October 05, 2012
Desecrating the Temple
Shaking my head in
disbelief at their stupidity I read the report of college students using
alcohol enemas at parties to increase the effects of the alcohol. Seriously? “Do you not know that your body is a temple
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 body.” (1 Cor 6:19-20 NIV)
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----We are inextricably bound to these defiled temples. Each and every one of them will stop working and decay into a morbid mess far uglier than a shot of alcohol squirted up the tailpipe. Until then, we catch bugs and viruses which render such despicable conditions upon these temples that even our closest loved ones plug their noses just to draw near. Even when we are not ravaged by such microscopic beasts, more innocuous ones crawl upon and throughout us in so much abundance that if every particle of every cell of what actually is your body vanished, the accumulation of these tiny beasts would exhibit your exact form, right down to its last and most minute, observable detail. So what’s all that holy about these dirty little soon to rot bodies that makes them temples?
-----What they house. Two things they house. The Holy Spirit. And your spirit. We know the big deal about the Holy Spirit. What’s the big deal about your spirit? God loves it. He loved it so much that He gave up His own life for it. Yes. I know. We are supposed to say that He gave up His only begotten Son for us, basically because that is what He did. But the rest of the story is that He became His Son for that reason. The point is the extent of His sacrifice, the amount of the price.
-----So, what are we still doing here lollygagging around in these rancid shacks called temples? Glorification. I love thinking. It boils down to two basic parts, or processes: discrimination (the ability to notice subtle differences - Encarta ® World English Dictionary) and syntax (the arrangement of any group of elements in a systematic or rule-based manner - Encarta ® World English Dictionary). Maybe more simply stated: comparison and categorization. The human mind naturally operates from its most basic levels all the way up to its most complex patterns according to these two simple processes. So it was that God created Adam and Eve in a different category than Himself (not God), yet in a same category as Himself (perfect.) Then it was that Eve and Adam wanted to be in the same category as God (is God) and thus climbed out of the same category as God (perfection.) Consequently, all their offspring are born into a category of creature that must act like God by providing, caring, and fending for themselves, while being barely able to do it because they have no part in God’s category of perfection, that is, until God made Himself one of us in His Son to break the syntax and recategorize us.
-----For now, we’re only recategorized by our spirits being perfected and joined with His. As for the rest of what we are, these temples house a way of thinking that is yet imperfect, and I propose more imperfect in various subtleties than perfect, but more perfect in meaning than imperfect, if indeed we have given ourselves to the Lord. And if we subject our discrimination to syntax no longer of our own imaginations but rather to syntax revealed in God’s Word, we begin to be sorted out of the mess of this life from one degree of glory to the next into His likeness. So what makes these bug bitten, germ ridden, soon to die and rot bodies to be holy temples worthy of far better than alcohol saturated tailpipes? It is that frame of mind longing to be sorted from these vexing responsibilities of God-like fending for the self, and grasping the desire to once again be the creatures freely roaming God’s providence, naturally knowing things as He defines them, and being perfect as He is perfect. I am being very discriminatory in saying it’s a far cry from a Jack Daniels filled enema bottle!
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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