Consider Your Ways, Saints! #4

Friday, October 4, 2013

“I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies” (Psalm 119:59 KJV).

Oftentimes, the Christian is apathetic to JEHOVAH’S desire to build a temple… using him….

Ephesians 3:16-21 is one of four of the Apostle Paul’s prayers for us Christians. In verses 16 and 17, he prayed, “That he [God] would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,….”

When God the Holy Ghost comes to live inside of the one who trusts the Lord Jesus Christ alone as personal Saviour (1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16; 2 Timothy 1:14), it is so that He can then live the Christian life in and through that Christian (Galatians 2:20; Philippians 1:21; Colossians 3:4). Today, we Christians are literally God’s “temple!” The Holy Spirit takes the Word of God that the Christian studies and believes, and strengthens the Christian’s soul, enabling him or her to, by faith, do what God is doing (Philippians 2:13; Colossians 1:29; 1 Thessalonians 2:13).

Although the psalmist of today’s Scripture did not have the full revelation of God that we do today (the completed Bible), he at least knew that he was to use the Scriptures that he did have, to correct his wrong thinking and bad behavior. He knew the wisdom of God would never lead him astray in life. He thought about his lifestyle, and by faith, he had it conform to the Scriptures valid for his day. Likewise, if God the Holy Ghost is to use us Christians to the fullest extent possible, we must—MUST—study and believe the Scriptures written to us and about us.

The Holy Spirit through Paul wrote that Paul is “the apostle of the Gentiles” (Romans 11:13). Paul is God’s spokesman to us—if we reject Paul, we reject the ascended and glorified Lord Jesus Christ who sent Paul to us.

Let us briefly see how Paul’s epistles describe the Christian life, and determine how our Christian lives compare….