Ezekiel 40 - 42 - Visions of New Temples

We're covering three chapters today simply because I really cannot get into trying to comprehend all the measurements!

In this vision Ezekiel is given a vision of a new temple. Ezekiel is instructed to make sure he relays every detail of the vision including every dimension of everything he is shown. Lot's of measurements to remember, way too many for me!  In any case, God delivers a detailed blueprint of the new temple to the people through Ezekiel's vision.

So we too have been given a blueprint, of sorts, through the vision of St. John: "I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple." (Rev 21:22 NIV)

The temple of God is no longer just a building made of bricks and mortar by human hands. According to St. Paul: "Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit." (Eph 2:19-22)

The Lamb, who is Jesus the Christ, is the temple and as we are members of the living Body of the Christ; we are the temple of God.  As St. Paul wrote: "Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?" (1 Corinth 3:16)

How awesome is that!? God is with you now and always as "there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." (Eph 4:4)

Now, is that not Good News!?

God's Peace - Pr. J.

Isaiah 60 - Arise and Shine!

Here, in Isaiah 60, we find a chapter full of hope. It is the promise that God gives to His people. It is part of a larger covenant that God makes with the church.

He will bless the church with the light of His glory. He promises growth. He promises peace. He promises...  The most extraordinary thing about God making promises it is that He will fulfill those promises. None of these blessing of the church on earth or in heaven is accomplished by what you or I do. It is all a work of God.

He has promised and the fulfillment of those promises is found in our LORD, Jesus the Christ. Arise and shine for our light has come (Isa 60:1) Jesus is the light that, as promised, has come into the world. What God has promised, He has fulfilled.

The church on earth has a tendency to delude itself into thinking that somehow through lobbying and politicking, through doing the right things, it will fulfill the promises of God. Peace will come, growth will come, edification will come by the works of our hands. It is just not so. These things are gifts from God. We will not know peace, our neighbors will not know peace, unless we know Jesus the Christ, who is our peace. (Eph 2:14) Peace come from him. It is a gift, as he stated on more than one occasion "My peace I give you." (John 14:27)  Then, of course, most of the world is looking for another kind of peace than the one that Jesus offers.

As I began reading the lesson for today, I immediately taught of two things. First, a memory of my father that had been buried way back in my memories. When I was a child, my father would generally wake us up by hollering up the stairs: "Rise and Shine." I wonder if he knew that morning wake up call may have originated from Isaiah 60. The first also put that popular children's song into my head and so I close with its refrain this morning:

Rise and shine
And give God the glory, glory
Rise and shine
And give God the glory, glory
Rise and shine
And give God the glory, glory
Children of the Lord
           (Author and copyright unknown - happy to credit it if someone would email or fb it to me)

God's Peace - Pr. J