And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.. Ephesians 2:22
“a dwelling in which God lives...” Ephesians 2:22 The emphasis here is that when we are together, we are the Temple of God. Together, we are a place where God dwells. As the Temple, we are a place where God is worshipped (Heb. 13:15); we are a place where peo-ple can come find God. When Solomon’s Temple was completed, God filled the building with His glory. The Bible says that when we give God praise, there is a special sense of God’s presence (Psalm 22:3). When we are together worshiping God, people will see that God is here. We are also a place where God speaks to His people. And as God speaks, His Word helps us to discern right from wrong, it gives us guidance, and it helps us grow up. What does this say about how important it is that we are the church? It is not just important for you, for what you get out of church. It is important for what you contribute to the church: the praise and worship you bring, and the people that you talk to. “… in Him you too are being built together ...” Eph. 2:22 Paul says that we are being built together. Peter says that we are like “liv-ing stones” in that building process. Stones don’t naturally come shaped to form parts of a building. They require shaping and fitting. In a way, this is a picture of the process that God is doing. For those of us who are alive in the world, we live in the “quarry,” getting ready to be put into the heavenly temple. But the process of getting the stones shaped to fit to-gether takes work. God will use other people in your life to shape you. They will be used to knock off some of the rough edges so that the stone has a “finished” quality about it. But that isn’t always fun. Some people will be a pain in the neck, and God can use them to teach you patience, knocking off the edges of impatience. Others will be quite needy to teach you compassion, grace, and mercy. Others will be there to help you, filling in the holes and cracks in your life. The temptation is to just stay away from people. You can save yourself a lot of grief if you just stay away from people. But you will never grow if you do. You will not learn the patience and compassion that God so de-sires to build into your life. You will not have others there to encourage you and help you, when you are in need. Comments are closed.
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