Friday, March 4, 2016

Isaiah, Chapter 51, verse 12-13

¹² I, it is I who comfort you. Can you then fear mortals who die, human beings who are just grass, ¹³ and forget the LORD, your maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of earth? All the day you are in constant dread of the fury of the oppressor when he prepares himself to destroy; but where is the oppressor’s fury?

Imagine the joy of the Apostles when at the resurrection of Christ they finally realized this. That they could no longer be controlled by powerful men who would die just like the grass and that they were already on the winning side. Imagine the peace they must have felt when they knew evil was conquered. Imagine the comfort they felt for they knew the presence of God.

The Presence of God[1]

For Jews, there was only one Temple. It was the one place on earth that could truly be called holy. It was the place where God’s Spirit dwelt. The Temple was a place where they could withdraw from the pollutions of the world and know God’s presence in purity. As Christians by the action of Christ we, our bodies, are the temple of God, and He is always with us. No longer was God’s presence and his purifying ritual confined to a single geographic location. No longer were they the exclusive privilege of a single ethnic group. Now the temple has no walls. It is universal—that is, it’s catholic. We are the temple of God’s presence.

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? ...God’s temple is holy, and that temple you are. (I Cor. 3:16-17)

We are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will live in them and move among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (2 Cor.6:16)

When I was a youth of 20 I had the great honor of serving in the Navy Seabee’s and went to build the South Pole Station in Antarctica and breathing was difficult in the frozen thin air, here is an excerpt from my book, “The Ice is Nice and Chee-Chee is Peachy.

Most of the Steelworkers and I were assigned to shoveling snow that had accumulated from the winter. As you worked, it was so ice-cold that frost formed on your beard, face and hair from the vapor of your very breath. Living there, I could really reflect on the statement: “God is closer to you than the very air you breathe”. Being there gave new meaning to that. Your breath was always with you; you could not escape it; even if you tried. Your breath almost caressed you as you went about your day. I thought, “Are we really loved that much?” and then I reflected on John 3:16 from the bible and it seemed to make more sense to me.