Today’s Post By: Shannon Clark
I grew up in a fairly small town, surrounded by lots of farmland. Whether alone or with friends, I loved playing outside – riding my bike, exploring the trails in our woods, taking our dogs for walks, and the list goes on. Down the road in our neighborhood is a side street, and one day when I was very young my dad and I took a walk down that street. We must have been feeling adventurous, as we went on a detour through the woods, following a trail that resembled an old gravel driveway. Along our journey, we came to a creaky, broken down house in the middle of the woods. Surrounded by rusty plowing equipment, wells, and other broken down structures, the house clearly had been abandoned many years ago. Without any upkeep, it continued falling apart and was lifeless.
In the same way that a house is a home for people, our bodies are homes for the Holy Spirit. “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16) “…For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’ ” (2 Corinthians 6:16)
God recently deepened my understanding of this Truth as I thought about how much life a house has when people are living in it and, more importantly, caring for it. If something needs repaired, we put the time and energy into fixing it. Not only that, most of us put a lot of effort into cleaning our homes and making them look nice. We even go to the extent of spending a fair amount of time and money on decorations and such. We want our environment to be comfortable and pleasing for those occupying it. It belongs to us and we have a responsibility to take care of it.
Now consider that old, broken down house in the woods. Without anyone living in it, there was no one to care for it, and so it began falling apart. Lifeless was the word I used to describe how it appeared. If you have ever seen an abandoned house, your words to describe it would likely be similar. The same is true for our bodies without God’s Spirit living in us. “…the body without the spirit is dead…” (James 2:26)
When we accept Christ, we are given new life, and the Holy Spirit resides in us; our bodies become His home! What a privilege to have the Spirit of God dwelling within us! He calls our body a temple, and we have the opportunity (and responsibility) to care for such a temple. “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.” (1 Corinthians 3:17)
With that perspective, it’s an honor to care for my sacred temple, and I pray you will join me in putting forth the time, effort, and energy needed in order to care for our sacred temples – the homes for the Holy Spirit.
