Yesterday I mentioned that your place in the world informs your mission in life. By surveying where you physically live, work, shop, recreate, and worship, you gather invaluable details about God’s will for your life. Not only does your place inform you concerning God’s will, it also becomes the holy ground of God’s good work in your life.
The apostle Paul said it this way: “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God?” (1 Corinthians 6:19, NLT) In other words, your physical body is where heaven and earth meet. As children we grew up talking about the church building being “God’s house.” But scripturally, God’s house is your body; the place where heaven and earth continually meet. That means your life is lived in that dynamic tension…
The tension between now and not yet;
The tension between here and there;
The tension between time and eternity;
The tension between material and spiritual; and
The tension between pilgrim and citizen.
Each week in worship we pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” So where does that begin? I don’t think it begins as some form of external, definable event. I think it begins in you and me, right where we are. Understanding that your body is the great house of God allows us to see that where we are is the holy ground of God’s good work in our lives. Tomorrow I’ll finish this week’s thread up by talking a bit about the purpose behind all of this.