Reading
SAA Notes
The church is a holy temple – public worship is a vital part of our nature and purpose, and no optional extra. Consider the terms used to describe the church – fellow-citizens, members of God’s household, a holy temple, a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit! How do these terms alter our understanding of us as a church?
SJA Notes
* Almighty God, please write Your word on our hearts today as we read it, that we would be good soil and bear much fruit.
“… Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.”
This is a vision of God building His church here on earth, right now today in our time, and throughout all of time.
Jesus is the cornerstone, the root of Jesse, the energy and the growth.
We are the stones, living stones, being built up.
What are we being built up to?
What are we, God’s people, growing into?
A HOLY TEMPLE!
Where God dwells. In Jesus He tabernacles with us, we with Him.
In the now.
And in the not yet, the bride presented to the bridegroom – The church presented to Christ Jesus, in final all-completed promise.
What a day that will be, all of we God’s people from Adam through to that last day – A holy temple in the Lord!
Hallelujah, what a God we have!
* Father God in Heaven,
Please build us up as living stones, with Jesus as the cornerstone.
Mark us as a people faithful to Your word, that our foundation, our cornerstone, is Your word in practice as well as word and thought.
May we build our lives on You, the rock of ages.
Amen.