December 4, 2010

2 Chronicles 3-4

Much is said about the building of the Temple. 600 talents of Gold were used to inlay the walls. How much gold is that? That coverts to about 34,800-48,000 pounds of gold, or 17-24 tons. What would it cost to buy that much gold today? I just went on line to check the price of gold. As I write, gold is $1413.43 per ounce. Let’s use the low end. 34,800X16X1413.43=$766,997,824.00 That is just to buy the gold for the temple. Isn’t that extravagant? To build that temple today would take close to a billion dollars. That is extravagance for 7,000,000 people, men, women and children. Is our God worth it? He is worthy to receive glory and power and dominion and riches!!! Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!

--Pastor john

1 John 3

Once when I lived in a community that did not have public water, My neighbor awakened me one morning. It was my day off, but he needed something. His water pump had died. It had died two days earlier. He needed water. We ran a hose from my house to his house. Finally they were able to get clean water to take a shower, wash their clothes & dishes, and flush their toilet. What a convenience it is to have clean water! I don’t know whether they drank tap water or not. We didn’t. Our water was clean (as in healthy) but it tasted really nasty. It was not pure. We bought water at the grocery store to drink. Our water was not pure in that it had gasses in it that gave it a nasty smell and taste. If you let the water sit open for a while the gasses escaped and then it was tolerable to drink. But the essence of good drinking water is that you want it on demand. It is pure even from gasses.

Jesus is pure. There is no sin in Him, on Him or around Him. Someday, when we see Him, not only will we be declared pure, but we will be pure in our experience. Those who fix on His glory understand that and cooperate with Him purifying their lives now. Could it be like the water coming out of my well? We ran it through a water softener which collected the unwanted minerals in the water. Could that be compared to His declaring us righteous on the basis of His death upon the cross? Yet, the gasses from the minerals still remain in us. The smell and effects of water is still in, on and around us. Sometimes it is a process of getting rid of gasses in us, spiritual flatulence.

But Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. That includes getting rid of the impurities in us. The spiritual flatulence in us keeps us from loving others and others loving us. As we gaze upon Him, we begin the process of removing the spiritual flatulence. One of the ways that we know that we have come to know Him is that we are in the process. He is pure. He wants us to be pure. Let us gaze upon His glory. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!

--Pastor John