Class, today we are going to begin by pretending.

Pretend you own a home. It is a lovely home and you are responsible for the upkeep, mowing the grass, repairs, taxes, and anything else that goes along with owning a house.

You live in the house but you are not the house. You may spend so much time in your house that you begin to identify with your house.

If you begin to identify with your house too much, you will begin to think you are too big, too small, too ugly, and so forth.

But come back to reality, you are not your house; you just live in your house.

This is what Paul is saying in IICorinthians 4:18-5:10. He is saying, come back to reality. That thing you look at in the mirror is not you, it is your house. You live inside your house.

If you focus on what you can see, your house, you are going to become discourage beyond repair. It is getting older and decaying, it is riddled with problems, it is addicted to sin. But praise be to God, that thing in the mirror is not you, it is just your house. Be warned, you will be accountable for your house, but it is not you.

He says to focus on what you can’t see. What you can’t see can only be seen by looking into the mirror called The Word of God.

While your house is getting older, you are being renewed day by day. While your house is riddled with problems, you are holy and blameless in God’s sight. While your house is a slave to sin, you have died to sin and are set free from sin. While your house may look somewhat evil at times, God addresses you as a saint.

When we look at our house and identify with our house, we are walking by sight. But when we look in the mirror called the Word of God and find our identity in what He says about us, we are walking by faith.

When we walk by faith we are thinking positive based on the promises of the Word of God.

Not a, “You name it and claim it.” That is a lie from the enemy.

But a, “God says it so I choose to believe it,” type of positive thinking.

When you begin to identify with the born again you, your house will begin to blossom like a flower in the spring time.

Now which mirror are you going to look in to get your identity? The mirror that shows you your house that is decaying and one day will cease to exists, or the true mirror that shows the real you that will live for eternity with Jesus our Lord?

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Master Hyde wasn’t a bad Master as long as you did your work and did it well and did it on time. He was a shrewd man though and he never missed an opportunity to make money, even at someone else’s expense.

James had two other friends that worked with him. John was twenty, Jorge was twenty two and together they made up one crew of the many that worked for Master Hyde. They worked all day in the hot sun, but each was strong as an ox and they were use to the heat and sun.

“Jorge, here comes the water wagon.” John called out.

The water wagon brought nice cool water out to the workers.

Jorge’s sister Sara drove the water wagon and it was one of the many chores she did on the plantation, most of which were around the Master’s house, but the water wagon duty got her out to enjoy the air and the scenery. Working around the Master’s house was easy work but it was good to get out in the open air.

Master Hyde was in town attending a meeting with the other plantation owners in the state. She overheard that there was a big ruckus over some important news coming out of the Capital this week. Sara needed to get back and start her other chores before the Master got back from town and maybe she could find out what all the excitement was about.

She got back just in time. The master was just pulling up in His buggy as she walked in the back door. She got busy washing the dinning room floor. It had to be scrubbed and waxed before supper that evening.

She heard the door slam and the master grumbling as he went into his den.

Mistress Martha, his wife was coming down the steps, “What are you grumbling about?” she asked.

Sara didn’t hear much of what he said, but she did hear the word free and thought to herself, “Humm, I never heard the Master so upset when the word free was involved, what’s up with that?”

She heard him grumbling some more as the two of them walked into the kitchen and sat at the kitchen table.

Sara scrubbed her way over towards the kitchen doorway.

She heard the Master grumble, “And they gave us all these posters to hang up around the property.”

She heard the Mistress fiddling with the news paper the Master had brought back from town.

And then she heard her say to him, “What are you grinning about?”

“I won’t tell them,” he said laughing harder and harder. “I just won’t tell them and they’ll never know.”

With that he got up and went out the door laughing as he went.

Sara got to scrubbing harder and made like she wasn’t paying any attention as to what was going on. But when she heard the Mistress going up the steps, she snuck into the kitchen and grabbed one of them posters and slipped it in her blouse.

That night as James, John, and Jorge were sitting around the fire, beat from a very hard and long day of work, the Master told Sara to take some cold lemonade out to the young men. He seemed to be in a much better mood.

When she arrived she motioned for them all to come and gather around the old stump beside the burn pit.

“Look at this,” she said as she spread out the poster.

It said, “To all slave owners. By order of the President of the United States, all slave owners are required by law to notify every slave that on this very day, all slaves are now free.”

They were all shocked. What did this mean?

It was late and they were dead tired, so each one decided to sleep on it till morning.

This next morning the Master greeted the slaves at the breakfast table in the bunk house and barked out the orders for the day. Then he left without ever mentioning the news.

The young men went to work in the field. Each one thought about the poster that Sara had showed then the night before.

When mid morning came around, Sara showed up with the water wagon.

As they all gathered around it, James was the first one to speak, “That paper says that we have been set free. We are no longer slaves to this Master.”

John spoke up, “I don’t know if I believe that poster.”

Jorge said, “I don’t care what that poster says, I like what I am doing.”

Sara was just thinking about it.

James said, “That’s it, I have been set free.” And he turned around and walked away and never looked back.

John said as he went back to work, “I don’t believe that poster. It must have been written about some other slaves. Until the Master comes and tells me himself, I’m going to just keep on doing what I have always been doing.”

Jorge declared, “I like what I am doing, I don’t care what anybody says. I am not a slave. I work here because I enjoy what I am doing.”

Sara hollered after James, “Wait up, I’ll go with you.”

She went running down the road, but the thoughts in her head kept going over and over, “You are nothing but a slave and you will always be a slave, so turn around and go back.” And then she tripped and fell. She thought to herself, “I’ll never make it.” She got up and started to walk back to being a slave.

James kept on walking. Sure, he had those same thoughts as the others. But he decided that he was going to believe the truth. He kept repeating over and over in his head, “I am free and I am no one’s slave and I will never be no one’s slave ever again.”

Ten years later, James is a free man. He still gets nagging thoughts to go back and see his old friends, but he left that life and he decided never to look back.

John, Jorge, and Sara are still slaves to the Master.

Yes they all have their different reasons.

John doesn’t believe he is free, so he is still lives as slave.

Jorge likes what he is doing, he likes being a slave although if you ask him he says, “I’m not a slave. I am doing this because I want to. No one’s going to call me a slave”

Sara says, “I can’t stop being a slave. I tried to walk away, but I just can’t. I have to be a slave because that is who I am.”

The part of Jack Hyde was played by Lucifer Sin.

The End, or is it Just the Beginning for You.

See, I have decided to be just like James, and as a matter of fact, I am James. James chose to believe the truth and walk away from slavery.

Jesus said, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36.

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:33.

“You have been set free from sin.” Romans 6:18.

“But now you have been set free from sin.” Romans 6:22.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” Galatians 5:1.

This phrase is repeated many times and in many different ways in the Scripture.

This is a gift that God has offered to us. We need to accept the gift and hold on to it tightly. We have a slave owner that does not want us to know that we have been set free. He wants to steal that gift out of your arms. The only power he has over us is the power of the deception.

“Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”

John refused to believe the truth that he had been set free.

Jorge chose to believe a lie that he wasn’t a slave; he just liked doing what he was doing. He could stop when ever he wanted, he just didn’t want to. Jorge is deceiving himself.

Sara tried to quit but allowed the enemy to deceive her back into slavery through thoughts he put in her head. She allowed her gift to be stolen from her. Now she thinks she can’t be free. She has let go of the promise because she fell down once and didn’t get back up.

Who do you represent in this story?

Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

As for me, James, I have been set free. No one will ever be my master. I am not a quitter. I will not be controlled by anything or anyone unless I choose to do so.

We must choose to think positive and if or when we fall down, we must back get up, brush ourselves off, and declare it again, how ever many times we have to.

“I will not be mastered by anything; Jesus is Lord of my life.”

“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Jesus said this in Matthew 11:29-39.

The power is in believing the truth and then acting on it.

Don’t be deceived, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

The Apostle John says, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” IJohn 1:8.
“If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His Word has no place in our lives.” IJohn 1:10.

There are places in our temple where we have lost control and evil has gained control. Unless we have already dealt with these issues there is an underlining problem that has to be dealt with.

This is a separate issue from the forgiveness of sin at Salvation. The Psalmist says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

But the passage of Scripture from IJohn is direct to believers. This is an issue of walking in the light, bringing everything out into the open so that God can show us where we went wrong. Where we chose to believe a lie.

If you remember, Paul says that He sees another player in his conflict with sin. He says that it is evil, living in him. Listen to what John says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1:9. What is this unrighteousness? The evil living in us.

The first sign of a spiritual conflict is difficulty reading Scripture or understanding Scripture, or a difficulty in our prayer life with our Heavenly Father. Either we can’t concentrate or there is a million thoughts or our prayers are not being answered.

“If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.” 1:6.

We are having a problem fellowshipping with God.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalms 139:23-24.

Sometimes we know the offenses or lies that we have chosen to believe. Other times we must ask God to search us and reveal to us the things that have happened in our lives or our ancestors lives that have been offensive to God. We are asking Him to bring things out into the open.

Imagine that we are asking God to send in His A Team, His Angelic Warrior Team to search our temple to find any squatters.

The A Team goes in with swords drawn and forces them out into the open. Here they come squirming at the points of the A Teams shinning swords. They say to their Lord, “Here they are. These are some of the culprits. We will stand here and wait for Your orders to bring out some more.”

When He brings these out into the light, we need to confess, meaning to agree with Him, that the things that we or our ancestors have done were wrong. Then we ask God to restore any ground that has been taken from us, meaning areas in our temple that strongholds have been established. Then we renounce out loud that Satan and his followers no longer have any business in our lives, and we announce out loud, that Jesus is Lord of our lives.

This process is like an onion with many layers. We remove one layer and then we ask God to deal with the next layer.

Sometimes an issue may be too devastating at that time for us to deal with. God knows what is best for us, but we need to be continually asking Him to reveal any problem areas.

I have done this periodically in my life. Now I do this everyday because I know I am in a battle and I want nothing to come between me and God. Everyday I renounce any work of Satan in my life and I announce that Jesus is Lord, and Satan and His followers have no business with me.

And I know that this is not a cure all, for we are also given other commands that we must do to make sure nothing takes residence inside our temple. We are told to take every thought captive. We are told to put on our armor. We are told to flee from anything sexually immoral and flee from Satan and so on.

Bringing everything into the light and asking God to remove the strongholds is the key to fellowship with Him.

“But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.” 1:7. (And yes, we do all this in the name of Jesus Christ and by His shed blood.) The fellowship with one another talked about here is the same fellowship talked about in verse 6, fellowship between God and ourselves.

PRA.

P-Pray and ask God to reveal to us what past issues need to be dealt with and confess that what we did was wrong.

R-Renounce the work of Satan in our lives and ask God to take back any ground that was taken by Satan or his followers.

A-Announce that Jesus is Lord of our lives and Satan has no business with us.

I sometimes do all this out loud but especially R and A. We are making our announcement to the spiritual powers that be.

Many of us may need help. Someone familiar with this process to pray for us as we deal with these issues. Someone that will encourage us. Someone who will lead us and point us to the truth of the Word of God. Sometimes there is a major battle as the evil ones are forced to give up their stronghold. They want to make us believe that they have power and that they belong inside the temple walls. But their only power is in the lies. The truth is that when they are dragged into the light, they are going to slither away from the power of God and by the shed blood of Jesus.

I have tried to train myself to recognize red flags in my spiritual life. I think to myself, something just doesn’t seem right. This is usually the Holy Spirit’s prompting me to do a spiritual examination or a warning to let me know there is an evil intruder lurking about. But there are times that I do not heed the warning and walk right into a trap.

Sometimes it is just a thought or a procession of thoughts that I need to bring to the light and hold up against the Word of God. These thoughts might sound Scriptural at first glance, but by further examination I find that they are counterfeit and trying to deceive me.

Do not fall prey to the lie that Christians are some how exempt from influence from the evil one.

There are too many warnings to the believers that say, don’t do this or do this.

God tells us who our battle is with. Eph. 6:12
God tells us what our weapons are. IICor. 10:3-5.
God tells us to put on His spiritual armor. Eph. 6:13-18.
God warns about the enemies schemes. IICor 2:11, Eph 6:11
God warns us to resists. Jam. 4:7, Ipet. 5:8-9

Demon possession is not the issue with a believer, the issue is oppression and deception. But it is also taking care of unfinished business.

As Believers, we should always be looking to the present and the future and making changes to be Christ like because, “Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.” IJohn 2:6. The only time we look into our past is to figure out where something went wrong so we can walk in the light.

Let us clean up our temple. Let us be proud to say, “My body is the Temple of God, and that is where He dwells.”

Do your homework, look up Scriptures.

God uses the reference of our body being the Temple of God to show the significance of living a Christ-like life, Hebrews 12:14. He uses the comparison to show us how important it is to keep our heart, mind, and body pure, just like the requirements of the physical Temple of God in the Old Testament, IICorinthians 7:1. Since we are no longer under the Law, we understand that we beat our bodies to conform to His will, Icorinthians 9:27, not out of fear of retaliation, but because of His wondrous Grace that He has bestowed on us, Romans 6:14.

I find that so many don’t get all of that, but I do and I take the Grace He has given me very seriously and I try to be obedient to His Word, Romans 12:1-2. Of course I am not perfect, by far, but I make godliness my goal, Philippians 3:12-21. My goal is not to be mediocre or a moderate. The word moderation is rarely in my vocabulary.

With that all said, the order of refurbishing the temple varies by individual. Some may have to take this step first before they can accomplish anything else.

In the temple there are many rooms, many hiding places where evil can be dwelling.

A stronghold is like a fortress that has been set up inside the temple. These strongholds have been created through a lie. We know that Satan is the father of lies. When we have a hard time understanding or being obedient to Scripture, it is usually because a stronghold is hiding somewhere in our temple, John 8:42-47.

Strongholds are created when we willing or unknowingly choose to believe a lie or choose disobedience to God over obedience. Strongholds can also be passed on from generation to generation.

Understand this; God’s Word is a book with many boundaries. God says, these are the boundary lines, do not go beyond. The reason He shows us these boundaries is to keep us safe. Boundaries are good things. When we go outside of the boundary lines there is danger. But we are a rebellious people and we are always testing the boundaries. God says, don’t go there. But sure enough, we had to go there anyway. Walla, a stronghold. Our parents and grandparents also tested the boundaries. When God says no and we say, I don’t care what God says, this is called rebellion and has very serious consequences, ISamuel 15:23.

I have many examples of strongholds but here is one from when I was a young boy and some of you have heard it already.

My father was very legalistic because that was what he was taught in church. There were many things that Christians just didn’t do and cursing was one of them.

I was at a Christian summer camp and they gave an invitation to accept Christ as the Savior. This was something I had been battling with, so I finally gave in the last night of camp. The next day a boy knocked a board out that was holding up the window that we were looking out of and the window hit me on the head. I let out a string of curse words. Immediately something in my head said, “You are no Christian or you wouldn’t have done that.” Since I was taught that Christians didn’t curse, it came natural for me to believe that lie, and I knew no different for twenty three years.

The first stronghold was created by lies taught in church saying that Christians didn’t do certain things and they also never taught us what the Bible says about what happens when we accept Christ as our Savior which is called discipleship.

The next stronghold was created when I chose to believe the lie that I was no Christian because I cursed.

God broke through the second stronghold for me when He reveal Himself to me.

But the first stronghold was not so simple. I was forced to read my Bible when I was young so I knew a lot about the Bible when God woke me up at age thirty-three. But as I read the Word I just couldn’t make sense of it. I could not understand. Especially the writings of Paul. Until God sent me help in the form of a book and finally the stronghold of legalism began to be torn down. Now it all makes sense, but I have found that many others can not comprehend God’s Words for this very reason.

I repeat this story because the stronghold of legalism is the strongest of strongholds. It is why the Bible tells us that Satan was defeated when Christ died on the cross. The war between Grace and legalism has been won and legalism only has the power that we give it through the enemies deception of us. This struggle will always be fierce as long as Christians do not choose to hold on to the truth. Occasionally I still find myself flirting with this issue.

But there is a new battle in town, it has only been around since shortly after the cross and that battle is Grace verses license. This is the reason for this series, to remind us that we have a duty to keep our body’s pure and free from sin because of the Grace that God has provided for us.

I notice that when I have a choice do what is right or wrong, a thought pops in my head, “But you’re not under the law.” This is the weapon of license. It is true that I am not under the law, but not being under the law should never be a reason for disobedience. When that thought pops in my head, I have to say, “What one minute. Who said that?” I have learned to see a red flag when something is out of place. It might take a while, but I catch on eventually.

The decision that has to be made should not be determined by the fact that we are not under the law, but by reasoning whether the choice is right or wrong according to the Word of God. Paul asked in ICorinthians, “Is it beneficial? Is it constructive? Will it take away my freedom?” Because we are not under the law, it is permissible, but what are the consequences? It is the power of the Holy Spirit that helps us to reason through these questions, usually by reminding us of Scripture, which is why reading our Bible is so important to be free in Christ.

There are two lies that I hear some Christians say that keep them from experiencing freedom from strongholds.

One is they believe that evil, living in them, is a horrible concept and is not possible, not them. This lie keeps them from seeing the truth and fixing the problem.

The Apostle Paul describes a terrible conflict going on between his spirit, mind, and body where he continually finds himself doing the very things he does not want to do. He shows us that it is not him that is doing the evil but it is evil living inside of him, a stronghold.

If we are the only ones in this conflict, then it is us that is evil and there is little we can do.

NO. It is evil living inside of us and with the help of God that evil can be removed, Romans 7:14-8:1.

The second lie is, I just pray to God and tell Him to remove it.

NO. Is that how we treat our children? Are they thirty years old and still coming to us to remove a splinter for them or to tie their shoe laces? No, we teach them how to remove the splinter themselves and when they are not able to reach the splinter then they should seek help.

We have to be actively involved in the removing of strongholds. When we are baby Christians God may remove strongholds for us, but as we grow He teaches us to get involved in the removal. We still need God but He wants us to initiate the removal and renounce the evil in our lives.

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.
The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world.
On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” IICorinthians 10:3-5.

Next time we will learn how we go about the removal of strongholds. Some strongholds are so strong that we need to seek help from knowledgeable believers and there is nothing wrong with that. It is actually encouraged in Scripture, but we, must seek out the help, James 5:13-20.

But before we can get started removing trash, we need to stop all the trash that’s coming in. If not we find ourselves in a losing battle

We will find holes in the upper portion of the temple where the trash makes it’s way in. We commonly refer to these holes as the eyes and ears of the temple.

If we continue to allow garbage to come in to God’s Temple through what we look at or listen to, we are defiling the Temple of God.

“Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.” IICorinthians 7:1.

What are we allowing into our homes? What are we allowing our children or grand children to watch or listen to? How are we defiling God’s Temple?

I am very careful what I let into the Lord’s Temple. I am a member of Netflix and I get DVD s that are funny but clean. Mostly old sitcoms. The one sitcom I use to get is supposedly a Christian comedy, produced by Tyler Perry called, House of Pain. As always the beginning of this series was good but toward the end, after several years of production, they started to add some minor sexual content, kissing, bedroom innuendos and such. I had an 11 year old boy over and I was so uncomfortable allowing him to watch it, I had to turn it off. I decided if I was uncomfortable allowing him to watch it then I shouldn’t be watching it either.

How would we feel if God was sitting beside us while we are watching or listening or reading whatever. We read the Old Testament. We know what God thinks. We know what His will is. Guess what? He is sitting beside us.

After we stop the flow of garbage in, then we need to flush the garbage we already put in there, out.

We continually pour water in and allow the water to flush the garbage out. The water is the Word of God.

Garbage in, garbage out, GIGO.

Have you ever notice how sometimes when you hear a tune in the morning, you can’t seem to get it out of your head the rest of the day? Or when you watch a movie and then you think about it for a day or so later? Why don’t we allow our young children to watch horror movies?

When I read a very good book and it takes several days to read, I begin to think like the book and I am sure I am not alone.

Everything we allow into our head effects how we think, how we react, and has a lot to do with why we are not content with what we already have.

Now replace all that nonsense, that is worthless in the big scheme of things, with the Word’s of God.

What a blessing it is when the tune we can’t get out of your head is the Word’s of God. Instead of a movie playing over in our head, it’s the Word’s of God. The book that we get so involved in that we are placing ourselves into it, is the Word of God.

This is what the greatest commandment is all about that Jesus quotes from the Old Testament.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”

He should always be on our mind, when we get up in the morning, all through out the day, and when we go to sleep at night.

By reading God’s Word, Jesus Christ, we are flushing out the garbage and replacing it with Jesus Christ.

GIGO. God in, God out.

Tune in next time when we send in God’s A Team to roust out the critters hiding in the corners of the Temple of God.

Your host of Temple Refurbishing has been Jim Derr.

This episode has been brought to you by: Tiny Tim’s Temple Filters, They filter out the trash while allowing a clean flow of refreshing Word to circulate.

And by: Flush in a Can, Just hook your garden hose to the can and hold the can to your ear. Dear Lord, I think I hear the ocean.

I never seemed to catch up. There was always something else that needed to be bought, along with all the bills that needed to be paid so I could live my kind of life style. The Satellite Dish with all the channels, the phone with the internet, and all the stuff that just seems to come natural, which we all know we have to have to survive. And then there was the cars, trucks, equipment, and of course a house.

Work, work, work, and nothing to show for it but stuff. Never any extra money just living day by day because that is how it is suppose to be done, right?

Every night I would come home and have to walk past the Temple of the Lord.

It was in ruins, junked up and defiled, and in bad shape needing major repair. But I was so tired from work, work, work, I would walk past it, go in the house and flop in my chair in my nicely paneled home with all the luxuries. Everyday I would say, “Not today, today is not the day to rebuild the Temple of the Lord. I’m too tired from working so hard.”

Meanwhile there was always lots of food but I always seemed to be hungry. Lots of stuff but always needing more. Lots of things that always needed repaired or replaced.

One day the Lord said, “You are always saying, ‘The time has not yet come for the Lord’s house to be rebuilt.’
Is it time for you to be living in your paneled house while my house remains in ruins?
You have worked hard but you never seem to get ahead.
You eat but never have enough.
You drink but you are always thirsty.
You put on clothes but you are not warm.
You earn wages only to put them in a purse with holes in it.
You expect much, but see it turned out to be little.
What you brought home I blew away. Why?
Because my house remains in ruins while you are busy with providing for your house.”

And I said, “How can I work on restoring Your house Lord when I have all these bills and all this stuff to pay for?

And He said, “Do not worry about anything. You mark down the date that you start on My house and see if you are not blessed.”

So I devoted most of my time to restoring the Temple of God.

First I went in and started throwing out all the unclean junk that had defiled His Sanctuary. Anything evil and vile had to go in the dumpster. The things that would lead my mind down a path other then the narrow path of God. The Satellite dish, the tempting and luring things on the internet, the magazines, and anything that was unclean or defiled. Anything that I would be ashamed of if the Lord would be sitting right there in His Temple.

I grabbed my ax and headed up the mountain to cut some timber to replace the broken ones in the Temple.

As I was coming back down off the mountain with the timbers on my shoulder, I met some of my friends and neighbors. They scoffed at me and made fun because I had chosen to obey the Lord. My life had become very different since I took on the rebuilding of the Temple and I guess they were feeling convicted because now I choose to live a different life style. I no longer needed the things I thought I had to have, mainly because most of the time I was focused on the rebuilding project. Also I no longer cared to indulge in the things I use to indulge in.

So I shrugged off their insults. After all, I had my sights on finishing the Temple of God and a lot of work needed to be done yet.

In time I got it all finished except there will always be more work to do. Sweeping up, throwing out more trash, replacing this and that, you know, keeping after.

Its funny. I have discovered that I don’t need to work near as much and I am more then satisfied. I feel so blessed and I have a fraction of the possessions and the stuff I thought that I needed to survive. And I still have way too many processions which I am in the process of selling. I am so much happier. I am always busy but I have time to think and meditate and invest in other people. I feel like I am the richest man in the world because there is nothing that I want and if there is something that I need, the Lord provides. I am so blessed.

Now I am in charge of the Temple of God. I take pride in keeping it just right for my Lord. No, I am not a perfect house keeper and God knows that and He guides and directs me to all the work that needs to be done. He knows I try my best and it is a lot of work, but it will all be worth it just to hear Him say, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”

Listen to what the Lord says,
“These people say, ‘The time has not come for the Lord’s house to be built,’”

“Is it time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”

“Give careful thought to your ways. You planted much, but you harvest little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but you are never warm. You earn wages, only to put them in purses with holes in it.”

“You expect much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why? Because of my house which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house.”

(This sounded like almost every Christian I know and including myself. I call it chasing your tail. You work and work but never seem to get ahead. It is a vicious cycle. Why?)

“Give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the Lord’s Temple was laid. Give careful thought.”

“From this day on I will bless you.”

“Be strong all you people of the land,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work. For I am with you.” Haggi 1:1-2:4.

“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s Temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s Temple, God will destroy him; for God’s Temple is sacred, and you are that Temple. Do not deceive yourselves.” ICorinthians 3:16-18.

“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; you were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” Icorinthians 6:19-20.

“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?
For we are the Temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk amongst them, and I will be their God and they will be my people.” IICorinthians 6:14-16.

Our bodies are the Temple of God.

We are to be set apart from the rest of the world.

“Therefore come out from them and be separate’, says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty.
Since we have these promises, dear friends, lets us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.” IICorinthians 6:17-7:1.

Tune in next time when we discuss what all needs to be done when refurbishing your temple.

This is your host Jim, saying, have a good day and see you next time on, “Temple Refurbishing”.

This show has been brought to you by, “Gold and Bronze R Us” Remember, when you cover it with gold, it will never grow old.

And also by, “Hammer Time” We chisel your snisel making your rocks square and sha-nisel. “Can’t touch this.”

The Apostle Peter writes, “Make your calling and election sure.” In this same passage Peter gives us a test of sorts to make sure that we are on the right track. This passage is IIPeter 1:3-11.

Peter lists eight areas in this test of the believer:

1. Faith- “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.” James 2:18.

2.Goodness-Easy one, just being good. Doing the right thing.

3.Knowledge-He is talking about the knowledge of God. He writes the word knowledge four times and references it two more times in this short passage. Knowledge comes from reading the Words of God. Except for Salvation, this is the most important step a Christian can do and Satan knows this. This is why most Christians are living defeated lives.

4.Self control-This is the next most important step and lack of self control usually comes from lack of knowledge of God. If you are not in control, then who is? Romans 6 & 7.

5. Perseverance-Means to overcome. I will not be manipulated by anything, whether it is the enemy deceiving me away from reading my Bible or my failure to bring any part of myself under control. I am a warrior and through Jesus Christ, “I will not be defeated, I will win, I refuse to be mastered by anything other then Christ.” That, is perseverance.

6. Godliness-Being more and more like Christ everyday. Our goal is perfection. We race toward that goal throwing off the things that keep us from winning the race and receiving the prize.

7. Brotherly kindness-Self explanatory. Being kind to everyone.

8. Love-Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trust, always hopes, always perseveres. ICorinthians 13:4-7.

Peter says, “For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.”

Paul describes the Follower’s life as a race. Perfection is the goal and the finish line is when we meet Jesus. If we are A Follower of Christ then we choose to participate in the race.

I am so saddened that many who call themselves Christian are not willing to enter the race. They are twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years old in Christ and still need to be bottle fed. If they don’t go to church, they are not fed at all. This is so sad. We are told that man can not live on bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Jesus said if you do not remain in me you can not bear fruit. If we could all overcome the lies of the enemy and pick up God’s Word each day and pray for His wisdom, our lives would be so blessed even while we are going through the worst of hardships.

Peter begins this passage with these very important words of instruction, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.
Through these He has given us His great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

Throughout the Bible God has revealed to us these many great promises that He has given to us as gifts about who we are in Christ and about what our present and future is in Him. By choosing to believe these promises we are accepting the gifts and can defeat evil, anxiety, oppression, and depression in our lives. Our power is in reading and believing the truth, no matter who or what is telling us differently.

I am not a sinner; I am a Saint who sometimes sins.

I am not crazy; I have been given the mind of Christ.

I can overcome anything; If God is for me, who can be against me.

I am not worthless; I have been bought with a price; I belong to God.

I can beat this; I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I will overcome this because I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms and everything in all creation has been put under His feet.

If you don’t read His Word, then you don’t know His great and precious promises. If you don’t choose to believe His great and precious promises, you are a defeat Christian who has not escape the corruption of the world. If you have not escaped the corruption of this world, then what?

“For if you do all these things you will never fail, and you will receive a rich welcome into Heaven.

“Everything is permissible for me,
But not everything is beneficial.

Everything is permissible for me
But not everything is constructive,

Everything is permissible for me,
But I WILL NOT BE mastered by ANYTHING.”

I choose to overcome, what do you choose?

God loved you so much;
That He gave you everything for your use except for one thing He said you could not touch. Genesis 2:16-17.

God loves you so much;
That He gives you your own freewill so you can make your own choices whether right or wrong.

God loves you so much;
That He is a just God and must punish all wrong doing.

God loves you so much;
That He knew before hand that you would make the wrong choice and be separated from Him because of your sin for He can not be in the presence of sin, so He provided a way for justice to be served so you could be united with Him for eternity.

God loved you so much;
That He sent His only Son to pay the penalty for your sin.

God loves you so much;
That when you choose to believe in His Son, He will give you eternal life.

And for those that have made that choice.

God loves you so much;
That He has sent His Spirit to be with you as a comforter and a counselor and a guarantee of your salvation.

God loves you so much;
That because you choose to believe in Him He has called you His child.

Matthew 7:11, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give good gifts to those that ask Him!”

What could your children do that would cause them to no longer be your children. Nothing, it is impossible.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.“ Romans 8:38-39.

In the story, “What Matters in Life” below, I lived like the devil because out of ignorance I chose to believe a lie.

Now I choose to believe the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

I choose to believe that God created the universe in six days and on the seventh He rested. Nothing is going to change my mind. I will not even contemplate any theory.

I choose to believe in The Word, Jesus Christ. I choose to believe that if I try my best to do everything He says, that everything will turn out good no matter how everything turns out.

I choose to believe that whatever trial might come and there will be many, that I can survive anything as long as I keep my eyes on Him, The Word of God.

Jesus says, “Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?

I will show you what he is like who comes to me and HEARS MY WORDS and PUTS THEM INTO PRACTICE.

He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.

But the ONE WHO HEARS MY WORDS and DOES NOT PUT THEM INTO PRACTICE is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.” Luke 6:46-49.

Again He says, “I am the way and the truth and the life.”

I choose to believe the truth, Jesus Christ, The Word that became flesh and dwelt among us, no matter what anyone else says.

I have dug down and have built my foundation on the solid Rock.

Many tsunami waves have struck my house and yes most of my worldly possessions have washed away but my house is still standing.

How about you? How about your house?

The passage above is rarely understood correctly. Jesus is not talking about legalism and neither am I. I will go into this in greater detail later. Jesus is talking about listening to the truths that he is exposing that actually go against the legalism that was prevalent in Jesus’ day and putting them into practice. Examples are: turn the other cheek, love your enemies, pray for those that hate you, do not worry about tomorrow because today has enough worries of its own, do not worry about what to eat or what to wear or anything else because God takes care of the birds and even the flowers, aren’t we worth more then that, so don’t worry about it, don’t put your value in earthly possessions but store up your treasures in heaven, and much more.

Second Hand Lions is a nice clean movie that you don’t have to be afraid to show the whole family or any age group which is very rare for anything coming out of Hollywood these days. But like everything coming out of there they just had to slip something in that goes against Biblical teaching.

Hub McCaan is a larger then life character played by Robert Duvall who is one of my favorites actors. But the story line eventually focuses on Hub’s speech that he gives to male teenagers that supposedly helps them turn into great men. The just of that speech is, what matters in life is that you choose to believe something, whether it is true or not makes no difference.

No, what matters the most in life is that you choose to believe the truth.

When I was a little boy my father was a very strict legalistic Christian and belonged to a legalistic church. He made us read the Bible and go to church every time the doors were open. Which wasn’t a bad thing except for what I was or wasn’t taught.

At Youth for Christ meetings I would get a strong conviction to go up front to accept Christ as my Savior. It was so strong that I would shake out of fear of dying and going to hell but also out of fear of going up front. I was very shy. At a church camp I finally got up the courage on the last night at the camp fire. I went up in front of everybody and prayed to accept Jesus but there seemed to be no change, no bells or whistles. The next day as we were getting ready to leave my friend knocked the board out of the window and it fell, hitting me on the head. And I let out this string of curse words and something in my head said, “You are no Christian or you wouldn’t have done that.

I believed that lie because that was what I had always been taught and that teaching was summarized later in life by this statement at another church camp, “Christians don’t curse, drink, or chew, or go out with girls that do.” So if I cursed, then I must not be a Christian, right?

In my teenage years I had always thought about becoming a Christian but never wanted to give up the things in my life that I thought were fun and trust me I had what I thought was a lot of fun and how I stayed out of jail or lived to tell about it, well, by the grace of God.

I believed that lie until God woke me up one day. That day 23 years later, I made Jesus Lord of my life.

I had accepted Jesus as age ten, but because of a lie and the failure of my church to teach me the truth, I did not understand what happened to me that day as a little boy till years after I made Him Lord of my life.

Now I have devoted my life to explaining what exactly happens to a person the moment they accept Christ as their Savior and how they can live a life free from the torment of their new found enemy.

Continued above.