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Christ in You, the Hope of Glory
That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith
as you are being rooted and grounded in love. -Ephesians 3:17
For the past nine years, Janet and I have lived, when we are home,
in a townhouse. It is our dwelling place. Since nearly all our time
is away from home, I find that little townhouse more and more a
place I want to be. My books are there, along with comfortable clothes,
and surroundings that are familiar.
No one else dwells there with us. We can walk around in our pajamas,
sing at the top of our lungs, go to the cupboard, and put our feet
on the coffee table.
We like company now and then. It's nice to have friends and family
stop by. Really great to have the grandchildren there once in a
while, even though I have to get the wall paint out afterwards and
touch up a bit.
We never pushed our three children out when they went off to college
or got jobs. They just left when it was time. And all three of them
came back to stay for a while - one with a husband, one with her
cousin, one alone. It was harder - that second run - they were more
independent. We had grown accustomed to the comforts, the quiet,
the calm. But we didn't - and don't complain. They were family.
Fifty years ago I had no idea what it would be like to have children
and grandchildren; no idea what owning a house would mean; no idea
how much my heart would yearn - even ache - for a dwelling place.
Maybe when it was reported that Jesus had no place to lay his head,
it was to help us see that God so desperately determined to connect
with us that he was willing to go as far from his home as one could
get - to hell itself - so that captives could be freed and turned
toward the dwelling God has for us - forever.
Frankly, I want to go to heaven. The sooner the better. After all,
how long can one be away from home before he can barely stand it.
Am I sounding like an old man? Maybe. Probably. But it has to do
with something much greater than age. Age is meaningless to me.
It has to do with what God did; Who God is; How God lives.
When Solomon dedicated the new Temple, he prayed, "But will
God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven
cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!"
I Kings 8:27.
But, lo and behold, "The Word" Jesus Christ, God Incarnate
"became flesh and dwelt among us." John 1:14.
We can say those words and hardly think about them and miss their
impact and meaning. John said that Jesus - God - came, lived among
us, and that we beheld his glory. And what is that glory we beheld?
THE CROSS. The glory of God is the cross. Why? Because our debt
was paid there. The work was finished there. The kingdom of God
came there.
It's why we're here.
Before the cross, the Kingdom of God was among us.
Before the cross, Jesus took up dwelling among us.
In Luke 10, we see Jesus sending his disciples out to preach. "Tell
them," he says, "tell them that the Kingdom of God is
near you" (Luke 10:9).
Then, in Luke 17, responding to the blindness of the religious
elite, anticipating the cross, Jesus said: "The Kingdom of
God is within you" (v. 21).
Don't you get it? It is not about performance. It is not about
style. It is not about programs and structures and systems. It is
not about rules and disciplines and routines.
It's about life! It's about relationship! Love, joy, peace. Abundance,
overflowing fruit.
The Kingdom of God is within you.
Listen to Paul as he writes to the Corinthians. "Do you not
know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?
If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person. For
God's temple is holy, and you are that temple" (1 Cor. 3:16).
Later he asks, "Do you not know that your bodies are members
of Christ?" (I Cor. 6:15) He continues, "Do you not know
that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which
you have from God, and that you are not your own?" (1 Cor.
5:19)
And when Paul wrote his second letter to the Corinthians he says
again (6:16), "...For we are the temple of the living God;
as God said
"I will live in them and walk among them and I will be their
God and they will be my people."
"Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves
from every defilement of body and of spirit, making holiness perfect
in the fear of the Lord" (7:1).
When Paul stood in front of the Athenians, idols all around, he
said, "I see how extremely religious you are in every way."
But, he noted, "The God who made the world and everything in
it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in buildings
made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands as though he
needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and
breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to
inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence
and the boundaries of the places where they would live, SO THAT
they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him
- though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For in him we
live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:24-28).
It's not surprising then that when Paul prays for the folks at
Ephesus, he includes the lines,
"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith,
as you are being rooted and grounded in love" (3:17).
As I write these words, I'm 37,000 feet up in a 747 jumbo jet somewhere
over Greenland. We've been gone for two weeks. Tonight, God willing,
we'll sleep in our own bed, get up and make our own coffee, return
to the big Bible I use at home and enjoy our dwelling for two days
before heading off again.
And it's OK. In fact, just as age has become somewhat meaningless
to me - 60, 50, 70 - what's the big deal - eternity lies ahead.
So, my viewpoint on an earthly dwelling, a townhouse or whatever,
is somewhat meaningless, too. Age and townhouses are both nice,
but God's inside. Everything has changed and is changing. Everything
is better. It has nothing to do with circumstances. Humanly speaking,
I wouldn't give you a plug nickel for a couple of the months this
year, but God was here then, too.
God in you...God in me.
Cleansing, laughing, weeping, loving, helping, healing, leading,
calling, resting, fixing.
God - Holy God - has come to His temple.
When God knocked on the door of your heart and you opened the door,
what did He do? He came in, had supper with you. And you had supper
with Him. Communion. Union.
"Abide in me," said Jesus, "and I'll abide in you."
Relax. Believe. Obey. God is at work. Love is doing His thing.
"He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion."
The dwelling of God is with/in man and woman. God, Christ in you,
the hope of Glory.
Doing what? Rooting and grounding us in love. God is love - hesed
- the earnest, undeserved, and unexpected generosity of one who
does not have to give it.
Love is of God.
Love covers a multitude of sins.
Now abideth faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love.
A lot of us have agendas. And they are our agendas.
We'll never get rid of the hymnal.
We'll never use the hymnal again.
We'll never change.
We'll change everything.
Though often good and helpful and stimulating and insightful, we
often take our cues from books and seminars rather than from the
Jesus who is within. So, churches decline or grow. People look on
and say, "That's too bad and sad" or "That's great
and good" because we look on outward appearance. God looks
on the heart.
John points out in chapter 2:23024, "Now when he (Jesus) was
in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast many people saw the miraculous
signs he was doing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not
entrust himself to them, for he knew all men...(people). He knew
what was in a man.:
The last time I checked, Jesus was inviting us to join His church...to
be His Bride. He is Lord. He is Head over all things and over His
body, the Church.
The question is: Are we listening to Him?
Are we obeying Him?
Are we being rooted and grounded in Him? In love?
Is the plan we have, His?
Is the attitude we carry, His?
Is the life you live, His?
Jesus is quite capable to save us and sanctify us.
Jesus is quite capable of leading His Church.
Jesus is quite capable of filling us and His Church with all the
fullness of God, the Holy Spirit.
Christ in you, the hope of glory.
The glory of God is the cross of Christ.
Take up your cross daily and follow Christ.
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