God Dwells Among Us

However, in the busyness of our modern lives, we spend little time with Jesus and wonder why we have so little power. We wonder why the church lacks power to heal broken marriages, lives wrecked by depression and alcoholism and hearts addicted to pornography. Our lives are frantic, busy and powerless because we do not take time to “stand before the

Remember that believers are not merely like a temple in Christ but really are the beginning fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies of the true end-time temple. Christ is a high priest and “minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man” (Heb 8:2).

In the ancient world, stones were not “joined together” with mortar, but were shaved down to fit perfectly together. Just as each stone was chipped away and refined to fit into something far more glorious, so God shapes and forms each believer (sometimes painfully) to be “joined together” into something far more glorious, the “dwelling place for Go

Jesus glorified God by making disciples who kept God’s word. The mark of these disciples was obedience. Similarly, we glorify God by our mission in making disciples who keep God’s word.

However, God’s image in us is restored through worship. Through Jesus Christ, the perfect image of God (Col 1:15), we worship him and “are being transformed into the same image (eikōn), from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor 3:18). Worship transforms us increasingly to reflect and represent God’s presence more clearly as his image and icon.

We glorify God by multiplying images of him who are crowned with his glory; we glorify God by multiplying disciples.

Often the demands of ministering to people expose our inadequacies, and we become depressed since their needs exceed our resources. However, these excessive demands remind us that we are only icons. We are not the answer! We are created as icons through which the glories of God’s presence shine. Jesus Christ is the perfect image and icon of God (Co

So often moral compromise undermines the mission that God has entrusted to us. Blatant moral failure by way of sexual immorality or financial indiscretion can disqualify people for ministry and discredit the God we serve. More subtle moral failures of pride, sloth, lust or greed can sap our power and effectiveness in ministry. Our holy calling and

Notably, Jesus shifts the discussion from a place of worship (“neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem” [Jn 4:21]) to a manner of worship (“true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth” [Jn 4:23]), where Jesus will give water that “will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Jn 4:14).