Where do we live?
Lately I have been walking a lot of evenings while listening to audio books on my phone. I enjoy the exercise, saying hello occasionally to people along the way, and I notice the sky a lot more than I used to do. Sometimes I stop and take pictures along the way and then pick up my pace as I head forward.
One book that I have been listening to is Bonhoeffer, Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy: A Righteous Gentile vs. the Third Reich by Eric Metaxas. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German who was a Christian in the early 1900's until his death in 1945. There is much to learn about him from studying his life as would be the case with all of us I suppose.
Finding out how I grew up in the home of Lester and Louise Thornton with Rosalyn and David as siblings would show a lot about some of the way that I am. Hearing my Dad tell a joke, a pun, would certainly make a person stop and realize where I got it from. Biography just shows us things, it is not good or bad. It just points out what happened.
While walking one day I heard something in the Bonhoeffer book that had me grabbing for the memo app on the phone to type something in so I would not lose it. Here is what I heard.
We build God a temple but we live in our houses.
The idea is that even those of us who choose to follow God, to worship him somewhere, to be disciples, want to keep living in our own houses. We do not want to live with him. Yes, let's visit God, let's even "give" our lives in service, but then let's return to our homes each day to live on our own, to call the shots.
What would it mean to build God a temple and then live there also? Someday we will live with God in a place that he is preparing for us. Perhaps we should learn the house rules now. Maybe we should take in the audio of the biography of the Son by learning more about the Father and hearing it all through the power of the Spirit.
Finding out how I grew up in the home of Lester and Louise Thornton with Rosalyn and David as siblings would show a lot about some of the way that I am. Hearing my Dad tell a joke, a pun, would certainly make a person stop and realize where I got it from. Biography just shows us things, it is not good or bad. It just points out what happened.
While walking one day I heard something in the Bonhoeffer book that had me grabbing for the memo app on the phone to type something in so I would not lose it. Here is what I heard.
We build God a temple but we live in our houses.
The idea is that even those of us who choose to follow God, to worship him somewhere, to be disciples, want to keep living in our own houses. We do not want to live with him. Yes, let's visit God, let's even "give" our lives in service, but then let's return to our homes each day to live on our own, to call the shots.
What would it mean to build God a temple and then live there also? Someday we will live with God in a place that he is preparing for us. Perhaps we should learn the house rules now. Maybe we should take in the audio of the biography of the Son by learning more about the Father and hearing it all through the power of the Spirit.
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