Daily Devotional for Tuesday July 30, 2002

Polluting the Temple of God...and OUR Temple of God.

(2 Chronicles 33:7, 36:14; Jeremiah 7:30; Ezekiel 8:16, 44:7; Zephaniah 3:4)

Last week I received thousands of emails condemning me for the comments that I made about the Crystal Cathedral and their involvement in the multi-faith memorial service for Samantha Runnion. To reiterate, I have NO PROBLEM with whatever type of service her family wanted to hold. That was THEIR choice. Liveprayer had a prayer team literally praying around the clock once that sad story broke. My comments were aimed directly at Dr. Robert Schuller, his son, and the Crystal Cathedral for allowing a house of God to be used to give credibility and a visible public platform to the false gods of this world. There is but ONE GOD! The God of the Bible! The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob!

THERE ARE NO OTHER GODS!

Please take a few moments and read the anchor verses that I supplied today. This will tell you that it is not MY indignation that the house of God be used to honor false gods, it is GOD'S indignation!!!

Of course, the "church" is NOT a building, but it is the people of God. However, the structure the people choose to use as a place of worship is a holy place and NOT to be polluted with the false gods and religions of the world. How would you feel if they used the Crystal Cathedral or any other house of God to film a pornographic movie? You would be rightly outraged! Tell me what is the difference between pornography and worshiping a false god? They are BOTH an abomination to God!

The key point, however, is a point that I try to share with you many days. Polluting the temple of God is not acceptable. But never forget that when you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, YOUR BODY is the temple of the Holy Spirit, the temple of God. You actually become a living tabernacle of the Lord Jesus Christ! To pollute ANY Temple is an abomination to God, INCLUDING polluting YOUR temple, YOUR body. THAT is why I speak so strong on sex outside of marriage. That is why I speak so strong on watching what YOU see and hear. THAT is why I speak so strong on keeping YOUR Temple pure from sin. When you sin, you pollute the temple of God (your body), just as much as if a pornographic movie was being filmed in a local church!!!

I love you and care about you so much. We all make mistakes in our life, we all sin. That is why God in His grace and mercy gave us 1 John 1:9. READ IT!!! But it is up to us to keep our temples pure and holy. Just as we must guard against what is allowed in our churches, the physical temples that we go to, we also must watch what we allow in our physical temples, our bodies. God loves you so much, and only wants the best for your life. The Bible calls us to be "holy, as He is holy". That is our goal. That is what we must strive for in our life, to live a holy and pure life before a holy and pure God. Yes, we live in a sin-filled and evil world. That is all the more reason why we must guard against sin and allowing anything impure into the temple of God, whether it is the physical temple or our personal temple. I will pray for you today to keep YOUR temple pure and holy!