NIGERIA BAPTIST CONVENTION SEEK DAILY (NBC) Wednesday, August 9 YOU ARE THE TEMPLE

YOU ARE THE TEMPLE

RBT: Jeremiah 18-21

Memory Verse: “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.” Acts 17:24, NI

Bible Text: Act 17:16-34

17:16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 

17:17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 

17:18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic 

philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 

17:19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 

17:20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” 

17:21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.) 

17:22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 

17:23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you. 

17:24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 

17:25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 

17:26 From one man he made all the 

nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 

17:27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 

17:28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ 

17:29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 

17:30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 

17:31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” 

17:32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 

17:33 At that, Paul left the Council. 

17:34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

The poem below is about Christ living in human temple: 

"However well of Christ You talk and preach, Unless He lives within, He is beyond your reach." – Anonymous 

As Paul waited in Athens for the team to reassemble, he walked around, and observed the people's religiosity. The people have grown accustomed to the way things are, that they no longer see things for what they are. Idols have affected the way they think and live and ultimately deter them in their devotion to God. As a result, Paul confronted them with the truth. In the middle of the amphitheatre, with philosophers watching and listening, Paul declared that the God he spoke of is the Creator of the world and all that is in it. This God neither lives in temples constructed by man nor look like images man can make, but makes the believer His temple. The logic of Paul is inescapable; man can do nothing for the real God, for He has done everything for man. You have the obligation to honour God with your body. 

If the Holy Spirit dwells in you, then you are the temple of God.

Insight: Enthusiasm is required, but knowledge is vital in soul winning.

Prayer: LORD, help me to always present my body to You as a living sacrifice.