We are discussing the bricks in our
lives in order to have a fulfilling life, a life that can weather
any storm and still come out strong at the other end. God should be
our foundation and Jesus Christ our cornerstone. On this foundation
and cornerstone we can start building our house. The bricks we use
are our close family, our spouse, our kids, our parents, our
siblings etc. These bricks are the most important (besides the
cornerstone and foundation), because without them, the house will
be pretty lonely. And without a deep relationship (which is the
cement) with them, the house will battle to stand. It is only after
getting our foundation and bricks and cement right that we get to
another important aspect of the house, namely ourselves.
We need to live in the house and we
need to be comfortable in this house. We need to be happy and value
ourselves like God does. Now there are various ways of being happy
with ourselves and I am going to discuss a couple of them over the
next few weeks. But for a start know that inside the house you must
look after yourself. As I have said before, your body is the Temple
of God and what you do with it shouldn't be taken lightly. The
other day I read Leviticus again and though I know that those rules
are not related to us anymore, I realized something of God's
character through reading it. God likes order, cleanliness and
personal hygiene.
After reading Leviticus the Lord
immediately reminded me to have a good look at my own Bible. It was
totally falling apart after eighteen years of use. The hinges were
coming off, there were papers hanging out everywhere and even the
introduction was beginning to tear. It was actually a sight for
sore eyes and I never did anything about it, because I thought that
it was actually a compliment as it meant that I spent a lot of time
working through my Bible. After all whenever someone saw my Bible,
they will definitely know that I used it! But the Lord reprimanded
me and I realized that it was a disgrace to Him. It didn't honor
Him, it actually showed how arrogant I got with His Word and how I
actually only focused on myself. I then took tape and bound my
Bible again. I mended the introduction and sorted out all the notes
I had inside. And you know what; it was actually such a blessing to
me. It looked respectable again and ready to be used once more. And
'strangely' enough, I felt as if it 'spoke' to me again. The Lord
likes order.
And it is the same with our bodies.
If we are His Temple, we should make sure that our bodies are in
the best condition as it can be. We cannot do with our bodies as we
please if we belong to Christ, therefore I am not in favor of
tattoos, piercing, smoking etc, because it defiles your temple. We
need to look after ourselves and make the most of what the Lord has
given to us. He is dwelling in us, and if He likes order,
cleanliness and personal hygiene, then we need to shape up and make
sure that our temples are nice places to live in. It has to be in
the best condition that we can manage to have it in. Then we can be
a good witness to Him, as our appearance is the first thing non
believers see of us as Christians. We should be neat and be a
representative of Him that will attract people to Him.
There is of course the other side
of the coin where people focus too much on themselves and think too
highly of themselves, but then we need to go back to the foundation
of the house. Is the foundation right? Is the cornerstone right? Is
the bricks and cement right? We need to put all these things in
order before focusing on ourselves once again.
We will have a more in depth look
as to how we can make sure that we are in the best condition that
we can be in. But for now know, that it is not sin to look after
yourself, you have to. Your temple needs to be holy, because if it
is, you will have a much more intimate experience with God. He will
enjoy being there and you will love having Him. You will also
attract lost people to God, which is in fact our most important job
here on earth.
Lord Jesus, please help us to look
after ourselves. Help us to organize our time in such a way that we
have time to look after ourselves and be a lovely temple for You to
live in. Amen