Devotional Thoughts for the Week of September 20, 2020 - A Rebuilt Temple
The prophet Ezekiel records a vision he received from God in which he saw a new temple constructed in Jerusalem (Ez. 40-43). The vision included detailed measurements and even the beautiful glory of God filling the new temple. The vision was given in the twenty-fifth year of their seventy-year exile in Babylon. At that time the temple and the whole city were in ruins. I believe this vision would have given great hope and encouragement to the exiled jews, helping them to look toward the future God had for them. Forty-five years later, Cyrus decreed that Jews could return to their homeland and the temple was to be rebuilt. He even sent the articles of gold and silver that Nebuchadnezzer had taken from the house of the Lord. The book of Ezra describes the long process of rebuilding the temple.
Reading these Old Testament accounts recently, I was struck by a parallel in my own life. Scripture tells us that as believers we are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16). When I look back at who I was as a child and teen, I am appalled to remember self-loathing, the insecurity, the lies I believed about my worth. It looks like a pile of rubble, much like the old temple in Jerusalem. Considering the difference between who I was and who I am today leaves me utterly amazed at the new temple that God has made of my life. I am not at all the same person that I was before. I had not stopped recently to ponder the magnitude of the change God has brought. Like Ezekiel’s vision, the new temple of my life has been filled with the glory of God. The apostle Paul tells us, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; he old has gone, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). I am finally discovering what that means in my own life. It is more than behavior change or even attitude adjustment. I really am a different person. Finding my identity in Christ set me free to be who God made me to be.
In the sermon last week, Bart said of Peter that he was not the same guy he had been thirty years earlier when Jesus first called him. Encounters with Jesus and the Holy Spirit had taught him to know God and had totally transformed Peter’s life. God is in the process of doing the same in each of His children. Temple building is a process. It takes time. I cannot identify a specific day when He made a particular change. I did not see much progress while it was happening. Transformation happens in much the same way that plants grow, with imperceptible changes from day to day. God is the master designer of both. He does all things well.
When King Solomon had the original temple built, “Only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built” (1 Kings 6:7). In our lives, God’s work of building us into a temple He can inhabit happens primarily in quiet, in the secret place. The time we spend alone with God, in study and prayer and private worship and contemplation is absolutely crucial to the transformation process. Do not neglect the secret place. Follow the perfect example of our Lord Jesus, who often withdrew to lonely places and prayed (Luke 5:16). When you look back and see transformation, give God praise.
Lynn
Check out this new song by Thrive Worship - Ruins (Rebuild My Soul)
The prophet Ezekiel records a vision he received from God in which he saw a new temple constructed in Jerusalem (Ez. 40-43). The vision included detailed measurements and even the beautiful glory of God filling the new temple. The vision was given in the twenty-fifth year of their seventy-year exile in Babylon. At that time the temple and the whole city were in ruins. I believe this vision would have given great hope and encouragement to the exiled jews, helping them to look toward the future God had for them. Forty-five years later, Cyrus decreed that Jews could return to their homeland and the temple was to be rebuilt. He even sent the articles of gold and silver that Nebuchadnezzer had taken from the house of the Lord. The book of Ezra describes the long process of rebuilding the temple.
Reading these Old Testament accounts recently, I was struck by a parallel in my own life. Scripture tells us that as believers we are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16). When I look back at who I was as a child and teen, I am appalled to remember self-loathing, the insecurity, the lies I believed about my worth. It looks like a pile of rubble, much like the old temple in Jerusalem. Considering the difference between who I was and who I am today leaves me utterly amazed at the new temple that God has made of my life. I am not at all the same person that I was before. I had not stopped recently to ponder the magnitude of the change God has brought. Like Ezekiel’s vision, the new temple of my life has been filled with the glory of God. The apostle Paul tells us, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; he old has gone, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). I am finally discovering what that means in my own life. It is more than behavior change or even attitude adjustment. I really am a different person. Finding my identity in Christ set me free to be who God made me to be.
In the sermon last week, Bart said of Peter that he was not the same guy he had been thirty years earlier when Jesus first called him. Encounters with Jesus and the Holy Spirit had taught him to know God and had totally transformed Peter’s life. God is in the process of doing the same in each of His children. Temple building is a process. It takes time. I cannot identify a specific day when He made a particular change. I did not see much progress while it was happening. Transformation happens in much the same way that plants grow, with imperceptible changes from day to day. God is the master designer of both. He does all things well.
When King Solomon had the original temple built, “Only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built” (1 Kings 6:7). In our lives, God’s work of building us into a temple He can inhabit happens primarily in quiet, in the secret place. The time we spend alone with God, in study and prayer and private worship and contemplation is absolutely crucial to the transformation process. Do not neglect the secret place. Follow the perfect example of our Lord Jesus, who often withdrew to lonely places and prayed (Luke 5:16). When you look back and see transformation, give God praise.
Lynn
Check out this new song by Thrive Worship - Ruins (Rebuild My Soul)
