Day 327, 24th July: Ezekiel, 1 Peter and Psalms

Counter Cultural
By Paul Howard, Soul Survivor:Called to Lead

Todays Readings Are:
Ezekiel 43:1-44:31
1 Peter 2:4-25
Psalm 132:1-18

Has anyone ever said to you “don’t do that? Your body is a temple!” Today’s passages talk about temples left right and centre. In the Old Testament passage, Ezekiel prophesies the glory returning to the temple, and God being restored to his rightful place at the heart of it. In contrast, today’s New Testament passage talks of us as Christian, being a holy priesthood. Effectively he is saying this is now where the spirit of God dwells; we have replaced the temple of the Old Testament. In Ezekiel 43 there are 8 verses of sacrifices and things that must be done before we can attain access to God and His power. But today, because of the cross and the suffering Peter describes in verses 21-24, Jesus paid the price for all the sacrifices we will ever need to make. His death gives us free access to Gods power!

Ezekiel describes God’s voice like ‘the roar of rushing waters’ and Ezekiel falls face down on the ground twice in the OT passages when Gods glory is revealed to him. All these things give the impression of the power of God’s spirit, now think for a minute; that power lives in you. The power that used to dwell in one place, in one city, now lives inside millions of believers worldwide. In the OT, meticulous instructions are given to the size of the alter within the temple, down to every last cubit and handbreadth (!) Now once again think of you as the temple. God knows how tall, short, fat, thin you are and ever will be. Peter says we are a “chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God”; before we chose god he had long chosen us, we ‘belonged’ to God.

Today wouldn’t be complete without a hefty challenge, at the end of today’s NT passage Peter calls us to a counter cultural approach to life. He calls us to show respect to those who respect us but also to love and respect those who don’t. He says “if you suffer for doing good, it is commendable before God.” Ezekiel tell us in 43:6 that he heard a voice from inside the temple, what is the voice inside your temple calling you to suffer for? Remember today that once Jesus ‘himself bore our sins in His body on a tree.’ What little part of us can we let die so we can serve Him this day?

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Today’s picture was taken by…
Josh Sutton, surfing in Cornwall. Thanks Josh!

If you’d like to take your own picture to potentially be featured on the blog, then get your Soul Survivor Bible in One Year, and take a picture of yourself – and your Bible – at some interesting or colourful location. Then email it to us at editor@soulsurvivor.com.

The pictures will need to be a pretty good resolution (we use 640px by 360 px so at least as big as that), landscape photos work best and if you include the day of the reading in the picture then make sure you send it to us a good few days before that reading, so we have time to include it in that day’s post! We’ll credit all photographers!