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Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who
is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
Jer.1:5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and
before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a
prophet to the nations.
Isa.49:5 And now says the LORD, who formed me from the womb
to be His Servant, to bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel
might be gathered to Him (for I am honored in the sight of the
LORD, and My God is My strength),
Isa.46:3 Listen to me, O house of Jacob, and all the
remnant of the house of Israel, you who have been borne by me from
birth and have been carried from the womb;
Isa.44:2 Thus says the LORD who made you and formed you
from the womb, who will help you, "Do not fear, O Jacob My
servant; and you Jeshurun whom I have chosen.
Eccl.11:5 Just as you do not know the path of the wind and
how bones (are formed) in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you
do not know the activity of God who makes all things.
Ps.139:13 For you formed my inward parts; you wove me in my
mother's womb.
Ps.22:9 Yet you are He who brought me forth from the womb;
you made me trust {when} upon my mother's breasts.
Job.31:15 Did not He who made me in the womb make him, and
the same one fashion us in the womb?
Your body is the temple of the living God, a temple not
made with hands, not mortally conceived, but eternal in the
heavens, that is, eternal in time and space; eternal in life;
eternal in spirit, in soul, and in substance. God made all that
was made, and all that God made was of God, partaking of the very
nature of God who is eternal, immortal, and absolute perfection.
God made a body in His own image and likeness.
God is life
The activity of God, operating in a seed, brings forth a child
with all the potential of adulthood embodied in one tiny little
form - not merely a child of flesh and blood, but an intelligence
and a soul accompanying that little body.
The Spirit of God does this, but in our vanity, we think that we
have created life ourselves. Men and women have assumed that
because they are fathers and mothers that they are the originators
of this little bundle of joy, instead of knowing that they are
merely instruments through which God acts to express Himself - not
to perpetuate you or me, or my children or your children.
God operates as love in our inner being to produce His own image
and likeness. This expression of God we have called your child and
mine, forgetting that this is God's child, and not a personal
creation or a personal possession. We pray to God to maintain and
sustain His own children. It is God's prerogative to create,
maintain and sustain His own image and likeness.
God is the creator of all that is. God, then, is the creator of
man's body. "...do you not know that your body is a temple of
the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that
you are not your own?" We call this body, your body and my
body, but it is not ours. It is God's body, formed by Him for His
pleasure, made in His image and likeness, governed by His law, and
created to show forth His glory.
We look at the neon lights in the city, there are lights of all
colors. Red, green, purple, yellow, pink, blue. Electricity
transmits its light through these multicolored tubes of all shapes
and sizes. The tubes, themselves, are not the source of the light,
they are merely the instruments through which the light shines. So
it is that when we see human, animal, or plant life, we mistake
their visible form for the life which animates and is the
substance of that form. God is the life and the substance of all
form, the creative principle of all that is. God is the activity
governing the functions and organs of the body. It is God
who animates all men and woman. God is the wisdom, the integrity,
and the purity of the Soul of man. God is the strength of man.
Let us not be deceived by appearances, not even by good
appearances. Let us not call one person strong and another one
beautiful. We must look behind the appearance to the invisible
Life which makes all this beauty of form possible. Then we can
enjoy every aspect of creation, every appearance, whether it is
the human body, an animal species, or a plant. These are forms of
life, but if we do not understand the life which vitalizes these
forms, then they may appear to us as either good or bad, young or
old, sick or well, rich or poor. A limited sense of life relies on
shifting values and invests the forms life assumes with power for
good or evil; a spiritual sense of life, however, enjoys the form
while recognizing the Christ who is the very essence that form.
If we take our eyes away from the form long enough to look behind
it into the face of Christ we will see God as the principle of all
life, we shall understand the difference between ,material living
and spiritual living. The truth entertained in our inner man is
the law of life, of harmony, and of resurrection unto our body.
John 11:25-26 Jesus said to her, "I am the
resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if
he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.
Do you believe this?"
Rom.8:5-6 For those who are according to the flesh set
their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are
according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind
set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life
and peace,
2Cor.5:16-21 Therefore from now on we recognize no one
according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according
to the flesh, yet now we know (Him) (in this way) no longer.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, (he is) a new creature; the old
things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all (these)
things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ
and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was
in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their
trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of
reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as
though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf
of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin (to
be) sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness
of God in Him.
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