The Temple

I’ve done a very poor job of blogging each day this week. I’m so sorry.

I have been thinking about this week – and now already today is Good Friday. But I have part of a post I started earlier this week about the Temple so I’m going to share that now and maybe later I can share my Good Friday thoughts!

If you read the account of the Triumphal Entry in Matthew 21 and in Mark 11 you find that the very next section is about Jesus entering the Temple and how upset He gets with the goings – on inside the temple. This little section doesn’t go into too much detail (the version in Mark has a little bit more, but not too much!) about what was going on, but we do know that there was buying and selling and in that cheating, going on and that was not supposed to happen in the Temple. Jesus throws out that “bad” and at the same time takes the time to teach those around him.

I’ve thought about this in the context of my own body. As the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 6:19 – our body is a temple intended for the Holy Spirit to dwell within.

What does that mean to you? Just that you’re alive, are saved, and so the Holy Spirit is in you and what you see it what you get kinda thing? If it’s good enough for you, then it’s good enough for the Holy Spirit too?

What are some of the things you do (or don’t do) to your body? What things are you eating? Drinking?

Do we – and by we, I mean I – take even the remotest good care of our bodies?

(Is remotest even a word? I don’t know – moving on…)

When we think about where the Holy Spirit lives, we think about Him living in our hearts. Well, taking care of that seems easy – or easier – right? Get saved, go to church, read the Bible, pray, study, talk to others about Jesus…

But caring for our bodies – as Americans is harder. Have you watched the Biggest Looser? If you have, you’ve seen just a small percentage of people in our country who are overweight and out of shape.

I don’t think that’s what God wants for us or for Him. I think God wants us to spend time getting our physical bodies healthy, not just our spiritual ones. It’s a hard balance! There is a need to “carve out time” in the day for these things. Getting up early to spend time alone with God and to exercise, there doesn’t seem to be time in our “regular” day for that kind of thing, so an extra effort needs to be made to grow those areas of our lives.

As we look to Resurrection Sunday and all that Christ did for us, getting up earlier in the morning or taking time to eat the right foods seems like a small thing to do in the shadow of the cross.