“HE WHO IS JOINED TO THE LORD BECOMES …”Thoughts from today’s bible reaings – Feb. 23rd
Bro D.Caudery We have an intensely thought provoking set of readings today. In Exodus we read how they start to construct the tabernacle and they are to “work in accordance with all that the LORD has commanded.” [36 v.1] The Creator had detailed every part of its’ construction to Moses on the Mount – it would be God’s Tabernacle. Our world is a wilderness! We must meditate on the challenge of making the spiritual Temple that Paul writes about as we read on Sunday (1 Cor. 3 v.16,17) – and our role in constructing this tabernacle for our Lord to dwell in – in today’s wilderness.
How great to be “the people of his pasture” today! This is the phrase that occurs in today’s Psalm 95 v.7,8 “ …he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts …”
How clearly are we hearing his voice as we read his word in today’s wilderness? As the ‘desert’ of ungodliness around us increases – let us increase our consciousness and commitment to becoming a dependable part of God’s spiritual Temple.
In Corinth some believers were being influenced by the sexual immorality that surrounded them – and it surrounds us today – and we have the addition of the internet to distract us – and if we are weak spiritually – we can do this in private – and become weaker.
Paul puts before them a challenging vision of the spiritual realities their minds needed to grasp – that they must grasp! “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!”
[v.15]
Verse 17 should be highlighted and memorised in our minds! “he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.”
We were bought with a price – and what a price! The “blood” of our Lord! We will read in Corinthians on Saturday how believers can “be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.” [11 v.27] Think of his agony of mind in the garden of Gethsemane! Then meditate deeply on Paul’s words that we should aim to be “a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” [Rom. 12 v.1]
Let us be conscious – every day – indeed, every hour – that we “are joined to the Lord” and become more and more “one spirit with him”[1 Cor. 6 v.17] And with this consciousness we will also live in ways in which, as the last verse of today’s chapter says we should, that we “glorify God in (y)our body.”
