Gracious and loving God, pour out your blessings upon this dear reader as only You know their greatest needs. I ask this in Jesus' Name, amen.
Text in Ephesians 2: 20 :Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. 21 We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.
Text in Ephesians 2: 20 :Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. 21 We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.
We concluded the Nehemiah story yesterday in a sermon entitled, "Celebrate Kingdom Building." Using the text from Nehi 12:27-30 and Matthew 6: 19-34 we talked about how when we know, love, trust, walk and obey God, we will never be left in ruin. In fact, the Lord let me see the word RUIN as Rising Up, Inspired, and New. That's what happened to Judah as they dedicated the wall and Temple and Jesus' word reminded us that if we put our hearts in the wrong treasures we may find ourselves like the people of Judah, almost to the point of ruin. The Lord never forsakes us and we are His for all eternity. As we face the uncertainty of these times, there is no better place to invest our hope, faith, time, money, etc. than in Jesus Christ.
Pauls writes later in the text above, Ephesians 2:20-21, that spiritually we need to have Jesus Christ as our cornerstone in all our dealings with God and others. We are part of a great body when we take Jesus at His word. We are "a holy Temple for the Lord." Compare that with the ruined temple of Nehemiah's story. That great temple came to ruin because God's people no longer wanted to be God's. They thought they knew more. They thought they knew better, and off they went down a road chosen by themselves that led them to destruction and for many, death. Temptations come that show us what we believe is a better road, but only by trusting and involving God can we know what is best, what is God's, for our lives.
PRAYER: Loving God, stay with me. Embrace me, hold me, love me, and guide me. Let me truly be representative of being Your holy Temple in all things. I seek to help others to "rise up, inspired, and new." I ask the same for me, in Jesus' precious and powerful name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
