January 29th - Temples

1 Peter 2:5-7
Come to Christ who is the living cornerstone of God's temple. He was rejected by the people, but he is precious to God who chose him. And now God is building you, as living stones, into his spiritual temple. What's more, you are God's holy priests, who offer the spiritual sacrifices that please him because of Jesus Christ. As the Scriptures express it, "I am placing a stone in Jerusalem, a chosen cornerstone, and anyone who believes in him will never be disappointed. Yes, he is very precious to you who believe. But for those who reject him, the stone that was rejected by the builders has now become the cornerstone."

Peter talks of the discarded stone as the piece that will ultimately complete and establish the temple as a whole. A cornerstone is absolutely critical to the structural integrity of a temple. The Temple of the Holy Spirit is not made of stone anymore but of the people who believe Jesus is who he says he is. We are those people. We are the temple. This verse humbles me so much as I consider the stones that I have used to build my identity and purpose in this life. Without Jesus, my life would be unstable and in fruitless ruin. The only reason I am a completed temple instead of a pile of stones is because Jesus Christ, my cornerstone, stabilizes and establishes all the pieces that are put together to make me who I am, a temple for the Holy Spirit.

Dear Jesus,
I ask that you would encourage all of us to walk the inner and outer courts of the temple within, circle the alter, and peer into the door that leads to the Holy of Holies. Help us to challenge the money changers of our temples with truth just as you challenged them in the flesh so long ago. Help all of us to draw closer and closer to you as we accept who you truly are in every area of who we are. Help us to meditate on this truth and allow it to penetrate deep into the roots and layers of our new creations so that we will become temples founded on truth and will bring glory to you. Amen.

p.s. if you have any prayer requests that you want people to be praying for, please feel free to post them. Love you guys. -Sar

January 21 - Ephesians 3:14-19

Hey everyone,

Steve asked me to maintain the Blog postings so that it could be a little more consistent and timely. Of course he will still be posting things periodically but I'll be doing a weekly posting that can keep everyone chatting in a current entry. Soooooooo, this is the first one! :)

Eph 3:14-19 When I think of the wisdom and scope of God's plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen.

Hi everyone, this passage makes me speechless. These are Paul's words but it is truly God's desire that we could be completed in this way and even more that we would encourage eachother to pursue this path. Can you imagine if we all fell to our knees when we thought of the wisdom and scope of God's plan? What a glorious thing for God to see us doing. Praise the Lord!!