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

Icons do not point to themselves, but icons usher in a far greater reality. Similarly, we represent God so that our presence ushers in the presence of the Almighty God wherever we go.

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).

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.

Like soldiers on the field, Christians must know their commander’s intent. In order to fulfill our commander’s intent in the changing and challenging situations of our lives, we must take time to form a compelling biblical picture of it. The Bible articulates our commander’s intent by painting a picture of our “mission accomplished” in Revelation 2

We sacrifice for what satisfies. The soul-satisfying riches in the presence of God propel us out of our comfort zones, calling us out of the warm confines of our beds to our knees in early-morning prayer and meditation on God’s Word. Only these soul-satisfying riches can sustain us in the rigors of God’s calling on our lives as we move out to procl

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.

Our mission is not fulfilled because of the adequacy of our financial and intellectual resources, but our mission is guaranteed by the supernatural resources of a God who promises his presence to fulfill that mission.

In this way, this abundant imagery reminds us how God’s presence brings life so that our hearts may not corrode with sin, our lives are sustained with strength and our identities might be properly grounded in our preciousness before him.