Though there are gloomy, rain sodden clouds and ground outside, all is lighted by love inside, as I have fellow-shipped with You God this morning. In the back ground is the sound of a melodious harmony of combined voices giving praise, via a CD player. All the ugliness, injustice, suffering, blackness and hunger, that are so prevalent on this earth in these days, seem far away, even though I know that it is everyplace. Father in heaven, please direct me and keep me sensitive, and positively engaged and helpful, to the needs of others in all areas, as You prompt me, and provide opportunities for my involvement. Jesus had been speaking to a young lawyer, about the people who could be counted as a neighbour (a much wider interpretation than held by the Jews of the time), and then asked him, Luke 10: 36, 37 “’So which of these do you think was neighbour to him who fell among thieves?’ And he said, ‘He who showed mercy on him.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’” I am so blessed to have caring people in my life and those who call me neighbour. You are calling all of us to take selfish and uncaring attitudes out of our life, and with the love of Jesus in our heart, reach out to others near and far, in any ways we can.
The wickedness all around, combined with prophesies within scripture, point to a soon coming Saviour. For many who read the scriptures, we are prompted, to heed the warnings and prepare our heart and life for the coming of the Lord; and live each day, as if it was our last. We really do not know how many days of life we have, or how many days before our God will declare, ‘enough with how things are on earth, it all must finish’! Paul the great apostle and contributor to the New Testament, has much to say on loving God best and how to live a life pleasing to Him. 1 Corinthians 6: 17 “…..He who is joined to the Lord is one Spirit with Him.” Paul makes the case, that it would be a travesty to undertake any behaviour that would sever our oneness with Christ. Verses 15, 16 “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her. For ‘the two,’ He says, ‘shall become one flesh.’” Paul is referring to his belief formed from scripture, that when a man and woman come together in a sexual bond, they have become one flesh, and are in a binding relationship. This belief is also held by many present day Christians. Genesis 2: 24 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall be one flesh”
Jesus whilst on earth had cause to comment on related matters, when “The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?’ Matthew 19: 3, Verses 4-6 “And He answered and said to them, ‘Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female.’ And said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no man separate.” I also note that the young man said ‘just’ and the Pharisees divorced on the most trumped up and flimsy reasons, which was never the intention of God. This story is another example of how Jesus taught obedience, love, respect and right doing not only toward the Almighty God, but people; all of whom God loves and values.
It seems that many of us, do not fully take in how loved and special we are individually to God, or what it cost Christ to obtain our freedom from the consequence of sin. Surely if we had even a beginning idea of our worth in the estimation of God, we would not do anything to interfere with our communication incoming and outgoing with Him. Verses 19, 20 “Or do you not know that your body, is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own. For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
Dear God, I am thankful for my life and body and all Your blessings, so often bestowed. Please teach and strengthen me to keep my body as Your temple.