Sunday, October 16, 2011

No Vacancies #165

“When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.”
Luke 11:24-26

But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own"
1 Corinthians 6:17, 19

When the Maccabees successfully revolted and defeated the forces of Antiochus Epiphanes in 165 BC, the first task at hand was the cleansing and rededication of the Temple. While this is a historical fact of our Jewish history, it is also a metaphor for the cleansing and dedication of our bodies, our Temples. After we have been delivered and spiritually "sterilized" it's necessary to be filled, and constantly refilled, with the Holy Spirit, to the brim...our Temple is not a condo or "multi-unit dwelling"... there is room for only one, not rooms partitioned for light and darkness, with some "holiness" floors, and some "worldliness" floors it simply cannot function this way, so who are you going to have live there?
Jesus warned His disciples that a "little leaven works its way through the whole batch of dough"...we all know the old adage: "one bad apple spoils the whole barrel". I feel called today to encourage you (as well as myself) to forsake all darkness...the Word tells us that "we cannot scoop burning coals into our laps and not be scorched"...
Let us search ourselves today, bind the strongman, and throw out the "bad tenants" from our temples; let us not play relativistic hair-splitting games with a Bridegroom who is waiting for - demanding, a Bride made ready, without spot, wrinkle or blemish.

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