I hope you're having a wonderful Father's Day! The word for this week is "temple". There are two different Greek words translated "temple" in the New Testament. One of them is found in Matthew 21:12-13 and John 7:14-15:
12 And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, 13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. KJV
14 Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught. 15 And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? KJV
44 And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. 45 And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. KJV
This is the Greek word "naos". Thayer's Greek Lexicon says: used of the temple at Jerusalem, but only of the sacred edifice (or sanctuary) itself, consisting of the Holy place and the Holy of holies. The thing I like the very best about this word study is that this is the same word used in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 and 2 Corinthians 6:16:
19 Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You are not your own, 20 You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for, made His own]. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body. AMP
16 What agreement [can there be between] a temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in and with and among them and will walk in and with and among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. AMP
WE are the new Holy of holies! The Spirit of God lives IN us and there is no need to travel somewhere to get into His presence! He is ever present inside of us! Now the responsibility that goes along with this is that WE are the priests of our temple! WE must lead the worship, prayer and study in our own temples! This place referred to in Hebrews 4:16 is IN us!
16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. KJV
16 Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God's unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it]. AMP
So keep running to the temple, the Holy place, the secret place, the place of His presence to find the help you need, the answers to your questions, the solutions to any and every problem, or just to simply spend time getting to know, and love, HIM! I was going to use the song "Run" by Hillsong, but since I just used that one a few weeks ago, I decided to go with this one by Hillsong called "Father of Creation":
Love and Shalom from the Swoveys!
