Let's look at one more instance where God's glory shines.

In Acts 3:1-22 we read about a man who has been physically challenged since birth -- born with abnormalities of the body that kept him from ever learning to walk. Where do we find him? Sitting at a gate of the Temple. The place where people go to seek God, we would think. But he's sitting there just hoping for the mercy of a few coins from those passing by going to do their duty at the temple. Along come Peter and John. They were observing him closely as they approached. When they had his attention, don't you know, he was just expecting them to toss some change. What happens? They command him to walk in the name of Jesus Christ! They grab his hand, pull him up, and he's walking and even leapping! Yes, as we would say, a few minds were blown at that moment. The result: The people were running toward Peter and John in total amazement. Peter's flesh might have entertained the idea of grabbing some of that gory for itself, but instead Peter preached to the people of the power of God that brought about this man's healing. The people began glorifying God. The priests, temple guard and Saducees applecart was toppled. And because of the people glorifying God, the officials couldn't make their arrest charges stick. This happened early after the Pentecost (God's gift of the Holy Spirit) event. Although, the disciples were seeing some wondrous results of the power of God through the Holy Spirit they had now received, I bet they were still being amazed themselves every time God worked through them.

According to the verses a couple of posts back (check Isaiah 66:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20), God's word to us here is that He can't be contained, but He is looking for those who are "Humble and contrite of spirit, and who tremble at My word." He's looking for lives changed when they encounter the glory of God. We've seen that happen in every one of these instances (over the last 3 posts), and there are many other examples in Scripture. In the first we saw the angelic beings bringing God's glory into focus. Then we saw Jesus' own ministry giving glory to His Father. And finally, after Jesus has been glorified in the resurrection, and returned in glory to the Father, we saw the very power of Heaven in the form of the Holy Spirit of God taking up residence within the lives of believers. Their enthusiasm spills out to a world thirsty for the Living Water, the Bread of Life, who when He is encountered brings humility, contrition and Holy fear.

God-Color Moment
Think and pray about the ways you have seen God work in your life and the life of those around you. Record an example of how God has showed up in the midst of a situation, and His glory was apparent to all who witnessed it. Were the reactions those of awe and trembling?

Copyright, Lynn U. Watson, 2004, 2011
Photo glimpse of God's glory above from www.multimedia-stock.com

God Shows Up in Glory Again & Again!

More instances of that which brought glory to God! Are you prepared to be awed?

In Matthew 9:1-8 Jesus is criticized for telling the paralytic and his friends that He saw their faith, and forgave the man his sins. To show that He had the authority to do just that, Jesus then healed the man. What happened? The multitudes gave glory to God. I doubt the paralytic and company set out for a worship and praise marathon that day. They were just people with a problem, seeking out this Man who seemed to offer hope. They trusted He could help. He did. God was glorified not just by them, but also by the multitudes! I wonder how long that spontaneous worship service lasted? How heartfelt was their praise? In all probability, this was no rote liturgy or the fifteenth chorus of "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus." Instead, I'm guessing, their very actions were a broad display of hearts truly filled with awe and trembling, and lives being prepared to be glorious temples of the Holy Spirit. (Remember the Holy Spirit was given to us after Jesus ascended to heaven.)

Jesus raises the widow's only son back to life in Luke 7:11-16. "The dead man sat up and began to speak" (vs. 15). The disciples and a whole multitude of folks were with Jesus when they came upon this funeral procession. The result: he entire crowd was gripped with fear, and they glorified God for visiting His people! Did the mourners have any hope, or big plans to see some great miracle? Do you think they were walking outside the city gate with the body expecting this man to sit up and have a conversation with them? Very doubtful. And, what's more, when he did it brought incredible fear upon ALL OF THEM. Those with Jesus might have thought traveling around with this Guy was pretty cool, but when they actually witnessed His power they were definitely humbled and trembling as were those in the funeral party. I think there were some building blocks prepared for their temples that day.

One more awe inspiring story in the next post along with another God-Color Moment.

Copyright Lynn U. Watson, 2004, 2011
Photo -- One small glimpse of God's glory! Through the lens of my own camera. 

Walking Talking Temples of the Holy Spirit

"Thus says the LORD, "Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool, Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For my hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being declares the LORD, But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word." Isaiah 66:1-2 (NASB)

Obviously, as we've already discovered our God is so incredibly large He could neer be contained in a "house" built by man. Yet we've already discovered that the apostle, Paul, admonishes in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NASB): "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body." No, He cannot be contained in a building of wood and bricks, but our hearts and our actions can certainly embody and proclaim His glory!

As I searched through the New Testament for specific instances of that which brought glory to the Father these are some of the examples I found, demonstrating that when He is present in our lives glorious things happen that we could never dream up. 

Luke 2:15-20 recounts the shepherds' visit to the Baby Jesus. Going about their routine lives in the fields by night, they had been visited by a host of angels. Did they expect to witness that spectacular display of God's creation? Highly unlikely. But their response was to leave their place of comfort, and go check this out at the risk of being mocked for believing some crazy vision was real -- or perhaps thought to have been smoking some funny weed.  The result: They returned glorifying God! Scripture doesn't tell us for sure, but I'm believing they returned to their work, their family, their friends, their same routine, but reflecting the glory of God and His heavenly light and colors to all of those around them! They were walking, talking temples of the Holy Spirit right in the middle of the ordinary stuff of life.

We will look at other examples in the next posts. Allow yourself to be awed by the glory of God.

Photo from canstockphoto.com
All other content Copyright Lynn U. Watson, 2004, 2011 

What Glory Fills Your Temple?

As a temple of God we should have as much of the glory of Christ surrounding us and in us as the temple in Jerusalem was filled with the glory of God in Isaiah's vision. What observations are you seeing of Christ's glory in your life right now? How does He reveal Himself to you through His Word? In prayer do you ask Him to show Himself instead of asking for the "stuff"? How awed are you at the magnitude of the universe? Have you looked for Him in the small stuff? What is stirred within you when you consider the complexity of nature over which we are powerless?

In the Memphis, Tennessee area where my family makes its home, we had the opportunity to experience that last one up close and personal. It was a few years back, July 22, 2003, to be exact. As the city awoke for the day, some thunderstorms crossed the Mississippi River from Arkansas into downtown Memphis. They were no longer just thunderstorms. As the storms crossed the river something happened and these became straight line winds, which blew at hurricane force. I believe the technical weather term is a derecho.

Within twenty minutes the entire city and county were totally crippled. A full seventy-five percent of the utility company's customers were left without power, an outage which for some lasted nearly two weeks in the heat of a humid Memphis summer. An area which boasts of its many, many old and, therefore, enormous trees found many of them uprooted and lying flat on the ground. On almost every block there was at least one home damaged if not destroyed by these uprooted trees or falling limbs. Grocery stores had to discard much of their perishable food. It took several days for them to restock, and that was after their power was restored.

Did we see the extreme power of God in all of this? You better believe we did. At first look that might seem more like His vengeance, and perhaps it was. But yet in His mercy, only a few lives were lost, most of which were from careless use of candles and generators after the fact. Only one lost life was a direct result of the storm itself. People worked together to clean up the mess. There may have been grumbling about the length of time the power was out, but utility crews were cheered and applauded by residents as block by block they brought the city back to life. We are privileged to see glimpses of God's glory in so many ways; and, YES, I believe we can even see glimpses of His glory in the devastating effects of nature.

Comparing that storm to the storms of life, there are some striking similarities. They usually come unexpectedly. They knock us down hard. We have the choice of throwing a temper tantrum, acting childish, and allowing the storm to keep us in a crippled state. Or we can look to God's faithfulness in the past and trust Him as slowly but surely, "block by block" with His guidance we put the pieces back together, and we walk into the future knowing He is there and He knows what we are going through -- He's even walking right there with us!

What's In Your Temple?

Do you not know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16 (NIV)

In the last post we pondered and imagined what the train of His robe might have looked like. Today's focus will shift from the train to the temple that it fills. In the introductory material we discussed the size of the temple and how much fabric it would have taken to fill the temple in Jerusalem. We considered that it would take us a life time and then some to truly examine every inch of that garment.

We are ready to consider another temple and what fills it. Read 1 Corinthians 3:16 and 1 Corinthians 6:19. How is the temple identified in these Scriptures, and how is it filled?
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Now read Isaiah 6:1-4. What else do these verses say about the temple?
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Did you catch that?! Our bodies are the temple! OKAY! So, with that in mind, and looking back at Isaiah 6:1-4 , if each of our bodies is a temple and the Spirit of God occupies it, then are flaming creatures with six wings flying over us? Do we fill the earth with His glory? Does the shouting of the angels shake our foundation? Does smoke (burning incense  = prayers of the saints -- Revelation 5:8) fill us up? Does the train of His robe fill our bodies?


That is all pretty mind boggling, don't you think? :o) Do we allow enough of Jesus in our lives for us to reflect that kind of glory to the world around us? What does the world see when it observes our lives? Does it catch little glimpses of that glory? Or does it see a jewel encrusted train filling our lives? Do you see His glory when you look in the mirror? I desire to see His glory in my life, and I desperately desire for others to see Him in me. Do you desire the same?


Photo from www.multimedia-stock.com
All other content Copyright Lynn U Watson, 2004, 2011


(For answering questions such as those in this post, to make notes and add your own thoughts, and to be able to look back later, you might consider writing them out in a journal, keeping a Word file or a notepad on your desktop computer, or making notes about the material right on your Kindle.)

Temple Under Construction

We are about to finally embark on this journey of discovery as we cooperate with God in a  temple remodeling project preparing ourselves to more closely resemble the temple that He desires to fill with His glory. We will dig deep into our past, way past our failures and shortcomings and straight to the heart of God, to discover His marvelous faithfulness in our own lives up to this very moment. As we intentionally picture His hand on our entire life, the glimpses we see of His glory in our lives will grow. We will be asking some serious questions about a specific sin in our own lives that is keeping us from being the person He has created us to be and from reflecting His glory in the tasks for which He has chosen us. And finally we will look at how He is preparing us to deal with specific sin in our lives.

Another reminder -- We can't change anything by our own power, and God won't ask us to change it all at once. We will be spending our time uncovering truths about God and about ourselves, allowing Him to prepare us for the construction work He desires to do in our lives. Prayerfully, we will be allowing Him to release His grace within us to transform our lives. Our obedience to His Word is rewarded when we reflect His glory for others to see.

To find Scriptural examples we will be looking at the preparations for the building of Solomon's temple. We will look further to see how those same principles aply as God prepared some Bible characters to serve Him is such a way that His glory was magnificently displayed through their lives. We will apply God's blueprints for construction work on our own temples, and learn to recognize and follow His call to serve Him with our lives.

We will consider the lives of Bible characters, just as human as ourselves, who sinned just as we do. Yet, God in His wisdom, offered His great mercy, love, and forgiveness to each of them. Through them He revealed His glory in some marvelous ways. Rahab, a harlot, observed God's faithfulness to His people. She made preparations that helped the Israelites, saved her family, and reflected God's glory as she took her place in history in the direct line of decent to Jesus. The Shepherds tending their flocks in Bethlehem, David and his son Solomon, Job, the woman at the well and others -- they all have stories to share that will enhance our remodeling work. We will be participating in some fun, creative projects and exercises during our time together that will hopefully help us to remember and apply the truths we learn.

Let's get started. I'm excited about the possibilities and all God has in store for all of us. I wish I could be at every construction site to see you and God working on this project together, growing more intemate with each other each day. I'll be praying for you for magnificent results in each timple. They will all be so different, and so beautiful, and all a part of the body of Christ -- what an incredible thought!

Photo from www.mediastock-photo.com
All other content, Copyright, Lynn U. Watson, 2004, 2011

Mirroring the Light of the World

As God laid this Bible Study on my heart, and I began to really dig into Scripture and life to be able to somehow convey the truths God was giving me, my friend, Robin, and I were eating lunch in a beautifully decorated Mexican restaurant, which also had some quite yummy food. Piles of notes were lying in front of us -- and God was pouring out more ideas as we shared. Trying to find the place to start was very difficult and tedious and in need of much more prayer. We agreed to do that, and I would begin to write the first draft of the study as God would have me teach it at that time.

We finished our meal, and while waiting for the check, I looked up and really noticed the light fixtures for the first time. The shades over each table were gorgeous Mexican pottery pieces with bright colored glazes and awesome designs.

The bulbs were round and appeared, at first, to be clear. They were reflecting and shining with the design of the shade above them. Closer examination revealed that the bottom half of the bulb had a mirror coating that was allowing the bulb to reflect what was surrounding it from above. How like us. We will reflect what is surrounding us. The more intimate we are with Jesus the more we will, like a mirror, reflect the true "Light of the World" that lives inside each Christian heart. If we surround ourselves with junk, we will likewise reflect the junk. On this side of eternity each of us has lots of that junk that gets in the way of the Light of Jesus within us, the Light which we desire to shine so bright and clear others can't help but see.

(Sadly, those bulbs have since been replaced by those twisted corkscrew looking energy efficient bulbs. But that day the observation we made was the starting point I needed for this study. God answered that prayer so quickly!!!)

The Apostle Paul (I Corinthians 3:16) makes it quite clear that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit today. God resides within us. Who or what is on the throne of our temples? When we're honest with ourselves, we must admit that there are idols that come into our heart and knock Jesus off His rightful throne in our temples. In our world of gluttony in every form, we need to see Jesus, high and lifted up, and recognize (Hebrews 12:1) the depravity of sin in which the kingdom of self becomes entangled. This allows idols to set up residence where the King should reside. Is our focus on Him or on the stuff: TV, internet, facebook, electronic connectivity of all kinds, food, clothes, cars, shopping, hanging out, sports, drink, drugs, easy credit, etc. We become obsessed with so many things. WE even become obsessed with trying to change these things about ourselves in our own power, which means we focus on them even more, and we fail. The battle is ongoing.

In the next post we will focus on the specific thing God has his finger on in your life. I'm very excited to be making this trip with you, and I'm praying for each of you even though I may not know your name. God does.


Photo from www.canstockphoto.com
All other content Copyright, Lynn U. Watson, 2004, 2011

A Vision of His Glory

Isaiah 6:1-8 paints a most articulate word picture of God's glory as Isaiah beheld it filling the temple in Jerusalem. I had been drawn to and absorbed in this passage for quite some time. Seriously contemplating this vision reinforced in super-mega sized reality the microscopic size of man and his lack of power to do or be anything without the magnificent true God of Heaven.

In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory." And the foundations of the threshholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. 

Then I said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts."


Then one of the seraphim flew to me, with a burning coal in his hand which he had taken from the altar with tongs. And he touched my mouth with it and said, "Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is forgiven."


Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I. Send me!"      

                                                                                                  ~~Isaiah 6:1-8 (NASB)

Totally blown away by the vision, Isaiah saw his unclean lips and those of his neighbors magnified to astronomical proportions. When we see God for Who He really is and realize we can't even comprehend His size, like Isaiah we are just as overwhelmed by our shortcomings. We would feel helpless to even think we could speak His name. We would be at the end of self, ready for our own sin/idols to be burned from our hearts, and ready to serve, reflecting the God colors of the light of His glory in our every day lives!!! (See Matthew 5:14, The Message)

I am excited to be sharing with you so much of the ways I have glimpsed God's glory, and how it has changed my life. Like Isaiah, I choose to say: "Here am I. Send me."

The words of a popular song by Mercy Me come to mind: "I Can Only Imagine." For those not familiar with the song, please visit YouTube. You'll find several videos featuring this inspiring song of worship and praise.

Copyright, Lynn U. Watson, 2004, 2011