Tag Archives: tabernacle

You are His Temple, May 11, 2020

Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|

Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.

We find it easy to think God doesn’t care when we see the devastation man and nature creates around us. Particularly in these times, when we huddle in our homes, afraid of each other. Afraid our neighbor will spread the virus to us. We live in fear today. What happened? In a few short months, we gave up the outdoors. We gave seeing each other. We gave up our extended families. We even gave up our ability to mourn.

I’m not sure God’s desire for us to love each other as He loves us looks favorably on what we have done to ourselves in these last several months. Certainly, we need to take precautions against this new disease about which we seem to know very little. But do we let fear stop our relationships? Do we allow anxiety to be the overwhelming emotion in our lives?

I think it is time we allow God’s rich legacy of peace to take over in our lives and our communities. As His children, we can offer something the rest of the world cannot. We can embrace life with an assurance of hope that a better day is coming. This short time of suffering is not the end, but the beginning of life. No matter what we might face now, it is so insignificant in the face of what we will enjoy with Christ for eternity if we accept Him as the Master of our lives.

Unfortunately, most people today will not agree with me. As in Jesus’ day, most will reject Him. They will call Him a charlatan, a fake, a seeker of fame. That same crowd will declare His followers delusional, gullible, ignorant. But the early followers of Christ held fast for one simple reason. Some five hundred of His disciples saw the physical, resurrected Jesus. Not a ghost or spirit or a delusion, but a physical body. Jesus spoke with them. He ate and walked and touched them. The crucified, once dead, Master overcame the grave and lived. We believe because of the conviction of their belief.

Then Jesus gave those same disciples a mission. The last time they saw Him, He told them to make more disciples and teach them what they knew. Bring them into their fellowship with the rite of baptism in the name of the Triune Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. More than that, Jesus taught His disciples in His last days before His death, that the Holy Spirit would not just come to live with them as He had, but would live in them.

What difference would that make for them? God longs to have an intimate fellowship with His highest creation, human beings. He made us in His image. He touched the earth to walk with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

He touched the earth in the Holy of Holies, the sacred place in the tabernacle He instructed Moses to build for Him as a dwelling place and later in the Temple Solomon made as a place of worship for Israel. It was the spot God came to bring heaven and earth together with His presence.

Then God lived among us as flesh and blood in human form in His Son Jesus, the second person of the Triune Godhead. How is that possible? He is God, and it is beyond human understanding. If we could understand everything about God, he would not be God, just a super version human.

While He was here, Jesus said something incredible about that third person of the Godhead, though. He said the Holy Spirit would live in us. Think about that a moment—God in us.

God touched the earth again—in us. The Holy Spirit, God, lives on earth now, when we accept Him into our lives as the Master of our soul. When we decide to give ourselves to Him, He lives in us just as He lived in the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem or the tabernacle as His people moved across the wilderness. We are His temple.

The Apostle Peter writes to the early church and puts the concept in these words:

Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture: “See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner,” and “A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:4-10 NIV)

We are God’s temple when we believe in Jesus for salvation. And when he lives in us, it also makes us a priesthood—every one of us because we are His temple. Think about the responsibility of the caretakers for God’s dwelling place; sacrifices, prayers, intercession, care of the temple itself. If I am His temple individually and we are His temple collectively, we have responsibilities to keep ourselves and His church clean and holy, first of all. Then we have a responsibility to minister to those outside this living church; to make disciples and teach them. Jesus commanded us to love each other and love them. He said to make new disciples and teach them.

How do we do that? We love them into the Kingdom of God. And what better time to do that than now. During every pandemic that has swept the earth, God’s people ministered to those in need. It should be the same with this one. Be careful? Absolutely. Be fearful? Never.

As the psalmist wrote, “Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?” When we know our destiny, the worst that can happen to us is we wake up with Jesus. Let God’s love shine through you as you live each day for Him.

You can find me at richardagee.com. I also invite you to join us at San Antonio First Church of the Nazarene on West Avenue in San Antonio to hear more Bible-based teaching. You can find out more about my church at SAF.church. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed it, tell a friend. If you didn’t, send me an email and let me know how better to reach out to those around you. Until next week, may God richly bless you as you venture into His story each day.

Scriptures marked NIV are taken from the NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (NIV): Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ®. Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™. Used by permission of Zondervan

New Commands and a New Covenant, October 2, 2017

Leave a reply

Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.

Bible Reading Plan – www.Bible-Reading.com; The Story, Chapter 5, You Version Bible app, days 29 through 35.

In my younger days I thought Leviticus a really boring book of the Bible. I’ll have to admit, it’s still not my favorite, but I’ve come to appreciate its rules and regulations a lot more as I’ve come to understand the bigger picture of God’s Story and His plan for us.

You see, the big picture of God’s story is His incredible desire to live face to face with us. But there is this problem we created. We brought sin into the world. We broke that relationship with Him and He has been working to get it back. But God cannot live where there is sin. So His Story tells us how He is working through history to exact His plan to bring us back into that perfect relationship that existed in the Garden of Eden before Adam and Eve chose to disobey Him.

An interesting concept we need to understand about having an intimate relationship with God, though, is this. If expect to get along with God, we must be able to get along with each other. My kids hated time out growing up. They knew the rules of the house and when they broke them, that was often where they ended up…timeout. Sitting on the sidelines instead of participating in whatever was going on around them. But my wife and I wanted to have a relatively peaceful home. In fact, I’m not sure my kids ever heard me holler at them. That doesn’t mean I’m the best parent in the world. I was absent a lot because of military service. So much of their good character is my wife’s fault. But she and I decided early that we would enforce the rules and from a very early age, they learned there were consequences for breaking the rules.

Kids need fences. They need to know what the limits are and they need to know those limits are firm. When the boundaries change every day, they get confused. They will test those limits and push them as far as you will let them. Never learning there are consequences for disobedience until one day it is too late and the consequences are much greater than either the child or the parent ever expected.

The same is true for adults, though. We need boundaries, too. We need rules as surely as our children do if we expect to live in community with other people. And that’s why God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai those centuries ago.

The last six of the commandments are not unique. Many cultures had those same rules imposed on their people. It’s how communities ensured people got along with each other. Respect your parents, don’t murder, steal, lie, commit adultery, or covet the things someone else owns. These six commands keep us in check with those that live around us.

The first four commandments were unique to this new nation God was building through His chosen people led by Moses. Keep God first, don’t make any idols or images, honor and respect His name, and set aside a day each week to remember and worship Him. These four rules keep our vertical relationship in perspective. The last four keep our horizontal relationships right.

But we grouse at the commandments. Why do we need rules? Why can’t I do my own thing? Well, we want rules for everyone but me. That’s the thing. In our selfishness, the very core of sin, we want something that holds everyone else in check but don’t want to be bound by those same expectations. And that’s the problem. We don’t want anyone speeding past our yard when the kids are playing, but we don’t want that ticket when we are guilty of the same crime. After all, I’m in complete control of my car at all times, right? I know what I’m doing, right? Wrong.

God gave us the commandments so we could get along with each other. They model the relationship that exists within the trinity. The Father, Son, and Spirit have existed eternally living within these boundaries and know that we can only get along when we observe these same boundaries. So God sets limits on our behavior to help us live in community with each other so that He might restore our community with Him. He wants so desperately to return to those walks in the garden with us.

The rules also told Moses how to build a place for God to stay. He wanted to be right in the middle of this new nation, so Moses constructed a tabernacle, a big tent, for God. If you read about the layout of the camp, the tabernacle was right in the middle of those three million people. Three tribes on the north, three tribes on the east, three tribes on the south, and three tribes on west with the tabernacle smack dab in the middle of the camp. That was where God wanted to be in regard to His new nation.

But the tabernacle also had to be built to perfect specifications. Special wood, special materials, special utensils, special dimensions. Even special people doing the work and handling everything associated with His new house. In fact, the priests could not even go inside because of their sin. God is a holy God. He cannot tolerate sin and will not live in the presence of sin. So when His house was built, not even the priests could go inside when He was present.

Sin was a problem. God gave Moses instructions on how to allow the priest to come into His special sacred spot once a year. He gave him a way for atonement for his sins and the sins of the people. A perfect lamb was sacrificed and its blood shed in atonement for sin.

God pointed toward this act back in the Garden of Eden when He killed some animals and took their skins to make clothing for Adam and Eve. These rules for atonement, shedding the blood of an innocent animal point to something bigger coming when He sacrifices His own son for us. But it tells us the innocent pay for our sin. That’s pretty bad. Adam’s offspring, us, pay the consequences of Adam’s disobedience.

Do you ever think your sins might be hidden? Guess again, the innocent pay for your sins. Your spouse, your children, your neighbors. The innocent pay for your disobedience. And oh, by the way, you pay for the disobedience of someone else! You see we are all in this together. We have to learn to get along. God gave us those rules for a reason. He wants desperately to live among us and walk with us in His garden. But until we can get along with each other, we can never get along with Him.

Jesus said it in answer to the question, “What is the greatest commandment?” “Love your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself.” If we can’t love our neighbor who we can see. If we can’t live with each other? How can we expect to live with a holy God?

Why did God give us the Ten Commandments? To show us how the trinity lives and how we should live in community. They prepare us in the furtherance of His bigger picture to live with us again in His perfect dwelling place.

You can find me at richardagee.com. I also invite you to join us at San Antonio First Church of the Nazarene on West Avenue in San Antonio to hear more about The Story and our part in it. You can find out more about my church at SAF.church. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed it, tell a friend. If you didn’t, send me an email and let me know how better to reach out to those around you. Until next week, may God richly bless you as you venture into His story each day.

Music exit

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved. In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Start your journey with God (Psalm 122), November 11, 2015

Leave a reply

Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Psalms 122

Set – Psalms 122; 1 Corinthians 10

Go! – Psalms 122; 1 Corinthians 9-11

Psalms 122
¹ I was so happy when my fellow pilgrims said,
“Let’s go to the house of the Eternal!”
² We have made the journey, and now we are standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem.
³ Jerusalem! What a magnificent city!
Buildings so close together, so compact.
⁴ God’s people belong here. Every tribe of the Eternal
makes its way to Jerusalem—
Just as God decreed for Israel
to come together and give thanks to the Eternal.
⁵In Jerusalem, justice is the order of the day because there sit the judges
and kings, the descendants of David.
⁶ Ask heaven to grant peace to Jerusalem:
“May those who love you prosper.
⁷ O Jerusalem, may His peace fill this entire city!
May this citadel be quiet and at ease!”
⁸ It’s because of people—my family, friends, and acquaintances—
that I say, “May peace permeate you.”
⁹And because the house of Eternal One, our God, is here, know this:
I will always seek your good!

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Do you get excited the way David does when you go to church? David wrote this psalm for those who journeyed to Jerusalem to worship Me. He remembered the excitement of approaching the city and seeing the buildings gleaming in the sun as he turned the bend in the road and saw the city on the side of the mountain. David thrilled with the thought of coming to My city to worship Me. Every time he Jerusalem to do battle or to take care of some part of the kingdom, he longed for the thrill of coming home to see the beautiful city of Zion set on the hill for My glory.

You hear it in his song. He gave this song to the people of Israel to sing on their way to the city when they came to worship Me. When they joined together to lift their voices in praise, they began to think about worship well before they entered the city, well before they came to the tabernacle. They came to the city expectantly. As they gathered along the roads on the journey, families would meet each other and take up the song.

Enthusiasm would build the closer the people came to the city. They waved palm branches in the air, they sang songs of joy. They lifted My name as they came through the gates and approached the tabernacle to bring their sacrifices to Me. Joy filled their hearts well before they came to the tabernacle because they began to worship well before they came to the tabernacle. They sang and praised and prayed and lifted their voices to Me all along their journey to Jerusalem. They worshiped together long before their feet hit the city streets. They worshiped together and prepared their hearts all along the way.

When the people finally reached the tabernacle brought to Jerusalem, the people already had their hearts and minds set on Me. They already prepared themselves well in advance of their arrival and getting to the tabernacle just continued their celebration. They were ready to see Me and experience My glory because they prepared for it all the time they traveled from their home to get to the tabernacle.

So how about you? Do you prepare to meet with Me when you come to worship? Do you sing and praise and pray on your journey from your home to the place you will gather with others to worship Me? Do you come enthusiastically to the place where you will experience My glory and present yourself to Me as a living sacrifice so I may bless you and your family as you worship with those of like mind with Me? Is your journey a chore? A bore? Or an enthusiastic joy knowing you have an opportunity to meet with Me again?

You might try what the early Israelites did on your next trip to church. Sing and praise Me on the way. Get prepared to meet Me before you come. Worship Me along the way. You’ll be surprised what it does to the rest of your day when you start your journey with Me.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Did you say that was boring? (Exodus 39/32-43), Feb 5, 2015

Leave a reply

Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Exodus 39:32-43
Set – Exodus 39; Psalms 15
Go! – Exodus 39-40; Psalms 15; Acts 12

Exodus 39:32-43
³² All the work that went into the sanctuary of the congregation tent was finally finished. The Israelites did everything exactly as the Eternal One had instructed Moses.

³³ Then the Israelites brought all they made to Moses. They brought the tent and all its furnishings, including its hooks, frame panels, crossbars, posts, and bases; ³⁴ the layers of red-dyed rams’ skins and the sea-cow skin that covered the sanctuary; the veil shrouding the most holy place; ³⁵ the covenant chest with its poles and the seat of mercy; ³⁶ the table, its tools, the bread of the Presence; ³⁷ the gold lampstand, its lamps and all its tools, the lamp oil; ³⁸ the golden altar of incense, the anointing oil and the scented incense; the fabric screen for the tent’s entrance; ³⁹ the bronze altar for burnt offerings, the bronze grating, its poles and tools, the basin and its stand; ⁴⁰ the panels that enclose the courtyard, the posts and bases, the screen that covers the court’s entrance, the cords and pegs; and all the tools used in the sanctuary of the congregation tent, ⁴¹ the finely woven clothing for priests serving in the holy place, the sacred garments worn by Aaron the high priest, and the clothes his sons are to wear when they serve as priests as well. ⁴² The Israelites completed each part of the project exactly as the Eternal One had instructed Moses.

⁴³ Moses inspected every piece of work they had completed, and he saw that they had done it all with excellence according to the specifications given to Him by the Eternal One. So Moses blessed them.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Sometimes you might wonder why I asked Moses and others to put so much detail in descriptions that can seem pretty boring to you. I know it’s been millennia since anyone stepped foot into the covenant tent that housed the articles described in these verses. Why would I want anyone to include the detail about the hooks on the poles and the sea lion skin coverings? What do you care about 4,000-year old bronze altars, screens, pans, shovels, and grates?

For one thing, the detail was important to the purity of the religion I established through Moses and Aaron. The Israelites would soon enter a land filled with pagan icons and idols, sacrifices to false gods, and abominable practices that would entice them away from the worship of Me, the only True and Living God. The preparation of the intricate handiwork required to build My tabernacle kept them focused on Me instead of the pagan gods they encountered in their wanderings.

Second, the instruments and implements noted in the building of the tabernacle showed the Israelites I am a God of order, not chaos. It showed them through the fabrication of all the things involved in the feast days, sacrifices, and worship that I had a unique plan laid out for them. Everything pointed to their past and their future and your future as you consider the placement of the furniture in the sign of a cross, the instrument of crucifixion that would later become the symbol of life.

Third, it allowed those with talents I had given them to share those talents with others and with Me. Moses inspected every item, every implement, every piece of cloth, every article that would soon find its way into its place for caring for My tabernacle and the ways I told him to carry out their means of worship. Every item he inspected he declared as excellent in workmanship. Everyone involved in the project gave their best for the project.

So, what might seem boring to you at first reading, stop and think again. Lessons can be learned there. Keep your eyes on me, not on the world’s idea of gods around you. Remember I have a plan for you just as much as I had a plan for the Israelites 4,000 years ago. And don’t forget I gave you talents to use for Me and for others. Don’t hoard them. You can do things that no one else can do. So get to it and do it with excellence.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.