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#DailyDevotion You Have Been Called To Be Part Of The Temple Of God

#DailyDevotion You Have Been Called To Be Part Of The Temple Of God

Eph. 2:18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

 

There is no such thing as an individual Christian. No man is a Christian unto himself. While we must indeed repent and believe for ourselves, when we come to faith in Jesus Christ we are made part of a much larger whole. We become citizens of the kingdom of God. This kingdom of God is the body of Christ. We are baptized into Christ, both Jews and Gentile and made one body with him, Jesus himself being the head.

 

Now we are also, each of us, living stones in the temple of God.  This temple has as its foundation the teachings of the apostles and prophets, hence we confess in the creeds, “I believe in one holy catholic and ‘apostolic’ church.” It is catholic because it is a whole entity and it is apostolic because it is based on the teachings of the holy apostles. The Church is based on those teachings of the Apostles. The proclaimed and taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world. They wrote down the teachings of Jesus and handed them down to us.

 

Jesus of course is the cornerstone of the temple of God. He determines the lines and directions of the temple for it is his teachings the Apostles proclaim and teach. And just what these teachings? Jesus is the Son of God from eternity, born of the Virgin Mary, of the house of David. He suffered and died for our sins and on the third day he rose again from the dead. Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father from whence he shall return to judge the living and the dead. Therefore, we should repent of our sins, confess them, be baptized for the forgiveness of sins and live a new life according to his will.

 

Through this gospel the kingdom of God is daily growing and being added to, making a holy temple in the Lord. You are being made, being built together into the dwelling place for God by the Spirit. So your body is a temple of the Lord having been given the Holy Spirit, but your body is also part of the living stones that make up the temple of God in which God’s name and glory dwells. And so while we are individually Christians and temples of God we are also corporately a temple unto the Living God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who has called to this living hope.

 

Holy God and Father, through the proclamation of the gospel through your Holy Apostles you have called us to be living stones in the temple of your Son Jesus Christ. Ever preserve us in the faith through the Word and Sacraments that we may realize our being joined together with each other, the apostles and Jesus as your holy temple. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

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Rev. Guillaume J. S. Williams, Sr.

The Reverend Guillaume Williams is the Pastor of Hope Lutheran Chapel of Osage Beach, Missouri. His pastoral ministry with Hope began in 2005 where he preaches the Christ crucified.

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