The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Ghost Town?"
The Apostle Paul's indictment of the Corinthian believers involved their life lived as if God does not exist, and as if the Lord Jesus Christ is not risen from the dead to dwell with and within His people.
"For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?" (I Corinthians 3:3).
Having clearly identified and affirmed the Corinthians' saving relationship with God, Paul nevertheless challenges his brethren with their fleshly living of life as being merely human (I Corinthians 1:1-9). The Corinthians, as are all born again believers, were something so much more. They were human, no doubt, but human as inhabited by the Divine. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (I Corinthians 3:16). We can live life according to truth, or we can live as if our Lord does not dwell and walk in us. We can view Him as if He is in His Heaven, which He is, but as if He were not within His trusting children in Christ through the Holy Spirit, which He is.
"I will dwell in them and walk in them" (II Corinthians 6:16).
Paul addressed many specific issues with the Corinthians regarding their carnal walk "as men." We do well to seek our Lord's searching of our lives. Are there areas where we perceive ourselves in terms of His absence, rather than His presence? Are we a ghost town, as it were, where tumbleweeds race through deserted streets, amid dilapidated dwellings, and where no one lives? Or are we the temple of the living God, where His life and vitality teems within our spirits through the Holy Spirit? We continually require our Heavenly Father's confirmation and correction regarding our confidence in His promised presence and working in us. Only thereby can we walk in consistent faith and faithfulness, overcoming the tragic neglect whereby we live as if God were far away, rather than being nearer than our next breath. "He did not many mighty works there because of they unbelief" (Matthew 13:58).
From the most seemingly minute step of obedience, to martyrdom itself, believers require the indwelling presence of the Spirit of Christ. "Without Me, ye can do nothing" (John 15:5). God knows this infinitely better than do we ourselves. Thus, He has given to all who believe the most wondrous of gifts. He has given Himself to dwell within us. Thereby, we walk not merely as human, but as human inhabited, motivated, led, and empowered by the living God. "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). God remains God and we remain ourselves. However, a beautiful and wondrous union of Heaven and earth unite in born again believers whereby the Holy Spirit imparts divine grace to infuse and empower human need. "Let us have grace, that we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear" (Hebrews 12:28)
Do we view God and ourselves accordingly? We must. Too much is at stake in our lives and sphere of influence to walk in the carnal perception of our being merely a ghost town. Moreover, the Lord Jesus was forsaken by God on the cross of Calvary so that we might be inhabited forevermore by His living presence. May we view Him and ourselves accordingly, joining Paul in the affirmation of his humanity serving as the scene of our Lord's ongoing presence and working…
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
(Galatians 2:20)
"Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."
(Romans 6:11)
Weekly Memory Verse
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
(Hebrews 2:9)
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