Casting Pearls- Have you cleaned out your temple?

Our bodies are temples in which God lives. Not only are we supposed to be living temples of God, and a representative of God to the world around us. In 1 John 3:24 we see this proof. God dwells in us who dwell in Him. The Holy Spirit reveals to us whenever we begin to stray into things which will make our temple defiled in the sight of God. The Spirit’s conviction lets us know God lives in us. 

We all become agitated with others in some way or another in our lives, we talk meanly to our children, to our co-workers, to our neighbors, to our family members. We are god’s temple and representative in this world, and we may feel as though we are justified since we are told by the Bible to be righteously angry at sin, and to not ‘spare the rod’ with our children. 

What we must remember, is that as we are temples in our bodies, the other people we are agitated with are temples of God too. Our children are temples as well. Everyone is a temple in some state of being built just as we are not yet built. The temple of our lives is still under construction. We need to fight not to be overcome with pride or selfishness that our temple is further along with construction than someone else's. The devil will use any opening we give him to attack us. we must always stay under the protection of The Lord. 

As we are temples, and they are temples, what are we to do? Well as always I refer to the Bible for all the answers. In Romans 12:1-2 the Bible tells us to present yourself both to God and to man as a Holy Acceptable temple, not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the Word of the Lord, so that we may be acceptable to the Lord. We only have control over ourselves. We cannot make anyone else do what we think is right. 

The key word in the previous sentence is ‘think’. In our minds, we see things one way, in their minds they see things another way. We are responsible only to do what is right in our minds, not their minds. If we feel we need to excuse what we have done, it probably is wrong. If we feel that what we want to do is wrong to our own conscience it is probably wrong. Everyone sees things in a different way, they will react differently. What we must do is be willing, as God is, to be understanding of others seeing things differently and act accordingly. 

What we need to do is to ‘crucify the flesh’ as is spoken of in Galatians 2:19-20. We need to be dead to the flesh and the desires of the flesh. The flesh is controlled by the Law of God that can never be lived up to. The Lord gives us the Holy Spirit to live inside us when we are saved so we will be acceptable to  the Lord and to others as a representative of God. The problem comes when we have more than one face we show to the world. We come to Church and say ‘God Bless You’ and ‘Praise the Lord’ but when we go home, we are totally different. A ‘poor at best’ representative of Christ. It is common in people to be this way. We put our best face on when in public, but our real face when we think no one is looking. That is why a persons true character is shown when no one is watching. The whole world would be better off if we all realized that God is always watching, He sees everything we do and knows everything we think. We can hide nothing from God.

We also need to take into account how our representation of Jesus will appear to other people or our children. Will we influence others or our children to be good temples for God to inhabit in the future? That is exactly what God wants us to do. Make them acceptable vessels for God to inhabit. The best way to make others an acceptable vessel is to make ourselves an acceptable vessel and show them how wonderful it could be.

Casting Pearls - Is the church in trouble?

                        The church in America today must make a important decision as to which way we choose to go. Are we to join with those who wish to be more modern and embrace the culture in which we live? Or are we to hold to the Rock of the truth in God's Word and stand by it no matter wither or not it conforms to modern thinking? We, as a Church, (a called together group of believers) must decide which way we are to face. The danger we face is that if we face the wrong way we will be the ones who say to Jesus when we get to Heaven, I did this and this for you, and Jesus will say to us away from me, I knew you.  I know which group I want to be in so in all things, in our modern world, we must hold them up to the mirror of God's Word.
                         Many in this world want to say that the books of the bible were written by men, and were only relevant in the time in which they were written. However, if you look closely, the original Hebrew, Greek,and Arabic in which the books were written can be translated to speak to even todays problems and prophesy of today. The Church has already had many converts to the modern way of thinking. In the issue of homosexuality alone the United Church of Christ, the Presbyterian Church of the USA, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and even part of the Episcopal Church of America has already allowed homosexual ministers to lead their Churches. The Episcopal Church of America has had a split in Churches that agreed to this new doctrine. Apparently the Roman Catholic Church of Rome is not far behind them as just the other day the Pope himself called for them to be more inclusive in who they allowed in to their church. The Church of Jesus would fall, "as a deck of cards", he put it when he called for all Churches to be more open in their feelings toward homosexuality, abortion, and contraception.
                         The Word given to us by God has not changed, nor been reinterpreted to allow the ideas of men. The things we wish to include are only things brought to us by the lord of this world and are meant to cause us to split and become ineffective in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In
2 Kings 23:7 the King of Judah, Josiah, had found homes of the 'sodomites', otherwise known as Homosexuals today, built right beside the temple of God, and tore them down, and later in the same chapter, in verse 11 and 14 he destroyed the chariots of the sun worshipers and their alters, because the sun worshipers and others had used them to sacrifice their own children, to Molech the sun and fire god, as we do today with the unborn children,  in abortion, on the alter of our own convenience. We would rather sacrifice our own children than be inconvenienced by their lives.
                        For all those who believe they will not be held accountable for these children, they are only fooling themselves. Just as the Church in biblical times was corrupted by false gods coming in to confuse the teachings of the Priests, so the world is trying to bring in false teachings and false gods to make the teachings of the Church be ignored or changed to what their followers would have. The truth remains the same, we must test all things by God's Word, to see if truth is in them.
                        In John 14: 6 Jesus states something that was as true then as it is today in the world's modern interpretation, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me". There is only one way to the Father, through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, No other way is allowed. Those of us saved by Jesus' Grace know no condemnation under the Law of God, the ten commandments, etc., but those who are still living in the world, and are still part of the world's order, are still condemned under the law. The only, and most simple way to get out of the condemnation is to believe on Jesus and make Him Lord of your life. It is so simple that it seems impossible, but it means also giving up all the things the world promises and provides. Many people can't give up the things of this world for the next. The Lord Jesus promises that if we are willing to give up the things of this world, that we will find ourselves greatly blessed while we are still here since God owns everything around us and can bless those who he wishes.
                        As the called together believers of Jesus in this world we must try all things we hear and see in this world by the Holy Scriptures in the Bible. If it does not match up with the commands of God then we are to stay away from them. If it does match up we are to follow it as long as it continues to match up. Many people claim that Jesus was too loving to condemn anyone, and while this is true, Jesus made a way for all who were condemned to be saved, Follow Him and make Him Lord of your Life. There is no other way.