Tuesday, May 27, 2014

The Gateways to the Temple and the City of God

UV 1104/10,000 The Gateways of the Lord
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's
I Corinthians 6 v 20

We have been purchased by God with the precious life or blood of Christ. The idea of substitutionary sacrifice first came when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac and when he was about to do so, he restrained him and provided a lamb for the sacrifice. The idea that blood absolved people of guilt was contained in the animal sacrifices of Israel. But God made the provision of Christ, His anointed Son as the final, complete and absolute substitutionary atonement. When Adam and Eve belonged to God before the fall. After they were tempted to be independent of God, they now belonged to satan who had got them to listen to him and follow his advice. Satan had a claim on all their descendants too. God purchased all mankind back with the price paid by Jesus. We are all bought at the same price but the value we bring to the table of the Lord is the extent to which we glorify God. This value differs from person to person.

Once we believe that Jesus purchased our belief, our trust, our allegiance, our faith, our love, we now belong to Him to be His agents on earth, to be His servants or slaves in righteousness, to be co-heirs with Him of His inheritance. Our focus should now be to please God, to be a living sacrifice, to offer our worship and thanksgiving. In our spirits, minds and body, we need to seek to glorify God, to give evidence of God ‘s power and grace acting in our lives. To be a witness, does not just mean speaking up for God, it also means that we will ourselves witness the power of God, the love of God and the grace of God at work in our bodies, minds and spirits. We will experience a new found sense of dedication, devotion and consecration in our lives. Our bodies are not meant to please the senses, our minds are no longer meant to please our own egos, our spirits are not meant to exalt us. We realize that we are a city of God being built on a hill to give forth light, a temple of God being built up with each thought, emotion, word and deed.

Like any ancient city had many gateways as had Jerusalem for people to enter the city, we have many gateways for the Lord to enter our lives and make manifest His love, power and grace: the gateways of our minds are our own thoughts. Our thoughts and inner dialogue with ourselves should be pleasing to the Lord. Our mouths are another gateway- we should allow only words that glorify God to leave our mouths. Our eyes and ears are other gateways – we should see and hear things that magnify or enlarge our image of God. Our spirits are another gateway for the Lord to enter- we should worship and exalt the Lord with our spirits. We should grow the fruit of the spirit to reflect in our character-love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, self control. The walls in which the gates stand are our sense of self control and discipline. We should pray in the spirit and appropriate the gifts of the Spirit, the continual anointing and the manifold blessings of the Lord. Our limbs should be used to take us to places and to do things that glorify God so that when other people witness it, their faith in God and Christ will be kindled and they will give thanks for our lives and our good deeds.

Prateep V Philip

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