.
And truly brasse and stones are heavie things,
Tombes for the dead, not temples fit for thee:
But grones are quick, and full of wings,
And all their motions upward be;
And ever as they mount, like larks they sing;
The note is sad, yet musick for a King.
In MAN, George Herbert prays.....
Since then, my God, thou hast So brave a palace built (the human frame) O dwell in it, That it may dwell with thee at last.
Jones Very in his poem ENOCH picks up this theme of the Holy Spirit residing in us. We are still more comfortable with a God "outside," and prefer to restrict Him to a building. It's too threatening to let God take up abode in our hearts. We would rather keep God at a distance, understanding the state of our hearts.
God walked alone unhonored through the earth
For Him no heart-built temple open stood
The soul, forgetful of her nobler birth,
Had hewn Him lofty shrines of stone and wood
And left unfinished and in ruins still
The only temple He delights to fill.
