A Palace for Himself

A college-aged-lover-of-Jesus-friend-of-mine named Billy sent me this powerful paragraph:

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.
-- C. S. Lewis

Holiness Unto The LORD!
Grateful

Whose Am i?

Don’t you know that your body is a temple that belongs to the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit, Whom you received from God, lives in you. You don’t belong to yourselves.
-- 1 Corinthians 6:19 (GWT)

Lord, i want to go beyond being Your follower. i want to be Your sanctuary. i truly believe that You desire for me to go past merely imitating You in everything i do, to ever-increasing intimacy with You. More than impressing You, You want to possess me. Let it happen.

Whose am i? i am Exclusively God's! Yes, i am, I Am's! And... i am...
Grateful

Try to Imitate or Trust in Intimacy

We can try to imitate Jesus, however, He wants us to trust Him in such intimacy that we become His sacred sanctuaries, yes the places where His holy presence dwells.

Lord, prepare me to be Your sanctuary. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

Click here: Sanctuary - worship video with lyrics - YouTube

Increased Intimacy with Immanuel is what I long for.

Grateful

Access. No Longer Foreigners. Sanctuary.

(17) When Christ came, He proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. (18) For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. (19) So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God's household, (20) built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone. (21) The whole building is being fitted together in Him and is growing into a holy sanctuary in the Lord, (22) in whom you also are being built together for God's dwelling in the Spirit.
-- Ephesians 2:17-22 (HCS)

Click here: Sanctuary - Worship Video w/ lyrics Randy Rothwell

Holiness Unto The LORD!
Grateful

God Yearns Jealously

I don't pretend to comprehend these seven words from James 4:5:

"... GOD YEARNS JEALOUSLY... TO DWELL IN US!" (NRSV)

My God, I know the last seven words Your Son prayed in John 17 were "that I Myself may be in them!" While I do not understand a Love like Yours, I still say with all that is within me, "I'm Your sanctuary. Dwell in me, my jealous God. I love You so much because You first loved me too much!" In Jesus' Name. Amen.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful (and Speechless, too.)