The temple in my heart

I was watching the Jesus movie the other day, why? Mainly because I was curious about it. I had never seen it before and was interested to see the tool that had been spreading the gospel in so many countries for the last few years. It was older and of poorer quality than I thought it would be, kind of like some of those old spaghetti westerns I used to watch when I was a kid. It was neat to see how God could use something so weak and evidently low in production values to spread the “good news.” It just goes to show that He can really use anything too fulfill His wonderful will.

Anyway, let me get back to the reason I started writing this.

When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!" His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me."

In the film, when it came to the part where Jesus was throwing the money changers and crooks out of the temple, it occurred to me that, as we are now the temple of the Holy Spirit, does zeal for His house still consume Him?
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
What I’m saying is do I daily remember that I grieve Him when I conform to the lifestyle of the world. Usually I find myself too caught up in the here and now to pay much attention to what I’m subjecting my Lord too. I know that He’s everywhere and already knows everything, but is that an excuse we use to then live as we wish? Do I love Him enough to tell myself, enough John. The time has come and gone for me to carry on with worldliness. And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).
Perhaps that is why I’m writing this… because His Spirit in me is turning over the tables of greed and idolatry in my heart. I love the idea that He is changing me, and molding me, conforming me into someone more like Him. Kind of like when two people come together in marriage and the wife starts taking on the characteristics of the husband, or the husband that of the wife. In a similar way we are the bride of Christ, and receive the blessing of taking on His characteristics. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. I adore the idea that Jesus loves me more than I could possibly love anyone. A love that would have been beyond the reach of creation except that He gives it to us. His love is so deep for me that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Wow! Does the Spirit of God grieve for me that much! Do my sins hurt Him like when a man cheats on his wife, or a wife ignores and despises her husband. Am I such a foul and loathsome creature when I betray the love of the eternal all-powerful, ever existing, God? Lord, please forgive me for when I betray your love! A love I don’t deserve and could never earn.
But He is so good, and in the end nothing can separate me from His love in Christ Jesus. Praise the Lord, all of you who have found such mercy and grace! Praise the Lord, you who receive the everlasting love of their Creator!
Praise the Lord, sing and shout in every land! For Great is the Lord and worthy to be praised!