Feb 23

Jesus referred to himself as the temple of God. That temple was desecrated upon the cross, when evil men did as they pleased to that holy temple of God.

There is coming a final desecration of God's temple in this world. Scripture tells us ahead of time that at the end, the anti-Christ will come into the temple at Jerusalem, set himself up as God, and thus desecrate it. This would be the final culmination of evil's progressive degradation to the lowest point throughout history. As Scripture has declared, towards the end, the bad will get worse, until it reaches that final, worst-of-all climax.

But there is no doubt that the worst desecration of all is not external, in the world that we see outside of ourselves, but internal, within our own souls. There, to our shame, we sometimes see Jesus crucified all over again, when we no longer revere him as Lord so that we can have a moment to ourselves to indulge in sin.This is a grievous sin -- and extremely dangerous to our own soul.

Scripture warns us that the point can be reached where, if we continue to refuse to quit sinning, the point will come when there is finally no possibility to repent.

"It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, . . . if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace" (Heb. 6:4, 6).

The point here is not to argue over the unforgivable sin, but to point out the danger of taking sin too lightly in our own life. May we never crucify Jesus again in our heart but always revere him as Lord and Savior.

Scripture for today: Hebrews 10:25-31
Thought for today: Jesus was crucified for me.
Prayer for today: Jesus, thank you for dying the horrible death on the cross for me. Keep me close to you so that I never cause you to mourn for me straying away from what you won for me by that sacrifice.

FEB 23