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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
Making Sense Of It AllJanuary 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?
Suffering Saints
January 25, 2012
We get nervous thinking about it - suffering for the sake of Christ. How necessary is it, and what does it produce in us?
George Herbert on Prayer Meetings
January 21, 2012
Prayer Meetings are a thing of the past. Or so it seems. What has been lost? Maybe more than we realize.
When Fear Is Good
January 7, 2012
NO FEAR, we are told. And the point is well taken. But fear can be healthy, at least when it comes to eternal matters.
Happy, Happy, Happy
January 4, 2012
The declaration of independence holds up the pursuit of happiness as a right. Did you ever consider the reading the bible might be the one source that will never let you down?
The Twelve Signs Of Grace
December 22, 2011
Self-examination is not easy to do. The tendency is to let ourselves off easy. But examine we must, for eternity is at stake.
"Ouch!!"
July 22, 2011
Spiritual pride is hard to detect. Jonathan Edwards gives some tips. The process can be painful, but necessary.
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.
