It Doesn’t Matter Where I Live in the World
It doesn’t matter where I live in the world because my hope and my inner peace are not built on geography, economics, politics, government, culture, religion, ethnicity, nationality, climate, or scenery. My hope and inner peace are built on nothing less than the living Jesus and His presence within me. As one of His “living stones” I’m blessed to be wherever He sends me.
When Jesus died, the curtain in the Hebrew Temple came down and humans are now invited to “behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” When Jesus Christ died, the temple curtain (veil) that separated humans from the presence of God was torn from top to bottom.
About 30 years later the Temple (and all Jerusalem) was leveled to the ground by the Roman army. It has never been rebuilt because God no longer needs to reside in a temple made by hands (Acts 17:24 & Acts 7:48) or be hidden behind curtains (in a specific location in the world).
Now Christ-bearers everywhere are His holy temple (1 Corinthians 3:16) and “like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5.) In reality, all Christ-bearers, wherever they may be, are now God’s priests (not just the ones ordained by religious organizations).
Hebrews 10:19 describes it this way:
“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
The purpose of Christ-bearers meeting together is “to spur one another on toward love and good deeds,” and to encourage one another. When Christians adopted the habit of passively sitting under the teaching of a religious expert instead of continually meeting together to actively love, serve, and teach one another as led by “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” the glory of living stones ministering to one another in the Spirit was replaced by the curtain of routine religion.
It’s important that Christ-bearers humbly and kindly help each other see beyond temptation, deception, and pride. If we don’t see clearly where we are, we won’t see clearly anywhere else. Here’s why:
Temptation is a scam that tries to steal your inner peace. Deception doesn’t describe, delineate, or display the details of a situation. It distorts or denies them. Pride prevents pure and precise perception, but radical honesty and humility receive it.
The reception
Of temptation
And deception
Twists perception,
Like curved mirrors.
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