"In the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, on the seventh day of the fifth month, Nebuzaradan, the king of Babylon’s chief deputy, arrived in Jerusalem. He burned The Temple of God to the ground, went on to the royal palace, and then finished off the city—burned the whole place down. He put the Babylonian troops he had with him to work knocking down the city walls."(25:8-10)
Some years ago, ABBA opened my eyes to an awareness about "stuff" while watching the show "Storage Wars". It constantly amazed me how so many persons just walk away from, forget, or just don't care about "stuff". At first I thought they were foolish, but then ABBA helped me see things from another perspective.
"Storage Wars" is an eye opener to see how others will one day dig into - and I mean that literally - without any care about the sentimental value of our stuff. It has caused me to reevaluate what I am keeping and why.
Every once in awhile I will watch an episode of "Hoarders" and relate it to going to the doctor. It becomes my motivation to look about this place ABBA has blessed us with and rid it of more "stuff". There are still some things I am hanging onto, but only because of the sentimental meaning behind them. Things I am working on getting rid of because bottom line - they really aren't something I enjoy or would have purchased on my own. I am trying to live with less. Not only because of the freedom for myself, but the freedom the kids will enjoy not having to wade through and rid of "stuff" when I am gone.
In The Scriptures, the people placed such pride and their worth in the temple and within a short amount of time it was destroyed. Burned or carried away - totally dismantled. Today, I look about to see if I am allowing anything or anyone be what I place my worth, my pride into.
In Him, we are His Temple. The Holy Spirit resides within us.
The "shell" of us will one day return to the dust it came from, but the "soul" of us will be joining our ABBA. We are to be a good steward of this "shell" (in which I fail miserably at times), and keep it in order. Keep it filled with only things that honor our ABBA. Keep it clean. Keep it at the ready.
My daily "temple keeping" begins with His Living Word. I fill it within me, taking it into my heart and receiving nourishment from it throughout the day as I chew on it.
He is helping me to not get my worth out of "stuff" accumulated or even out of my work.
He is growing me to not get my worth out of who I am, but "whose" I am.
"For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Christ brought us together through His death on The Cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility. Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through Him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father.
That’s plain enough, isn’t it? You’re no longer wandering exiles.
This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone.
God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what He is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now He’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as The Cornerstone that holds all the parts together.
We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home."(Ephesians 2:10-22)
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