My computer locked up yesterday morning and I'm not sure if I am out of the woods yet...it is still doing strange things, but I am hopeful:)
OK, I am getting ready to walk down a winding path...please walk with me and don't get lost:) in the woods. As I was prayerfully reading this morning my heart and mind kept overloading while reading and thinking on things like...Isa 50:4-5 "The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught. 5 The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back." As I am reading that I am praying and crying out for God to open my ears to hear HIS word this morning and to fill me with HIS Holy Spirit that I might listen like one being taught...and then I have barely caught my breath and I read Eph 4:24 "to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." Does that blow you away? In precious few words we are told to "put on," (something I do) the new self "created," (something God did and does) to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. If my head could spin...it would be spinning now! I really don't think I come close to understanding what that means! I WANT TO KNOW, I WANT TO KNOW HIM!
OK, stay with me now...So I am being blown away by Isaiah and Ephesians and then my eyes pass over Psalm 69:9 "for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me. You may remember this from John 2:17 when Jesus cleared the temple of the money changers and John records this in his gospel under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit..."His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”"
Still with me...then my A.D.D brain bounced to the blog posting a few days ago..."MINE." Remember how we talked about that God is jealous and zealous for HIS OWN, no one will snatch HIS children out of HIS hand...no one! Why is he so jealous for rebellious, fallen, sinful people...like me? Why? I am unspeakably delighted and glad that HE is...but why? I believe that I see it a little better this morning.
Check out the verses below...don't get mad at me, but the church buildings are nothing...God's people assembled together...that is the Church! So if the people of Bellevue gather together at Pickwick that is the church.
1 Cor 3:16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
1 Cor 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
2 Cor 6:16 Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
Heb 8:10 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, And I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, And they shall be My people.
So we know that the church is not the buildings, but the church is the people that make up the church. We will learn in 1 Peter 2:5 that as individual believers and followers of Christ we are..."as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
OK, STILL WITH ME? We are the church, the temple, you and I are living stones being built up and Jesus is consumed with a zeal for God's house, Jesus is jealous for us! MAKE ONE MORE LEAP WITH ME...COME ON, YOU CAN DO IT, DON'T GIVE UP NOW, WE ARE ALMOST THERE!
We have to reach back and look at the end of our reading in Isaiah yesterday...why does God delay HIS wrath? Why doesn't God cut them off?
Is 48:9-11 For my own name’s sake I delay my wrath; for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you, so as not to cut you off. 10 See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. 11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another.
OK, this is super cool, but only if it connects in your heart and mind. The reason Jesus is consumed with zeal for HIS house, zeal for you and me, zeal for the adopted children of God is because HIS glory is on the line! AND HE WILL NOT BE DEFAMED! HE WILL NOT! In HIS manifold wisdom, you and I are a part of displaying HIS glory. Why is this so awesome? NO more do I have to wonder why he would use someone like me, no more do I have to think that HE could not use someone like me. HE DOES IT FOR HIS OWN GLORY! Listen, listen, listen, being HIS child and being used by HIM depends completely on HIM...not on anything HE sees in me...it is all of GRACE...
please see this, please see this...it is incredible freeing in HIM. I know that HE will complete the good work HE began in me because HIS glory is on the line and so I joyfully rest knowing that HE WILL NOT BE DEFAMED, HE WILL NOT GIVE HIS GLORY TO ANOTHER.
love
m