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| Day 82 Part 3: Heavenly Bodies and Promises |
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Heav enly Bodies
2 Corinthians chapter 5 is awesome. If you have time read it. If you don't have time...read it anyway. The first 8 verse speak of how we yearn for a heavenly body. How we long to be free from this sinful body and to put on the heavenly one. Paul actually tells us that this is what we have been prepared for: 5:5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing [is] God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. The "thing" from verse 5 can be found at the end of verse 4, "...so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life."(NASB) God's purpose is for our dead flesh to be consumed by His life. Therefore, as verse 9 says, our ambition is to be pleasing to Him. If God has purposed for you to be "swallowed up" by life, then your ambition, or dare I say desire, will be to please Him. Our desire to be pleasing to God leads us to "persuade men" because, as verse 14 says, "the love of Christ controls us..." Someone could probably spend a lifetime just unpacking chapter 5. Our God is Awesome!
Promises
Chapter 7 begins with "Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." (NASB) What promises? They are given at the end of chapter 6. 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in [them]; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean [thing]; and I will receive you, 6:18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Its very interesting to me that what was a conditional promise in the Old Testament has become an unconditional in the New. If you just read verses 16-18 of chapter 6 you would think that we have to "do this to get that", but in chapter 7 it says, "having these promises" They are no longer conditional. We already have them, and because we already have them, we should seek to keep ourselves clean and holy. |
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Years ago, whe we were studying a book, I think it was "The Eucharist" by Alexander Schmemman, or "Being as Communion" by Ziziulus, we started looking at the idea of the bread and wine in communion being a symbol( using the Greek idea of symbol) of what bread and wine were supposed to be, IE they were to bring life. The thought was that everything that was supposed to deliver life only really postpones death, instead of bringing life. Communion was referred to as the medicine of immortality ( a phrase used by Ignatius). "That which is mortal is swallowed up by life" reminds me of that thought. I think that we, as Christians, need to find that thing inside all things which reveals its true or redeemed nature, in a sense so that when we look at England(to use a phrase from Narnia) we see Engalnd as she really was meant to be, and then farther up a deeper in!
Good subject, thanks for the reminder! |
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| Thanks for the comment Dennis! I probably wouldn't have made that connection with communion. Interesting thoughts. |
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Sue |
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November 02, 2007 at 9:56pm |
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| Isn't it supposed to be the "thang?" lol |
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| Lol...only in the redneck version Sue! |
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