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  • Rebuilding the Temple

    Posted on October 7th, 2012 rhonda No comments

     “Isn’t this the carpenter?”

    Mark 6:3

     Two or three years ago, Pastor taught us the importance of knowing what “season” we’re in.  He told us that if we took notes during church, we’d be able to read through them and discern a pattern, and know what God is saying to us.

    I believe God is rebuilding me to make me a more useful vessel for His Glory.  A week or two ago, I had a dream.  Since I rarely remember my dreams, I wrote about it:

    “ . . . I dreamed (or thought through) the importance of Jesus being a carpenter.  (“Isn’t this the carpenter?”, Mark 6:3; “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?”, Matthew 13:55)  Carpenters make things out of wood, which comes from trees; and I’m aware that the people of God are sometimes referred to as trees.  (“They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor”, Isaiah 61:3)  In the Old Testament, God referred to himself as a Potter who had the right to mold clay (people) in the way He saw fit.  King Solomon used the cedars of Lebanon to build a temple to God (I Kings 6).  In the New Testament, God’s people are His temple.  In the Old Testament, God plants; but a carpenter must chop down trees to have usable wood.

    So I’m thinking that God sent me that dream as a message to prepare me for the painful process of being “chopped down”.  In order for Jesus to sanctify me, or to make me into a vessel fit for his purposes, I have to go through the chopping process.  I have to let Him carve me with a sharp knife.  A tree that’s chopped down is a dead tree.  Is that me dying to myself so that I can “live” to be used for the Lord?”

    In May, I entered a new season.  I’m learning that in order to be a better temple, I have to get to a deeper level of surrender, service, and celebration.  The verbs sum up everything I have been hearing, or have been told, over the past 5 months.  I’ve been told to (1) surrender to God and stop trying to figure things out on my own, (2) serve in God’s church and be of service to other people and (3) celebrate God.

    “When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the Lord, as prescribed by David king of Israel.  With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord:

    ‘He is good; His love to Israel endures forever.’

    And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.”

    Ezra 3:11