The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"With Or Without"
Many ways exist to characterize or delineate the human race. The most significant involves the presence of God. The Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ dwells within the spirits of believers. He does not dwell in the spirits of unbelievers.
"Ye are the temple of God…the Holy Spirit dwelleth in you" (I Corinthians 3:16).
"Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6)
"This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart" (Galatians 4:17-18).
God made humanity to serve as His spiritual dwelling place. Salvation in the Lord Jesus births our spirits by imparting the Holy Spirit to dwell therein as the Life of our lives. Apart from the new birth, human beings "live and move and have their being" in God (Acts 17:28). He does not, however, live and move and impart His presence into the being of those who do not trust Him. In this present life, unbelievers live as beneficiaries of their Creator's provision of "life and breath and all things" (Acts 17:25). However, they are spiritually "dead in trespasses and sin" because the Spirit of Christ does not dwell within them (Ephesians 2:1). Apart from the Christ who "is our life," such lost ones live an existence that does not begin to attain to being truly, genuinely, and spiritually alive as God defines life. "Ye have no life in you," declared the Lord Jesus of unbelievers, a sad and tragic pronouncement when life - His life - is available to all as the freest gift ever given (John 6:53). "Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life" (John 5:40).
The eternal and infinite God dwells in His people. We presently "walk by faith, not by sight" regarding this "hope of glory" (II Corinthians 5:7; Colossians 1:27). However, this does not minimize the effect and power of such a wonder. God gave to us the greatest gift of all when we believed. He gave Himself to serve as the very Life of our lives. He fulfilled the most elemental reason of our existence, namely, to glorify and reveal the Lord Jesus within and through us in marvels of grace and truth no other created beings can fulfill. Former rebels become "dear children." Sinners become sons and daughters. The dead spring to life. Spirits once empty become the dwelling place of the most glorious Content imaginable. Divine strength is "made perfect" in human weakness. "Without God in the world" gives way to "I am with you always" (Ephesians 5:1; John 1:12; Ephesians 2:1; II Corinthians 6:16; II Corinthians 12:9; Ephesians 2:12; Matthew 28:20).
The chronicle of grace and love could go on forever as a wonder beyond all contemplation graces our hearts and lives. It will, as "we see through a glass darkly in this life," a "darkly" that nevertheless glimmers at times with glorious illumination (I Corinthians 13:12). In the next life, however, what it means that God dwells in His people will become far more known, experienced, and expressed in a marvel even eternity will not fully reveal. May we live in expectation of that future, while seeking to presently know the reality of our Lord's indwelling and abiding presence within us to the greatest degree possible. May our lives also serve to convince and convict those who tragically do not know the reason and blessedness for which humanity exists, namely, the "unspeakable gift" of Christ as Savior, Christ as Lord, and Christ as Life itself (II Corinthians 9:15).
"Ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit."
(Ephesians 2:22)
Weekly Memory Verse
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
(I Corinthians 13:12)
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