1 Corinthians 3 - Steve Wiggins Daily Devotional

“Don’t you know that you are G_d’s sanctuary and that the Spirit of G_d lives in you? If anyone ruins G_d’s sanctuary, G_d will ruin him; for G_d’s sanctuary is holy, and that is what you are.” 1 Corinthians 3: 16-17

When we started the “Living Room Study/Groundworks” ministry, it wasn’t a sophisticated event….not that it’s very fancy these days. In the beginning, we were just a small group, meeting in my living room, wondering if G_d had a bigger purpose for our gathering. There was no pressure to look or act a certain way. It was kind of a “sweatpants” group. You know, sweatpants friends? Sweatpants friends are the people you wouldn’t mind, if they dropped by your home unannounced, and saw you in your sweatpants!

That being said, I would leave work early on the nights we met, to help my wife clean the house. With 4 children, we don’t always have the “put together” look at the Wiggins casa. Now, if our guests were “sweatpants” friends, why did we clean up the house? Why not just leave stuff lying around, like every other day?

We clean-up because we respect our guests, and we want to create an environment that is pleasant. So, when we invite people over, everything is considered: the music, the conversation, food…all to honor, even our sweatpants friends.

What if non-sweatpant friends dropped by? The pastor, or the president…? Well, the stakes get higher, huh? If a dignitary dropped-by, unannounced, on the average day, we would freak out! What if that dignitary was Yeshua, or the Ruach HaKodesh?

In today’s passage, Paul reminds us that believers are G_d’s sanctuaries and the Holy Spirit lives in us. So, how is your housekeeping? Do the things you allow into your life honor or defile G_d’s sanctuary? Do they make G_d smile, or do hey make Him jealous for your worship?

We allow sin to remian our lives because we don’t understand who we ARE in Messiah, or we choose to forget. By sinning, we choose to re-live who we WERE in the world.

Consider the nations who, on different occasions, destroyed the temple in Jerusalem. Where are those empires today…the Romans, Babylonians? What of the persecutors; the Assyrians, Greeks, or the Nazis for that matter? G_d ruined those empires & nations. But why did G_d allow them to persecute Israel in the first place? It is because Israel abandoned G_d in the “temple” of their hearts. Before G_d allowed for their places of worship to be ruined, the Israelites had allowed their faith to be ruined by following after idols. Let’s not be guilty of the same personal offense!

Allow this passage as a reminder for us to be continually aware of G_d’s presence in the sanctuaries of our hearts. G_d has no problem seeing us in our “sweatpants”, so to speak. Still, He is the L_rd of all creation, and we should honor Him as such.

Blessings,
~Steve Wiggins, Associate Leader, Worship Leader
Shuvah Yisrael
Daily Devotional, Monday, September 2, 2013