Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. --1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIVFamiliar? KEEP READING! There will be a twist.
I think Jr. High was my first encounter with this truth. Instantly, a very specific set of issues comes to mind. In short, it's the go to text and, for years, has really formulated the bottom line for why we should always choose to be careful with our bodies. It's the reason we don't have sex, do drugs or do any number of other things that can or will result in harming our bodies! In turn, it's a good motivator to take care of our bodies, exercise and eat right. While taking nothing away from the value of this wisdom, recently my mind shot to a new, but not new place.
It's an old story about God's presence and leading in a time when His people were lost and in need. They'd been liberated from Egypt and slavery and were following God around the desert. It was a time of complete reliance on God. He feed them where there was not food, He dwelt among them and He guided them literally by day and by night as a visible cloud and as a pillar of fire. (Exodus 13)
How great that must have been! I imagine what it would have been to experience that level of tangible, visible, concrete and obvious presence of God. To be without the question of where to go or when to go, but to wake up each morning or exist each day knowing as long as the cloud is still there or the pillar of fire is not moving you were in the right place. Oh, my heart gets caught up in these ideas... imagining what it's like... this beautiful time of intimacy between God and His people, a holding of hands... a definite walking with and among... maybe a mirror of Eden even or a teaser of an ultimate perfect renewal! My mind lost, my imagination tickled with an excited hope at this glimpse into the character and desires of God. This provision and intimacy. This nurturing presence and comforting strength. These people consuming Him and walking next to Him and even carrying Him along with them while literally following Him. Seemingly, No guessing, No Seeking... Just Seeing and Doing! Right?! Being and moving. Simple. Together.
How great would that be!? Deep Sigh... Dreamy gaze...
STOP! Realization... WE ARE the NEW PILLARS!
Do you see it?
If we are starving and thirsty wanderers, it's because we have never realized that the Kingdom has come! That there is a new reality and the desert is a mirage!
We are NOT wanderers, we are the NEW PILLARS of fire! Our bodies are temples of The Holy Spirit of GOD! A light of unparalleled hope and blinding Love bursts through us into WHATEVER place we are WHENEVER and ALL the time! New Pillars!! For such a time as this or that! WE ARE NOT OUR OWN! We've been bought at a price, given a new citizenship, reality and clear purpose. The old way... gone and the new way... NOW. The One who once burned in the desert a brilliant burning pillar now brightens and penetrates the entire earth as countless spots of light bursting forth from the body of every one of His... Everywhere! US!
Do you not know?
You walk His light into every crevice of your existence. It illuminates lives everywhere you are and shines on every person you are near. We are NEW PILLARS of burning fire that consumes the very essence of darkness and need. It brings the dead to life and honors God!
Yet we wander? Why oh why do we pillage and scrape along side those who do not know?!
No light... No life.
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. --1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV
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