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Showing posts from November, 2019

The Body, God's Temple

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A model of Herod's Temple at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Photo by Berthold Werner [Public Domain] “...your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God...You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body”- 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV This verse is commonly used to support the idea of healthy living. While making an effort to live a healthy lifestyle is important and glorifying to God, this passage is not concerned with health. To say this verse teaches healthy living would be an incorrect application. This is a good example of a verse being “taken out of context”. The full context here reads: “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your b

The Path to God

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The Path to God Isaiah 40:1-5 Isaiah had been there for years as a voice to the royal house of Judah. The message switches in chapter 40 to one of hope in times of trouble. As with Hosea before him, his message to the people is salvation by grace. The debt they had was too great, so God was going to pay the price. The command to the prophet was to "comfort" the people of God. This didn't mean to make them feel comfortable. But he was to stand alongside then and support them. Instead of despair, there was hope. For sure, hard times were coming--from inside the kingdom and from the outside--but God was in control.  The road ahead was going to be long and obstacles remained, but the path to God was on schedule. It is important to note that the people of God cannot remove the barriers that keep them from the LORD. That path to God is cleared from His side. About 600 years later a latter day prophet named John would point the