Thursday, November 01, 2007

Where Does God Dwell?

If I asked you the question: "where does God live?" you would probably answer "in heaven, silly!" and you'd be right. But I want to point out something you may not have realized from Isaiah:

Isaiah 57:15 "I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite."

Now isn't that cool? Yes, God does live in heaven, a dimension we cannot exist in unless we are like God: holy and pure. But how do we get that way? How are we prepared to enter the dimension of heaven? We get it by being lowly and contrite - repentant for our failures in other words.

You see, our flesh, our human nature, has fooled us into thinking that acting in certain ways is beneficial to us. In reality, anything that is outside of the character of God is evil and destructive. Ever told a lie, even one? If so you have done something evil. We are, in fact, evil by nature.

But as God has revealed Himself to humanity through His Word, the Bible, we begin to realize how far from God's perfect character we are. It is then that our hearts become lowly and contrite, and it is then that God dwells near us, speaking, whispering, urging us to accept His free gift of a way back to God - through the sacrifice of His own Son, Jesus.

Why does God dwell with the lowly? To revive. It suggests bringing back to life. God brings life to us who realize how far away from Him we really are. He brings us back to life and we find that He is closer than we could ever have imagined.

Pastor Tom

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