Posts Tagged ‘ Temple ’
In the same way, let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:16, HCSB
God came to us, and from the moment of faith in Christ’s work on the cross indwells us by the Holy Spirit and empowers us to shine His light through good works and the sharing of the gospel.
Don’t you yourselves know that you are God’s sanctuary and that the Spirit of God lives in you?
1 Corinthians 3:16, HCSB
God came to us, and from the time of faith in Christ’s work He dwells in us by the Holy Spirit. As the Church we are theTemple of God.
It is a great day! Pi Day Friday! Celebrate mathematics and get a slice of pie! 🥧
Firstly, let me acknowledge what I am sure most of you are surely and most absolutely thinking (and for full clarity, /mild sarcasm): I know the original Greek letter is pronounced like our English letter, p. But in the maths, we generally call it “pie” for delicious and practical reasons.
Secondly, why talk about mathematics and π on a biblical blog? I’m glad you asked! I was going to get around to it! (😉)
The symbol of pi is what is called a constant number (universally true), an irrational number (not simple, reducible, or strictly finite, like “1” or “3” or “42” or “1/3” or “70”), and a fun number (at least by me), and it is used to help find the circumference (length of the outside) and area of a circle, as well as so much more. As far as we know, it has an infinite number of decimal places, starting with 3.1415926……
Hence Pi Day being celebrated on March 14, or as the US and a few others annotate it, 3/14 or 3.14.
To circle back to our primary purpose, we see the use of this rounded of non-round numbers actually appear in the Bible: 1 Kings 7:23 – the bronze/metal/molten sea/basin that is used for ritual washing in the Temple. It’s measurements were 10 cubits across (about 15 feet/4.5 meters, diameter) and 30 cubits around (about about 45 feet/13.7 meters, circumference). Thay works out to roughly 3, or close to pi.
It has to do with being a constant and irrational number.
Pi is a reminder of the Trinity: the constant God that does not make perfect sense to our finite minds.
God’s faithful love is constant.
Psalm 52:1b, CSB
“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you”
Malachi 3:6a, ESVJesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Hebrews 13:8, CSB“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth.”
John 14:16-17a, CSB
Pi serves as a reminder that Christ taking on humanity puts a human element in the Trinity, which sounds irrational and like more than 3 in 1 (like 3.14?), which also sounds irrational to our finite minds. (To be clear, I am not saying that humans are now part of the Trinity or that we become God!)
Pi is also a reminder that simple things are not necessarily easy things to understand and can seem foolish to others.
But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.
1 Corinthians 2:14, CSBbut we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. [24] Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, [25] because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
1 Corinthians 1:23-25, CSB
So, on Pi Day, get some pie, and remember that the Cbristian life may seem irrational, but it is grounded in the constant God who cleanses and purifies us, who brings our lives full circle to be in relationship with Him through the forgiveness of sins by the work of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of the Father.
Simple as pi[e].
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
1 Corinthians 3:16, ESV
God calls us to walk in wisdom, Nad that means we should be seeking His righteousness, which the Holy Spirit guides us through and imparts to us as we seek.
12 years ago, I wrote a series of Christmas devotional thoughts. For my church for 2023, I edited those and made a short, 6-day devotional booklet.
I am putting it here for your downloading pleasure.
It is a simple, fun yet still serious look at how some people responded to Christ’s birth 2000 years ago with some added application for today.
I pray you enjoy and are blessed by it.
Merry Christmas!
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
1 Corinthians 3:16, ESV
When we are found in Christ, we are joined into the great Temple of God – the Chirch – held together by the mortar of the Word and fellowship in the Spirit.
One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.
Psalm 27:4, ESV
This world has many answers for happiness and truths, but the greatest truth and joy is found in God.
Pray that God reveals Himself to you in amazing ways, that you may spend time seeking His wisdom and beauty faithfully.
He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
Matthew 21:13, ESV
We like to think we are dedicating things to God, but are we merely bringing our own will into our walk?
Let us first dedicate our lives to God and the rest will follow.
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
1 Corinthians 3:16, ESV
God guides us in all of life. We do not need to ask the Holy Spirit into our lives over and over. He is in us at all times.
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
Matthew 27:51, ESV
Good came to us and died for our sin that separated us from Him. Now nothing separates us when we are washed in His blood, as the torn temple curtain shows us.
a simple man of God 