Kansas City, Missouri, United States - Reflecting God – Embrace Holy Living - "God's Dwelling Place" Thursday, 27 November 2014 - Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:10-23

Kansas City, Missouri, United States - Reflecting God – Embrace Holy Living - "God's Dwelling Place" Thursday, 27 November 2014 - Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:9-15 Or, to put it another way, you are God’s house. Using the gift God gave me as a good architect, I designed blueprints; Apollos is putting up the walls. Let each carpenter who comes on the job take care to build on the foundation! Remember, there is only one foundation, the one already laid: Jesus Christ. Take particular care in picking out your building materials. Eventually there is going to be an inspection. If you use cheap or inferior materials, you’ll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won’t get by with a thing. If your work passes inspection, fine; if it doesn’t, your part of the building will be torn out and started over. But you won’t be torn out; you’ll survive—but just barely.
16-17 You realize, don’t you, that you are the temple of God, and God himself is present in you? No one will get by with vandalizing God’s temple, you can be sure of that. God’s temple is sacred—and you, remember, are the temple.
18-20 Don’t fool yourself. Don’t think that you can be wise merely by being up-to-date with the times. Be God’s fool—that’s the path to true wisdom. What the world calls smart, God calls stupid. It’s written in Scripture,
He exposes the chicanery of the chic.
The Master sees through the smoke screens
    of the know-it-alls.
21-23 I don’t want to hear any of you bragging about yourself or anyone else. Everything is already yours as a gift—Paul, Apollos, Peter, the world, life, death, the present, the future—all of it is yours, and you are privileged to be in union with Christ, who is in union with God.
"God's Dwelling Place" by W. Talmadge Johnson
I have visited many majestic temples and sanctuaries with awe-invoking architecture. However, I have also worshipped in modest structures, like a simple brush arbor on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia. God’s presence was real in that place because it was a dwelling place for Him.
It is wonderful to be where God is present. As the psalmist said, “LORD, I love the house where you live, the place where your glory dwells” (Ps. 26:8).
Paul makes the matter personal when he describes individuals as the “temple” of God. He has begun with a sure foundation: “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ” (v. 11). The building materials, “gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw,” will be tested with fire,  and “their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light” (vv. 12-13). This unmistakably refers to the ultimate day of judgment.
How incredible it is to be a temple of God! We must know the cleansing, purifying power of God’s Holy Spirit to become a sanctuary where the Lord lives and His glory dwells.
Hymn for Today:

"O To Be Like Thee" by Thomas O. Chisholm
1. Oh! to be like Thee, blessed Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear. 
Refrain:
Oh! to be like Thee, oh! to be like Thee,
Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart. 
2. Oh! to be like Thee, full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wand’ring sinner to find.
Refrain:
Oh! to be like Thee, oh! to be like Thee,
Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart. 
3. Oh! to be like Thee, lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer, others to save.
Refrain:
Oh! to be like Thee, oh! to be like Thee,
Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart. 
4. Oh! to be like Thee, Lord, I am coming,
Now to receive th’ anointing divine;
All that I am and have I am bringing,
Lord, from this moment all shall be Thine.
Refrain:
Oh! to be like Thee, oh! to be like Thee,
Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart. 
5. Oh! to be like Thee, while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love,
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.
Refrain:
Oh! to be like Thee, oh! to be like Thee,
Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart. 
Thought for Today: 

“A terrible beauty, O God,
    streams from your sanctuary.
It’s Israel’s strong God! He gives
    power and might to his people!
O you, his people—bless God!"(Psalm 68:35).
Please Pray:
For those ministering in media to communicate the Gospel in Mesoamerica.
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