Minor and Unlikely

One of the many, great paradoxes of the Bible is that the only wise God, the omnipotent, omniscient God is also the God of the Minor.

Don't you just love it when we tell each other our stories?  I love to listen for God working in them. Just last week a friend had open-heart surgery.  Afterwards, there was a scary time when it was feared he had had a stroke.  God chose to answer the prayers of many of His children on this friend's behalf, and now he is almost "back to his old self".  We are praising Him for that.

I am so glad that He is concerned with, what on the world scale, must be considered "minor incidents" or "the little people".  I am so glad that He chooses "minor characters" to become the heroes in history ("His Story").  If He can choose and use Zechariah and Elizabeth, He can use anyone.  Their story is found in Luke 1:6-17.

Zechariah and Elizabeth, both of the Levitical tribe, that is, both descendants of Aaron, were (beyond that) just an ordinary, old couple.  Most folks paid them little attention, I'd guess.  In a society where most things centered on the large, extended family, this old couple had none.  This is because, while they should have been at least grandparents and perhaps great-grandparents, they had no offspring, no descendants.  They were pretty much alone.  To their credit, we read in verse 6 that, despite what had to be this deep disappointment, they continued to honor God with their lives.  Two ordinary, old people whom God chose to play a leading role in mankind's redemption story, not in their timeframe, but in His.

At the beginning of the A.D. era there were approximately 7000 Levitical priests serving at the Jerusalem temple.  These were laymen, who only served there two weeks out of the year.  One of Zechariah's "weeks" fell during the feast of Yom Kippur, during the year in which this story is set. Of the hundreds of priests serving that week, Zechariah's name was drawn "at random" to go into the most holy place of the Temple ("the Holy of Holies") and make an incense offering.  This was a very rare honor.  Most priests like Zechariah would live all of their lives without having their name drawn. You might say he "won the lottery".  Then, if that were not miraculous or unlikely enough, he sees an angel, who delivers to him a miraculous message.

It is very significant that there had been no "word" from God since the book of Malachi was written, 400 years earlier.  There had been no recorded angelic appearances, no prophets. Don't be fooled, though.  God was not idle, even if He was "silent".  I am sure that many had decided that Jehovah's dealings with the Jews were "ancient history" and irrelevant to "modern people".  Not Zechariah or Elizabeth, however.  Their faith had not wavered.  What an inspiration they are!

Even so, when Zechariah saw the angel Gabriel and heard his message, his faith wavered.  Who can blame him?  Certainly not me!  (Most likely I would have pulled a "Sarah", and laughed.)  At any rate, Zechariah (whose name means "God Remembers") and his wife Elizabeth (whose name means "My God Keeps His Word") conceived and birthed that promised son.  And, Zechariah, who had been struck mute in the most holy place, found his tongue freed to praise the King of Kings and Lord of Lords when asked about the name of his newborn boy.  John - - - an unusual, one-of-a-kind name - - for an unusual, chosen boy.  This boy was filled with God's spirit while still in his mother's womb, causing him to leap for joy there when he heard the voice of His Savior's mother for the first time. God is sovereign, faithful and good.

In today's picture the old woman's hand holds the hand of her toddler son.  There are no "unlikelies" with my God.  Nothing is minor to Him.  You may be praying, as I am, for a Christmas miracle this season.  Keep praying.  God is listening.  He bends down to hear the whispered prayer of the broken, the anguished, the weary.  Keep praying.  He longs to give us not only our needs, but the desires of our hearts.

Oh Lord, Seer of All Hearts, You know our needs.  And, You know our deepest desires.  Your grace begins with giving us more of You, and Your blessings flow from that priceless gift.  None of us, none of our needs are either minor or unlikely.  Thank you for meeting them in the most unlikely of ways.  I love You, Lord, and praise You for Your goodness.  In Jesus' name, amen.  

Source:

Voskamp, Ann. The Greatest Gift: Unwrapping the Full Love Story of Christmas. 

Me, The Temple

Good morning,

Today's text is 1 Corinthians 3:16-23.

16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? 17 If someone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, which is what you are.

18 Guard against self-deception, each of you. If someone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become foolish so that he can become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this age is foolishness with God. As it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness.” 20 And again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” 21 So then, no more boasting about mere mortals! For everything belongs to you, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future. Everything belongs to you, 23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

{This passage is very similar to the better known 1 Cor. 6:19, in which Paul practically says the same thing.}

Why do you think that Paul compared believers to God's Temple?  Believe me, this was a revolutionary analogy to those baby Christians.  You see, in Jewish worship, the Temple was considered the holiest of all structures, because it contained a section called The Holy of Holies.  It was in this small room, which had very limited access, that the Spirit of God came down to commune with the priest selected by lot to enter the area.  The Ark of the Covenant resided in this place.  Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, learned of his son's conception, while he was performing his "once-in-a-lifetime" duties in that place.

There were all sorts of rules and safeguards for this supernatural area.  For instance, the priest selected to enter there attached a special set of bells to the hem of his robe so that those outside could listen for the sound as he moved around inside, performing his duties.  If they no longer heard the bells, they pulled him out via a cord, a "lifeline" attached to his leg, assuming he was dead from having come into the most holy presence of God. Talk about being "slain in the spirit"!  This was deadly serious stuff.

I would really like to study the Temple/Tabernacle more.  If any of you out there have a book recommendation, please share it with me.

At any rate, the Christians were certainly not welcome any longer at the existing Temple in Jerusalem.  To be blunt, the ruling Jews who controlled the Temple were out to exterminate them.  Yet, these Christians, many of them former Jews, wanted to honor their Lord by continuing to keep the Jewish feasts, some of which required them to go to the Temple as part of God's command to their forefathers.  This is just one example of "stuff" the early Christians had to work through.

In our text for today, Paul is reminding the believers that each of them is God's Temple - - - that when Christ died, the veil in Jerusalem's Temple was supernaturally split down the middle, from top to bottom, a truly miraculous feat, since the veil was scores of feet tall and weighed hundreds of pounds.  This veil being torn, however, was God's visual sign that everything had changed.  With Jesus finishing His work on the cross, access to God had been blown wide open.  No longer did people have to go find Him in a "most holy place" of a building.  After Jesus' resurrection, the Holy
Spirit came upon Christians at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13).  This is why Paul declared that each individual Christian, and the whole Body of Christ collectively, are the Temple of God, of the Holy Spirit!

What a tremendous honor and responsibility!  In his commentary, Matthew Henry points out that, as a result, we need to treat ourselves as the holy vessels that we are, by the grace of God.  And, if we don't, we are deceiving ourselves as to the true state of our relationship with God.

"He is deceived who deems himself the temple of the Holy Ghost, yet is unconcerned about personal holiness, or the peace and purity of the church."  

For many Christians, this is an area of struggle, in one of the two areas.  Many sinful practices harm one's physical body.  The "big deal" about that is this:  if our bodies/minds are weak, then we decommission ourselves in the great cosmic battle in which we are engaged.  (And, be sure, you don't have a choice about whether you are in the battle or not.  If you are a Christian, you are.)  If we are physically weak, we are less potent a weapon for Jesus Christ.  The other emphasis is this:  we need to treat our Christian brothers and sisters as "temples of the Holy Spirit" in order to maintain peace and purity in the Church.  Holiness...it's not a raging fad, unfortunately.

I want to be sure you get this, though:  this type of reverence and holiness for your own temple and also the people of God is not a legalistic holiness.  It is rather a holiness that springs from a heart of devoted love. Paul emphasizes this in verses 21-23.  "Everything belongs to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God."  So often, we sin against our bodies because we are trying to feel some emotional void in our lives, an emptiness that only God can fill.  Yet, we choose some substance or some other person to use for our own self-gratification.  So often, we yield to our flesh and its detrimental longings, longings that hurt us or others in the end.  This includes prideful preening within the Church, which leads to the types of envyings and divisions that Paul was exhorting the Corinthians to avoid.

The key to holy living is, at its foundation, (not diminishing strategies like addiction counseling, mental health interventions, liberation from demonic oppressions/possessions, etc.,) focusing fanatically, daily, on the loving One who totally poured Himself out utterly, for each of us, His dear children.  When we clearly see all that He has done for us, how can our response be anything other than our outpouring of love, in return?

Holy Spirit, I am in awe that You reside in my spirit.  And, I don't totally understand that.  But, I take You at Your word that what the holy, inspired scriptures say is true.  I thank You for condescending to me, to transform me into Your Temple.  Oh, how I long to walk more worthy of Your amazing love and grace.  Help me, Holy Spirit!  In Jesus' name, amen.

Source:
http://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/3-16.htm