Your Body is His Temple, So Why Do You Abuse It?

                          The Sacirfice of our Temple By God                 
           

What would you think of a person that came into a beautiful church building and started spray painting the walls with horrible words, breaking church furniture over the pews, throwing the hymnals through the stain glass windows and tearing down the pulpit? Would that be all right with you? Would you view this kind of destruction of the house of God as being "Good"? Would you encourage Christians to destroy church buildings? No! Most Christians would never dream of destroying a church building like that! Well, what about destroying the Temple of God? When Jesus cleansed the Temple in the Gospels, was the Lord pleased that the Religious people of the day were abusing God's Temple? No! He was not pleased, in fact Jesus was very ANGRY and drove out all the ones doing evil in God's temple. How then should we treat the "temple of God" which is your body? That's right, according to 1 Corinthians 3:16 & 17, Christians are the Temple of God. So, in order to answer the question, "should Christians smoke, do drugs or drink alcohol? Let’s find out HOW GOD WANTS YOU TO USE HIS TEMPLE. Your Body is His Temple. "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body,"1 Cor. 6:19-20. This is a body conscious world.  Many products to clean up, paint up, and fix-up. Great concern about physical shape. Diets abound: low fat this, low fat that. Diet pills. Exercise clubs, exercise machines, etc. Great concern about physical health. Watch that cholesterol, reduce that salt, eat more roughage. The Christian adds another dimension to concern for the body. The day you became a Christian, something happened to your body. Another dimension was added to your being. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. "Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?" This reminds us of the temple in the O.T. What great care was given to its design. What immense wealth was placed into its construction. "Then King David said to the whole assembly: My son Solomon, the one whom God has chosen, is young and inexperienced. The task is great, because this palatial structure is not for man but for the LORD God. ²With all my resources I have provided for the temple of my God -- gold for the gold work, silver for the silver, bronze for the bronze, iron for the iron and wood for the wood, as well as onyx for the settings, turquoise, stones of various colors, and all kinds of fine stone and marble all of these in large quantities. ³Besides, in my devotion to the temple of my God I now give my personal treasures of gold and silver for the temple of my God, over and above everything I have provided for this holy temple: ⁴three thousand talents of gold (gold of Ophir) and seven thousand talents of refined silver, for the overlaying of the walls of the buildings, ⁵for the gold work and the silver work, and for all the work to be done by the craftsmen. Now, who is willing to consecrate himself today to the LORD?"1 Chr. 29:1-5. The people were to know that God dwelt there. That is why it was furnished with such greatness: because it was to be the house of God. Note the day of dedication of Solomon's temple 2 Chron. 7:1-3 and 12-15. In 2 Chronicles 7:1-3 "When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. The priests could not enter the temple of the LORD because the glory of the LORD filled it. When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, "He is good; his love endures forever." But there is no such place in the age of grace. This building we are in is not God's temple. This building is not even a church, just the place the church meets. The eternal covenant, God's desire to fellowship with His creation, the walk in the garden, Exodus 25:8, John 1:14, 1 Cor. 1:9. THE CROSS "Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him"John 14:23. Your body is the temple of God. Be careful where it goes. Be careful what it does. Be careful what it ponders. Be careful how it reacts.

 

 

                     This is You, Broken by Drugs and Alcohol, as Jesus is Loving You

The Holy Spirit lives within you. "Who is in you" A person is in you. How can that be? We are not sure. It is a mystery. See how clearly the Bible bears this truth. Jesus makes the promise John 14:15-26 "If you love me, you will obey what I command. ¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever ¹⁷the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you" John 14:15-17. The Book of Acts describes it Acts 2:1-4; 4:31. "After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly"Acts 4:31. The epistles explain it Rom. 8:6-17; Gal. 3:1-5; Eph. 5:18-25. "And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you"Romans 8:11. The result: The Holy Spirit is with you where ever you go and whatever you do.  Every Christian needs to understand that their body is not for them to do as they wish! You may be thinking "You're kidding Right!" No! Not at all. The Bible Says your body belongs to God. Your body as a born again believer has the Holy Spirit indwelling it. Your body has one main purpose from God's perspective, to "Bring Glory to God." That means what ever you do "SHOULD" have God's glory in mind. Perhaps you haven't been hearing this preached from the pulpit. None the less God's word Preaches it to us Quite clearly. His power is available when you need it. The Scriptures are full of references to the Spirit and power. In Judges 14:19 "Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power. In 1 Samuel 10:6 "The Spirit of the LORD will come upon you in power, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person.

 

 

In Micah 3:8 "But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin." Luke 4:14 "Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside." Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Romans 15:13 "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 3:16 "I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being." With the Spirit indwelling you, every word, every thought, and every deed is in His view. The Holy Spirit knows you. He knows your strengths and your weaknesses. He knows your sinful acts and your holy deeds. He knows you better than you do. The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to build you up in the body of Christ to the glory of God. He regenerates John 3:3-5. He indwells Rom. 8:11. He anoints 1 John 2:27. He baptizes Acts 2:17-41. He empowers Micah 3:8. He sanctifies Rom. 15:16. He comfortsJohn 14:16-26. He gives joy Rom. 14:17. He gives discernment 1 Cor. 2:10-16. He bears fruit Gal. 5:22-23. He gives gifts 1 Cor. 12:3-11 the bottom line is this, your body belongs to the Lord, and it is not yours to abuse. This miraculous body, given to us at birth, requires proper rest, nutritious food, good hygiene, and adequate exercise, not only to support our physical health, but also to regulate our vital energies. This sets the best possible bodily stage for spiritual practice. Bodily vigor can translate to an active, energetic approach to the inner life. Furthermore, responsible treatment of our own body forms a crucial part of a responsible attitude toward life as a whole. Responsibility stands as one of the highest spiritual qualities and begins with our own body. To help maximize our spiritual possibilities, we can work to maximize our physical vitality. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.  1 Corinthians 3:16-17  Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple. Leviticus 19:28 You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the Lord. Romans 12:1-2  I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 1 Corinthians 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 9:27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.  1 Corinthians 6:19  Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,  Matthew 6:22  “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 1 John 2:15-17  Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.  Jeremiah 1:5  “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” 1 Timothy 2:9  Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire,  1 Corinthians 15:44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.  Matthew 6:1-34  “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. Matthew 10:28  And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Like everything else in human life, care of the body can suffer many aberrations. Hypochondria, fastidiousness, squeamishness, timidity, vanity, lust, gluttony and laziness suggest the wide range of excessive or obsessive attitudes we can have toward our body. These and others arise from self-centered, egoistic views of life. Given its remarkable resilience, we need not fear using our body, making demands of it. Given the fact of our body, we need to accept it as is, adapting to rather than dwelling on its inevitable shortcomings. The fact of our body also argues against taking the false credit of vanity, or being overly concerned about adorning it. Now you already agreed that you didn't think it was right for someone to trash the house of God (a church). Realize that God does not dwell in a church building, but He DOES dwell in you. How much more zeal we should have to keep anything or anyone from destroying God's temple, namely "YOUR BODY." So don't make yourself sick by abusing God's Temple! A slovenly appearance, though, shows lack of respect for oneself and others. 1 Peter 2:24  He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.  1 Peter 1:13  Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  Matthew 5:29-30 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.  Philippians 1:20  As it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. Ephesians 2:21 In whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 13:3
 

                            For God So Loved The World John 3:16 

If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. Romans 14:8  For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. Psalm 100:3  Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he, who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Genesis 9:5-6  And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. “Whoever sheds the blood of man; by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. Genesis 3:19  By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Romans 12:4  For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, Romans 14:23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. John 2:21  But he was speaking about the temple of his body. Romans 13:1-14  Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain.
 

 

                                                A Dieing Man being Robbed By Drug Addicts

For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. Romans 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?  Ecclesiastes 9:5  For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. 1 Corinthians 12:13  For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 1 Corinthians 11:24  And when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 1 Corinthians 7:4  for the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.  Romans 8:23  And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. Colossians 1:22  He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, Matthew 26:26 Cigarette smoking is no advantage to your body at all. This habit destroys your lungs (in God's temple) causes all kinds of cancer and decreases your life span, thus shorting the time you can serve God on this earth. So every time you light up as a Christian, you're tearing apart God's temple, decreasing your time to serve God and throwing away God's money. Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”  
 

 

                                                             The Last Supper of Jesus

Matthew 6:33  But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Ephesians 2:15  By abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, Galatians 3:23-25  Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, Romans 10:4  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.  Job 1:1-22  there was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. Illness presents an opportunity to reassess our situation, our goals, our choices. Any illness can serve as a small reminder of our inevitable death, and as such, can stimulate consideration of the legacy we are creating, of the kind of person we are, of the life we are living, of appropriate use of our talents and disposition. Illness can also teach us acceptance and patience. Sometimes in illness, the depletion of our energies weakens our egoism and allows our more essential nature to shine through. An acquaintance, in the process of dying from brain cancer, gradually underwent a remarkable transformation and became a source of love for all around. Even lesser, non-fatal illnesses, can open our being and our heart. His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Drugs and Alcohol also destroy God's Temple. If that's not bad enough, they also put you under the influence of worldly things rather than being yielded to God. Read for yourself: Ephesians 5:17, Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18, And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit. Thus Job did continually. 1 Peter 1:18  Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, Romans 6:1-23.

The end result of drug and alcohol abuse

   

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. Matthew 7:7  “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Psalm 139:13-18 for you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 1 Peter 1:19  But with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.  John 3:16-17  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 1 Corinthians 7:3-5  The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. Romans 4:24. As our body ages, slowly, slowly, its powers wane. New aches, pains, limitations and challenges enter our life, tempting us to dwell on the decline rather than on continued living in the wisdom, dignity, and warmth of heart that aging can bring. But for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who rose from the dead Jesus our Lord, Romans 5:1-12:21  Drug and Alcohol use in Christians will lead them to be involved in things that God despises. You'll be throwing God's money away and destroying God's Temple at the same time. There's one more issue to consider! You'll become a stumbling block for a Christian whom Christ died for. To be a stumbling block is to put something in front of a Christian that will cause them to fall down spiritually. They think they can step over the situation or the activity without tripping, but they TRIP Big Time and you tripped them up. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. I Corinthians 8:9, but beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. Revelation 2:14, "But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Romans 14:13, Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Isaiah 1:1-31 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, and they are utterly estranged. Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. Haggai 1:6-9 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.

                                  Drug Abuse Kills the ones we love       

Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much, and behold, it came too little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? Declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. Romans 5:10  For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.   The body offers a fertile arena for inner work. At all ages, instinctive intuition of what our body really needs challenges our perceptions and fixed opinions. Awareness of physical sensations, posture, gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice, movement, breathing, eating, and all our myriad physical activities grounds us in the present moment, reveals truths about ourselves, and provides a necessary platform for deeper spirituality. A proper object for our love and respect, a cared-for body repays us with well-being, energy, and a solid home for building our soul.  Drugs, Alcohol and Cigarettes are CERTAINLY Stumbling Blocks.  Finally, Paul tells us in 1Corinthians 6: 12 & 13, "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body." Your body is not for sale! You cannot do whatever you want with your body as a Christian, because "you are not your own. For you were bought at the most precious and loving price that we could ever imagine, as you were bought by the life, of the perfect Son for the Most Holy on High, You were bought By God Almighty him self, and your ransom has been paid, so I ask you, if you are aware that your body is Gods Temple, that the body you have is on loan from heaven, and was given to you to use By our Holy Creator The Lord God himself, then why would you ever want to destroy it by polluting it with dope and alcohol? ~ Donnie Bolena