A Willful Temple

There is a place at which we must decide who we really are and make a clean break from all the other possibilities.  If you are the Temple of God, then that must be decided in definitive actions.  The river must be crossed, the rope released, the battle entered.  As long as you see yourself as less than the Temple of God, you will live like it and no amount of posturing will obviate the damage caused.  The simplest and most uncultured of Christians who has determined with his will that He is the Temple of God will do more good and have longer lasting benefit to mankind than the greatest personalities of our age.  You may not be known here and now but the Temple of God is known in the corridors of heaven and your impact will reverberate throughout eternity if this is decided by you.  Settle the matter.  You are the Temple of God.  The Holy Spirit is in you and therefore there is nothing trivial or little about your place in the workings of God.  Each of your actions is critical and measured within the activity of the Lord who by His death resurrected your life and has recreated you into the liveliest and loveliest of treasures.    You realize don't you, that you are the temple of God...1 Corinthians 3: 16 MSG

The Unseen Line

At what point do we cross an unseen line when we no longer hold our things but they instead hold us?  Nothing confounds the Christian quite as much as the tight grip some desire or want maintains even as he sees himself free and on his own.  We sometimes mistake disappointment over not having with careless indifference to the thing.  Children play the game easily and we see through the charade.  "Oh, I didn't want do that anyway", they strut after the privilege is taken from them.  "I never did like her", is mumbled when the friend turns to someone else.  Yet are we so free of treasures on earth that we can happily disengage from them if the Lord breaks their grip?  Can we say farewell to the career if God were to call us to a mission field?  Are we really able to go wherever He leads even if it means leaving behind that home and car?  What is the price that is too steep to pay to follow Jesus?  Is it the respect you have gained or the comfort you enjoy?  How closely allied are you to the philosophy of the rich young ruler?  No dawn shines quite as brightly as the beginning of a day filled with the wonder of following Christ without thought for what it might cost you.