Skip to main content

 GOD DWELLING IN AND AMONG US

In the Old Testament we are shown the infinitesimal details of how God wanted the Tabernacle to be built. In Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers we are shown overwhelming details on the construction and utilization of the Tabernacle. 

That Tabernacle was a tangible sign to God's people that He was going to dwell with them. He had chosen them to live in His Presence, not as some religious addendum to life, but as the very ground as essence of life itself. That's what it meant to be God's own people.

The Tabernacle was ordered and precise, exact and beautiful, holy because His Presence with them was the very thing that made them holy, set apart to know and be filled with the Life of God.

He would make them holy so that in all the detail and liturgical precision of the worship He was calling them into, they would know that their life was grounded ONLY in Who God is. Life could only be what God intended for us to know. The Tabernacle was a tangible means whereby they would come to stand in awe that the Holy One, Eternal God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and be transformed by Him in fellowship with Him.

All this was from God and by God. They didn't "invent" any of it, not even the slightest detail. They could have never "made up" any of what the Lord called them into. God alone would transform their whole lives, turning them from the death of self-reliance and bringing them into His own Eternal Life.

Life lived in and by God's Word was never meant to be something like a religious "lapel-pin" but an all-consuming, all focused life lived in the fellowship of the God who created us for Himself. He is the only source of wholeness for human living.

He is the Lord of life; we are not and can never be. It is beyond humanity to devise such a life because it is one of utter dependance upon God and God alone. Thank you, Lord Jesus!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

  PRAYER Jesus Christ NEVER taught on what we call "unanswered prayer." James wrote that a divided loyalty between trusting the Lord God for life and at the same time relying on the world's systems to get what you want will result in you not getting anything from God you may have prayed about. God will never reinforce the unbelief that flows from divided loyalty. THAT is not unanswered prayer. That is God saying, "No." to your request. God saying, "No." to your requests is not unanswered prayer. It is His grace. His "No" is just what I would want if I knew what He knows. The Lord also answers with, "Not now; not yet." because we are not yet prepared to receive what we think we need. God works in us both to will and to do His good pleasure. If I am praying for something God wants to do in me and the Holy Spirit is working in me preparing me to receive what God has in store, His "Not yet." is NOT unanswered prayer. As we see...
 HEBREWS 10:1-2, 10-18 "The sacrifices under that system ( the Old Covenant) were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship.   If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared.   For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.  Under the Old Covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins.   But our High Priest offered Himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then He sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand.   There He waits until His enemies are humbled and made a footstool under His feet.   For by that one offering He forever m...
 James 1:5-8 " If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and He will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.   But when you ask Him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.   Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.   Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do." We must remember that God is never upset that we don't know or understand how to live out the New Life He has given to us. That Life is now being lived out in us by the Holy Spirit. This Life of the Kingdom is radically different that the life we are accustomed to living in concert with the world. One of the main marks of a true follower of Jesus Christ is that there is change and ongoing change in us by the Holy Spirit. We do not remain as we once were. The Holy Spirit is conforming us to the Image o...