Ezra 3.
After seven months of settling in, the exiles assemble, build the altar and make sacrifices. Then they gave money to the tradesmen to get the rebuilding of the temple organized and in the second year of their return they started the work, the Levites supervising. When the foundations were laid, some people cried and some shouted for joy. The crying and shouting were so loud that the noise could be heard from far away.
#65279;
On the way home from worship last night(수) we accidentally found a Rick Warren sermon on the radio.
Although he was talking about Jacob, he made all the same points as Pastor Kim, who talked about the Babylonian exiles returning.
That reminded me of what Pastor Kim says of the Bible, that all the books are easy to understand because they all say the same thing.
In today's passage the returning exiles are rebuilding the temple, starting with the altar. In our Sunday readings of 2 Samuel we read about David building the temple in his heart. Same story.
#65279;
Building the temple takes time. Wooridle has taken ten years to build. The temple in my heart has been building for thirty years.
On some days it seems like I'm still laying the foundations with God.
On worse days, I'm still building the altar, haven't even got the logs from Lebanon yet.
#65279;
In David's case, God showed him that it was he, God, who would build the temple in David's heart by grace.
#65279;
Building the temple means starting with the importan part, the altar where we sacrifice ourselves to God with our confession of sins and repentance.
Today I saw God's grace in the temple building of the boy I expelled but then repented of my sinful action and brought the boy back.
This boy made a serious error of disobedience that required repeated explanatigrave;on of the disobedience to the boy and his parents.
#65279; The boy had to write a letter describing what he did, why it was wrong, apologize to me and have his parents sign this letter.
I told the boy I wanted him to interpret his action in terms of the Odyssey, which we has studied intensely during summer school.
I received that letter today.
His interpreted his action in terms of the infamously disobedient and unruly characters in the story.
His ability to interpret an even in his life with a 3000 year old story gave me such great hope for the boy!
#65279;
Now I have the lever to get him to do QT and interpret his life through the Bible.
The boy's family are Christian but lack the habit of interpreting their lives through God's word.
My sharing with them has helped them think more about their lives. Me too!
Although I gave them QTin, we have not succeeded in any QT sharing.
The problem has been accepting Scripture as the living word of God.
The boy's letter of apology to me showed me I succeeded in teaching him how to interpret his life through literature.
Now, by God's grace, I can help him build his temple by teaching him how to interpret his life through God's word.
Tomorrow I give him and his parents the latest QTin. Next week I begin my follow up.
#65279;
Lord, send your Holy Spirit to this boy and his parents. Give us all more of your grace to build your temple in our hearts.
