Walking Talking Temples

In the Old Testament the nation of Israel was given a temple as a focal point for their contact with God. From the first portable temple in their exodus experience, to the more ornate stone buildings established in Jerusalem, through to temple/mountain imagery that repeatedly occurs in the Bible, this was to be a place where people could come and meet with God.

Psalmists and prophets would hit on this imagery, revealing the mission perspective of the temple/mountain as the place to which many nations would come to meet God for themselves (e.g. Isaiah 2:2-3 for just one of numerous references).

Jesus replaced the physical stones and fixed location, and brought in a new age - the age of individuals inhabited by the Holy Spirit, the very presence of God. Paul in his Corinthian correspondence picks this up, describing believers as temples of the Holy Spirit. The temple is now plural - it now walks and talks!

That means that many people in multiple places can come into contact with God, experiencing his mercy and restoration ... by coming into contact with Spirit filled believers.

Over the past two weeks I have had the privilege of meeting several pioneering believers who have been led by the Spirit to set up projects among some of the worlds poorest and most disadvantaged people in one particular country. Their work is fantastic, but more important I think is what happens through their very lives as they work out their calling. The point is that they are walking talking temples: many people are able to come and meet with God through their lives.