A Place to Make Offerings

2 Chronicles 2:6

..."Who am I to build a house for Him, except as a place to make offerings before him."

It has been 480 years since Israel was brought out of Egypt and Solomon, son of David, has established himself as king and the Lord is clearly with him. He has accumulated an insane amount of wealth and decides to build a temple, a house for the Lord. Upon laying out his plans for all the ways he will worship the Lord with this temple, he stops and realizes something significant.

He realizes that he is building this great temple, "for our God is Greater than all gods," but not even the heavens can contain our God, so how is this temple going to be a suitable place for the Lord to reside?!

1 Cor 3:16 says, "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you?" I think about this verse and what it means to be a temple of the Lord. Solomon gets carried away with his plans for the temple, then realigns his perspective, and comes to the conclusion that this temple is only a place to make offerings. And so are we.

Daily I must say to myself, "Who am I to build a house for Him, except as a place to make offerings before Him." I take away two things from this verse:

• As I walk through my days, am I building myself as a temple for God? Or am I engaging in things that detract from his glory? Solomon went all out to build this temple, he spared no expense and it was his joy to build a great temple for the Lord. So should I treat my body: physically, mentally, emotionally you name it, it belongs to Him. My body is an undeserving temple where the Lord chooses to reside, and I want it to be a suitable place for the King of Glory to dwell.
• Do I expect to do anything more for God, than simply to serve and glorify him in seeking His face and growing in knowledge of Him? We must continually humble ourselves to the fact that we can do nothing for our Lord. We can neither add nor subtract from his glory and the second we think that we are doing something for Him, that's the second we fall to pride. Solomon describes the temple as having one purpose, and the good news is if we are solely to be a place of offerings for the Lord, then He only has one requirement (Hosea 6:6).

Father, teach me how to let go of my life and all the ways I think I am serving you. Draw me near as I seek your face. Fill this dirty, broken temple with your Spirit and give me the strength to build your house for your glory.

Lord of the Temple

Matthew 21:13

" He said to them, 'It is written, "My house shall be called a house of prayer," but you make it a den of robbers.'"

Christ had just entered Jerusalem in a triumphant way. Riding in on a donkey he was adorned and praised by throngs of people. After this he goes to the temple, and Jesus is disgusted by what he sees. He cleanses the temple of it's impurities and quotes Isaiah 56:7, calling them out on their sin.

Jesus deals with the people defacing the temple rather violently. He does this, I think, because he truly does love them. He does not enter the temple to worship, but rather as Lord over all. He enters in to the temple with an agenda, a plan for righteousness, and he carries it out. The temple was made into a place of sin, of treachery, of sadness and sorrow. But Jesus came into that place and proclaimed it to be a house of prayer, full of joy and closeness to God.

As I walk with him I can't help but identify things in my life that keep me from being close with God, to the things brought into that temple. All the chaos, and distractions, and sin inside that temple mirrors how I treat my walk with the Lord. As a Christian I am a temple yes, but I deface it daily with selfishness and pride and I want more than to be a house of prayer. Despite it's intensity, this passage is encouraging, and I cling to the promise of sanctification! At times I see Christ thrashing about inside my heart, turning over tables and screaming out "I love you!" As he turned the tables over in the temple I believe that Jesus was sad. He was well aware of the sacrifice he was going to make, and he saw what he was doing it for. A people who could never love him back the way he loves us.

Father, your love is enough. Help me to live out this truth in my heart. Cleanse me daily and let me see how much you love me. Let your spirit be contagious and let the cleansing of my heart lead to fruit.

Vanashing Goodness

Well, nineteen months later, here I am. Fully aware that I am speaking to myself (why would anyone be waiting to see if I am blogging after nineteen months) I felt the need for an outlet for what the Lord has been teaching me, and will continue to teach me. As I journal in my private time I want to share every now and then what the Lord is putting on my heart and how he is convicting me in this tumultuous season of my life.

To serve as an update and point of reference for the re-launching of this blog, here's what you missed: I am a week away from graduating from the University of Florida with a B.S. in Family, Youth and Community Sciences. This summer I am raising support in order that I might serve the Lord in Paris, France through a year-long internship with Campus Crusade for Christ. More details will follow, but those are the big things for now.

Matthew 12:7

"And if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' you would have not condemned the guiltless."

This passage begins on the sabbath, and the disciples, hungry and no doubt tired, begin to pluck heads of grain and eat them. The Pharisees, hearts set on trapping Jesus, call him out on working on the sabbath. Jesus responds by quoting scripture right back to them. He references times when priests had entered the presence of God and eaten on the sabbath. He asserts his authority and tries to change their perceptions on the heart behind the Law.

I understand that Jesus came to fulfill what the Law could not. He references a verse from Hosea 6:6. The Pharisees needed to hear that it was not works or obedience to the law that condemns a man, but that it has always been about faith in God. I am much more like the early Israelites than I would like to admit. They gave sacrifice after sacrifice and it seems as though their goodness was fleeting. Jesus is saying here that he wants me to be intimate with Him. Not do things for him like give burnt offerings, but to seek his face and grow in my knowledge of Him. This knowledge that produces holy fear and love.

As I enter into this summer of doing service to God by raising support, I don't want my money, or my energy, or my time to become simply an offering from me to earn favor from God. My goodness like Israel will surely vanish before I even open my eyes in the morning.

Father, show me what mercy looks like. If it is mercy you require, father give me the grace to experience this mercy first hand that I might live my days full of your spirit. Teach me what it means to live for you full of mercy and knowledge of you. Strip me of my pride and let me depend on you for every breath.

Last semester I listened to a sermon by Matt Chandler and it hit me pretty hard. 

The big question he proposed, to himself and to his audience, was "why?". Why don't we yearn for, why don't we crave, why aren't we constantly longing for Christ? 

In the weeks following my return from the East Asia Summer project that I was on I was so excited and so fired up that it was hard to contain. I had seen God work in me and that was all I needed to go tell others in Orlando. There were no stipulations, no formalities, nothing I needed to do before being filled with the spirit. I was with Him and I could feel Him with me. There was passion and desire and I felt whole. 

The struggle I foresaw, and that would come to pass, was maintaining the fire. In the drudgery of everyday, how do I feed the flames of my faith? 

So throughout this semester I want to find out how to do just that. I want to be fanatic and in love with Christ like I was this summer from when I wake up till when I lay my head down each day.