Haggai 1:2
Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying,
This people say,
The time is NOT come,
the time that the LORD’s house
should be built.
1:3
Then came the word of the LORD
by Haggai the prophet, saying,
1:4
Is it time for you,
O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses,
and this house lie waste?
…
1:9
Ye looked for much,
and, lo it came to little;
and when ye brought it home,
I did blow upon it.
Why?
saith the LORD of hosts.
Because of Mine House
that is waste,
and ye run every man
unto his own house.
+ + +
Is it TIME YET ?
I Corinthians
3:16
Know ye not that ye are
the Temple of GOD,
and that the SPIRIT of GOD
dwelleth in you?
3:17
If any man defile the Temple of GOD,
him shall GOD destroy;
for the Temple of GOD is holy,
which Temple ye are.
+ + +
Do not think for a minute that The LORD is lax about His Temple.
HE was not
lax when HE brought His People out of Egypt. HE was not lax when HE
allowed His Temple to be destroyed by the Babylonians.
The Jews
had so corrupted themselves that The SPIRIT of GOD abandoned their
Temple, and the Destroying Nation was allowed to devastate the Corrupted
Temple.
It had become VILE in the Eyes of The LORD.
But do not think for a minute that The LORD is lax about His Temple .
HE was not lax back then;
HE is not lax now.
No, HE is NOT LAX now, either.
I Corinthians 3:16
Know ye not that ye are the
Temple of GOD,
and that the SPIRIT of GOD
dwelleth in you?
The Apostle Paul wrote this to born-again Christians, Followers of The LORD JESUS CHRIST, who were living in Corinth, a greatly corrupted metropolitan city.
3:17
If any man defile the Temple of GOD,
him shall GOD destroy;
for the Temple of GOD is Holy,
which Temple ye are.
The Apostle was NOT KIDDING. He was in dead earnest. In great seriousness he wrote this to BORN-AGAIN Christians who were already Saved.
The Apostle’s message was this: We cannot defile our temple because The HOLY SPIRIT has been placed in it during Baptism ( Acts 2:38).
It is HIS+ TEMPLE NOW.
Thus, WE are now
His+ LIVING Temple.
If we DO defile it, then our “temple” becomes VILE to The LORD and HE+ will destroy it.
Defiling GOD’S TEMPLE is serious and The LORD is NOT LAX about how we are to conduct ourselves being His+ LIVING Temple .
What manner of life, then, are we to live ?
We are to BUILD HIS+ TEMPLE
within our hearts…
not our own “temple”.
We are to sow to the SPIRIT … and not to the Flesh.
We are not
to forsake the building of the Living Temple of GOD in favor of building
our OWN temporal , earth-bound fiefdom. It will bring death to our
souls.
Rather… we
lay hold on Eternal Life, to the which we have been called. We are to
Cultivate the Salvation which has been given to us, with fear and
trembling
… not nonchalance.
PRIORITIES of HEART and TIME and ENERGY
need to be re-focused on CHRIST JESUS first.
HE+ will supply the rest,
as it is promised.
+ + +
