My Vision of the True Temple- Lent 36, 2020

Prayer Focus: No building is the temple or the church

Lord Most High, we praise You that You do not live in houses made by human hands. No temple can contain You. Heaven is Your throne, and the earth is Your footstool. Therefore during these times when we’re separated from gathering in worship, especially on these most holy days of our church calendar, remind us that the ones You look on with favor are those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at Your word, something we can do no matter where we are. Thank You that we don’t need to pilgrimage farther than Your holy word and shout louder than a heart’s prayer. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for that encouragement and for the knowledge You will extend peace like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream; that as a mother comforts her child, so You, Lord, will comfort us. Our hearts rejoice that we will flourish like grass; the hand of the LORD will be made known to Your servants, but Your fury–Your righteous wrath–will be shown to Your foes. Scripture tells us “See, the LORD is coming with fire, and His chariots are like a whirlwind; He will bring down His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For with fire and with His sword the LORD will execute judgment on all people.” We have sinned as a nation and as individuals. The righteous blood of innocents has cried out to You for vindication and vengeance. May the nations repent so when they are gathered in Judgment, they will see Your glory and rejoice instead of trembling as dead men. May Your word go forth as You set a sign among us, sending some of those who survive to the nations and to the distant islands that have not heard of Your fame or seen Your glory. Then we will proclaim together Your glory among the nations whether in our individual homes, over social media, or by gathering together again in a church or temple building, if it be Your will. May our witness cause all Your people, from all the nations, to come to Your holy mountain in worship as a beautiful offering to the LORD. All glory to You, Father! Amen. (Adapted from Isaiah 66:1-20)

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If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the 2020 Lent Devotionals automatically. Or you can “Like” Seminary Gal on Facebook and they’ll be delivered to your Facebook news feed. If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so. Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings. You don’t want to miss this encounter with God to prepare your heart for Easter! Understanding that prior years’ devotionals remain popular, you may want to have access to a full series ahead of time:

Lent 2013 looked at The Letter to the Romans: Paul’s Masterpiece to reclaim foundations of our Christian heritage and began February 13, 2013.
A very special and ever popular offering was Lent 2014’s Be Still and Know that I AM God which can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014.
Lent 2015 began on February 18, 2015 with a series entitled With Christ in the Upper Room: Final Preparations. We explored what is often called “The Upper Room Discourse” found in John chapters 13-17.
ReKindle, the Lent 2016 series, began on February 10, 2016 and encouraged us to rekindle our spiritual lives.
Light: There’s Nothing Like It was the 2017 Lent series and explored this metaphor often used to portray Christ. It is archived beginning March 1, 2017.
Lent 2018, we explored the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We asked and answered the questions “Why?” from the movie Life of Pi as we discovered the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a world of many faiths.
Lent 2019 gave us a deeper window into Easter “More to the Easter Story” since we miss so much when we rely only on a superficial understanding of the work of Christ. These devotionals are archived beginning March 6, 2019.