BUIlders get to work!

“Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the Lord your God. Begin to build the sanctuary of the Lord God, so that you may bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord and the sacred articles belonging to God into the temple that will be built for the Name of the Lord” (1 Chronicles 22:19).
 
As some states and cities begin the gradual process of opening up from lockdown, our thoughts turn to the future. Whatever beckons, the above words, with which King David enjoined his son Solomon, are equally a timely reminder of God’s call on us. Indeed, there’s no time to waste even though the uncertainties we face – When will things return to normal? Will international students return to the U.S. and to their campuses? Will donors continue to support us? – seem to offer ample reasons (excuses?) to do nothing. Rather than say (as the people of Jerusalem did during Zerubbabel’s time), “The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house” (Haggai 1:2), we need to rise up and get busy!
 
Firstly, we are to seek the Lord with all our heart and soul. That’s our foremost priority: to abide in Christ and to keep in relationship with Him! David understood well that doing God’s work without knowing God was to miss the point entirely. Although Solomon completed the building of God’s temple, he failed to follow his dad’s advice to always seek the Lord. Tragically, Solomon turned to other gods “and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been” (1 Kings 11:4). Asked by a religious teacher which of God’s commandments is the greatest, Jesus took His listeners back to The Shema, the centerpiece of Jewish prayer life: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:29-30; cf. Deuteronomy 6:4). Let’s take heed!
 
Secondly, our task is to build the sanctuary of the Lord our God. If God’s temple is made of “living stones” (1 Peter 2:5), we contribute to that through winning souls to Christ from among the nations. As friends of the Bridegroom readying his Bride for that Big Fat Multiethnic Wedding in Heaven – where the Bride of Christ constitutes “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language” (Revelations 7:9) – let’s do our utmost to bring as many internationals as possible with us to the Marriage Feast of the Lamb!
 
Finally, the temple or Kingdom will have two things. The first is that it will have the ark of the covenant of the Lord. The very presence of Almighty God Himself will be there! Recall that the name of the New City in the prophet Ezekiel’s vision is to be known as Jehovah Shammah, aka The Lord Is There (Ezekiel 48:35). Nor would it require sun or moon for lighting because the glory of the Lord is the only source of illumination it would need (Revelations 21:23).
 
The second is that the temple will house sacred articles that belong to God. What more sacred items can there be than the precious souls for whom Christ died? As Paul put it, “For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you?” (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20). Indeed, students and returnees thriving in their walk with Christ and reproducing after Him is what makes our hearts sing for joy! “For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 3:8). Amen!
 
Beloved, let’s seek the Lord with all heart and soul, let’s build His temple, and let’s fill it with the “sacred articles” that so please and glorify Him!

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