“This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” - Ephesians 5:32 You will rush to the next sentence so you can finish this book rather than meditate on the miracle that you are a human being who is currently joined to a God “who dwells in unapproachable light” ( 1 Tim. If achievement is your idol, you won’t make time for mystery. Paul referred to it as a profound mystery. “For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.” - Ephesians 5:29-30Įvery believer needs to stare at those verses long enough to be stunned. When was the last time you were awestruck by the fact that you are part of Christ’s body? Have you ever marveled at this privilege? There is no greater honor on earth than to be part of God’s Church. For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words.” - Ecclesiastes 5:1-3 Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Like the high priest entering the Holy of Holies, we are to treat prayer as sacred. While others rush into prayer with opinions and demands, we cautiously approach His throne in reverence. Instead, we pray, “Hallowed be your name” ( Matt. We don’t carelessly question His actions or inaction. While others quickly judge God’s actions and question His commands, we are to be careful even to speak His name. Others may treat these things as common, but we cannot. Productivity is no sin, but when it comes to the sacred, God commands us to proceed with caution. So we frantically follow the pattern of the world and ignore the fact that God calls us to act differently. If we don’t rush, we will be passed up and miss out. We live in a world where people carelessly rush into things. Let’s thank God for His mercy and tread more carefully into sacred matters. We have all done things more irreverent than those mentioned above.

We shouldn’t be surprised we should be humbled. In all the above situations, people rushed into something sacred and paid the price. His ark of the covenant, His command to Moses, His oﬀerings in the temple, His Holy Spirit, His Holy Communion, His sacred Church. The stories in Scripture are meant to show us that there exists something of greater value than our existence and rights. Even in the Church we can act as though God’s actions should revolve around us. Yet we give little thought to the rights God deserves as God. We are quick to say things like “That isn’t fair!” because we believe we deserve certain rights as humans. We don’t understand what it means for something to be “sacred.” We live in a human-centered world among people who see themselves as the highest authority. To us, many situations in Scripture involve a punishment that was too severe for the crime. If Paul wasn’t exaggerating, could we be one sip away from death? To top it off, Paul told the Corinthians that many of them were sick and some had even died because they celebrated Communion in an unworthy manner ( 1 Cor. And this is in the New Testament! Really, who hasn’t exaggerated? They were both struck dead because they lied about how much money they donated to the church ( Acts 5). 20)? After everything Moses went through, was it such a big crime to be frustrated with the people and strike the rock in anger? Or what about Moses, who didn’t get to see the Promised Land because he struck the rock rather than speaking to it ( Num. To me, it seems noble that Saul offered the sacrifice because he didn’t want to go to war without first acknowledging God. 13)? After all, he waited seven days for Samuel the priest to come and make the offering, but he didn’t show up when he said he would. Isn’t it a little puzzling that King Saul’s sacrifice cost him the kingdom ( 1 Sam. Sure, God had forbidden anyone from touching the ark, but what was Uzzah supposed to do? Let the holy ark of God fall to the ground? It seemed like a trivial mistake with good intentions. Uzzah touched the ark because the cart it was riding on hit a pothole ( 2 Sam. I was bothered the first time I read about God killing Uzzah just because he tried to keep the ark of the covenant from falling.

Seven spirits of god jw.org