The Temple

Hello everyone, I would just like to share a little thought I had on Sunday which I thought was pretty cool.

On Saturday as you would mostly be aware we went to hear Don Carson preach about a few different things and one of the points he stated was that of 'inner-canonical threads'. These are basically sort of 'topics' that are found continually throughout the Bible and continually develop throughout redemptive history. One such inner-canonical thread is the Temple. For instance, it started out as a tabernacle with God specifying its construction and dimensions etc, and then was transformed into the Temple by Solomon according to God's design again. Then of course Jesus stated that He was the ultimate Temple when He said that the temple would be destroyed and raised again in three days. Now of course we see our bodies as Temples and in the future heaven will be like the Temple, where God's glory dwells. He also made the interesting point that only twice in the Bible were there perfect cubes: Once was the Most Holy place in the temple and the other is the New Jerusalem (the massive city in heaven where we will live). This shows that in Heaven we will be constantly living in God's intimate presence. The most holy place was only entered once a year by one person, and fearfully because that's where God dwelt. But we will live with God unhindered for eternity.

Anyway, that was the prelude. On Sunday, I think it was Noel was talking about how the temple veil was rent in two to open the way to the most holy place. Now, when that happened, God was turning His back on Jesus and there was no light. Noel said it was like we don't need the light because now we have the light of the most holy place, we have the true light of God! That got me thinking, in heaven, in the New Jerusalem, we won't need a light either! Because God is light enough for us! I just thought it was wonderful both in the sense that we can view God as enough light for us (more than enough) and also how awesome a God we have that can fit these sort of messages throughout the Bible, linking a common theme throughout thousands of years of writing in the Bible.

The Holy Spirit

I was thinking last night (in a determinedly night-ish way, which involves many obscure and seemingly random trajectories of thought), about myself. This is not unusual, if slightly self-absorbed. For some reason, my mind brought up a memory of someone calling me strange, or abnormal. Immediately (as my mind does), I conjured up a hypothetical scenario in which someone had just called me abnormal, and I responded:

‘I’m not abnormal. I’m more normal than everyone else. I’m the epitome of normal, and everyone tries to be normal together. For instance, you probably just thought what I just said was abnormal, but I’m sure most of you would think exactly the same thing in my position, some consciously, and others unconsciously, except the only difference is that since you are all conformed to this ideal of ‘normality’, that you are all too afraid to speak it. Therefore, I am superiorly normal, because I convey what is actually normal about all of us, while you all keep it in for a façade of normality. I guess, that very statement was something else you could call ‘abnormal’, but it is merely another example of my argument.’

Being very pleased with myself at coming up with something so profound, it took me a while to realize that I had contorted the meaning of ‘normal’ into something akin to ‘logical’ or ‘ideal’. In any case, the thought sparked off a seemingly random trajectory of thought about being able to capture all these moments of ‘brilliant’ thought for use in later life when I needed them. But then I thought, who can tell which of the thoughts I have are actually brilliant? So I thought perhaps there should be a system that tapes all the thoughts of the mind for later review. Ignoring the logical impracticality of such an idea, my mind went further, dreaming of capturing every single moment of life, both my inner thought, and external speech and hearing. Then of course, it hit me: it would all need to be saved in some massive program that could bring it back to you exactly when you needed it. I mean, if you got into some situation, you weren’t going to go sifting through every single thing that ever happened in your life for some fragment of an answer. So the program would need to be able to understand your situation, do a keyword search or something, and then bring back to mind some thought or previously heard message to enable you to cope with the situation, or answer the tough question, or whatever.

Then I laughed at myself. Because isn’t this what the Holy Spirit does for us? Convicts us, helps us, comforts us, directs us? Here I was, trying to think of some brilliant program which could have infinite value for everyone, and we have it already! We are just not using it to its fullest!

The Great Teacher

I was thinking about Jesus being the great Teacher. I was thinking of what that means for us. Because often we ask God to ‘show us what to do’. And I think often many of us think that the easiest way would be for Him to just plainly tell us the answer.

But what human teacher merely tells all the answers to his pupils? No, a teacher will teach more effectively by letting his students attempt to find the answer themselves, and guiding them towards it when they are heading down the wrong path. Just because he doesn’t tell them the answer doesn’t mean he doesn’t know it. In fact, that he can let them attempt to find it themselves shows more of a true knowledge of the answer, because guiding then towards it is harder than just telling them it! And when the pupils finally find the answer, it means much more to them, and they remember it far longer.

Do you not think that God may take the same approach with us? So don’t get frustrated if you ask God for answers and it takes a while and much effort to figure out. Because God is looking for dedication. And when God leads you to the answer, it will mean so much more.

Devotion

One only has so much time in life. There is a limited window of opportunity in which to exist, and hopefully more than that – to impact. This means that one can only devote themself to a limited number of things.

Devotion is a strong word. It implies complete dedication to another’s cause, to believe in the other to the utmost extent, a trust that the other has only good in mind for them, a willingness to do anything for the other, even to the point of death. To care for the other, to love the other. It necessitates the spending of large quantities of time in service to the other.

Some people are devoted to objects or actions. Some are devoted to a particular sport. They spend their time playing it, they believe in its cause, and they will give up anything to play it.

More often than not, a person will have a small circle of people they are devoted to. Their spouse for one. Sometimes the only one. When two people are married, it is implied that they are completely devoted to one another. They are completely dedicated to one another’s cause, they believe in the other person fully, knowing that whatever battles they face they will win. There is no doubt there. There is only assurance because of their belief in the other person’s strength. There is a willingness to do anything for the other – to spend all of their time on them, to do things they find boring or distasteful for them, or even die for them if it comes to that.

But for a Christian there is One that we devote ourselves to. And He is not finite and faulty like our spouse or our close friends. Nor does He require most of our time. He requires all of our time. He requires our lives. Every moment should be a testament of our devotion to Him. That is what being a Christian is.

This does not mean that we are not devoted to anything else. God is a wonderful God. While devotion to Him means complete dedication of all of our time, this does not mean that all of our time must be in communication just with Him. While much of our time must be spent alone with Him, we show our devotion by showing devotion to others. But let us choose those people or things we are devoted to carefully. We have limited time. It is simply impossible to be devoted to all of your friends. Impossible to be devoted to all of your favorite activities. But let us model our devotion to others on our devotion to God.

Devotion doesn’t just happen. Ever. It is a choice. It involves effort. But neither can you merely choose something or someone to be devoted to. They must choose you just as much as you choose them. Infinite effort towards a random person will not render devotion, because devotion springs only from the heart.

Devotion sounds like a soft word. It sounds mushy and gushy. But true devotion is one of the strongest, toughest things that we can show. So the challenge is to devote yourselves to worthy things or people. Devote yourself primarily to God, but those earthly things that you devote yourself to, do it with a pure heart and with all of your might.

Pleasant Words

I love this verse and it is oh so true: Proverbs 16:24 :

24 Pleasant words are like a honeycomb,
Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.

At first you read it and go yeah yeah I know - it sorta sounds like one of those mushy type of sayings. But it is very true because when you are down or need someone to talk to God will always provide someone and their 'pleasant words' really are health to the bones. They give you real physical health, make you stronger, make you feel better. Pleasant words really are like a honeycomb. Also verse 16 of the same chapter:

16 How much better to get wisdom than gold!
And to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.

Solomon of course had personal experience of this so it was obviously very important to him that others get this message. I suppose in some sort of way you can link this with the previous verse because receiving understanding from a person, or hearing their wisdom, is much better than getting money (COLD hard cash) because it is sweet for the soul and good for the health. I suppose all of this sounds very obvious and in a way it is but it is also very deep and true and hits you hard at certain times.