Sunday, April 18, 2010

The Importance of Entering the Temple of the Lord

I am always amazed how much I learn every time I enter the House of the Lord.

I am away from my church home but I make it a point to visit a church where I am currently living. The benefits of going to church are greater than I can express but let me try to share with you what I recently learned. The sermon I heard was on the importance of attending church. Oddly, I had missed a couple of Sundays and this sermon is what I needed to hear on that day.

One of the reasons many people do not attend church is that they are too hurried. They don't have time to attend church service; it is not important to fellowship with other Christians. Maybe they are not Christians; maybe they have a different belief. At any rate, they are just too busy doing their own thing.

The Pastor of the church I attended preached from the book of Isaiah.

The book of Isaiah, Chapters 36 and 37 tells the story about the Assyrian king threatening the Jewish king. King Hezekiah is now the reigning king of Judah and Jerusalem. The Assyrian King is threatening to cut off the water supply in Judah and Jerusalem and he is telling King Hezekiah to just turn over the city and country to him. King Hezekiah is one of the few good kings that has been reigning over a portion of Israel, Judah and Jerusalem. The kingdom of Israel is split between two kings at this point in the history of the Jewish people. The leadership of Judah is being threatened; King Hezekiah has been humiliated before his own people; he has been insulted by this foreign king; the Jewish people are frightened because of the threats made towards their King. The Lord told King Hezekiah through the prophet Isaiah not to be afraid of the threats of the Assyrian King.

In Chapter 37, verse 1 it says: "when King Hezekiah heard this (the report from his officers), he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord."

When you are at the end of your wits and you can't find a solution to your problem or problems, you had better go into the temple of the Lord! Why is that?

1) You need to dwell in the God's presence. You need a time out to get your thoughts together.

2) You need to be lifted out of your situation into the presence of God.

3) You need to get a different perspective of yourself and your problem. God can
fix your life.

4) You need a dose of supernatural power. Power that man does not possess. God
can open doors.

You don't have to tear off your clothes and put on sackcloth like King Hezekiah did, as this was a custom that the Jewish people did to demonstrate their grief over a situation or a predicament, but you need to reverence your God in a time of trouble! All you need to do is enter the temple of the Lord and be in the presence of the Lord.

King Hezekiah knew from whom his strength came and he knew that God was on his side. The Word of God assures all believers that God will never leave or forsake them.

Chapter 37:36 says, "then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!" Now, how awesome is that?

God would defend Jerusalem for the sake of His honor. Assyria had not only insulted King Hezekiah but had also insulted God. What Jerusalem could not possibly do, God would do for them. God is prepared to do the impossible if we trust Him enough to ask.

Thought for Today: God can do the impossible; we need a fresh perspective and we need to enter the temple of the living God.

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