Temple Prayer Blog

The Laver, second station in the Temple, was used by the priests of old for ceremonial washing before entering the Holy Place. Today we, through the power of the Holy Spirit, use the Laver like a spiritual bath for daily cleaning of our conscience before we come into His presence. (Acts 24:16) Just as we brush our teeth daily, we clean our minds daily through the practice of repentance. At the Laver we reflect on God’s commandments, see the difference between His standards and our behavior and realize we are no longer condemned, but drawn to repentance, contriteness, and humility. The only way to dwell with God is to have a contrite heart. (Isa 57:15-21) We gain a clear conscience by appropriating God’s forgiveness through genuine confession. (1 John 1:9) We remind ourselves that under the New Covenant the commandments are not there to condemn us, but instead to lead us to repentance and a clear conscience. (Rom 3:20) This daily practice enables us be set free from sinful behavi...

An initial defining moment of humanity... The serpent plants a new thought in Eve's mind. "Did God really say....?" Although Eve had never experienced a cunning liar before, she still pondered that idea, then made a choice based on the birth of her covetous heart. A covetous heart questions the real meaning of what God says, and twists it into permission to go one more step down the road of disobedience. How do we do the same things today? Everytime we question the Word of God. Everytime we are doubleminded about God's standards. Everytime we put on our intellectual hat and investigate looking for ways to undermine biblical authority. Everytime we say. "that doesn't apply to us today." Questioning what God said is nothing more than a method of justifying our rebellion. Satan doesn't have to get us to choose evil directly. To render our faith powerless, all he has to do is get us to question God's Word. If we are doubleminded, Jame...

Jesus Christ is truth. In him there is nothing false.Yet in our own minds, it is often very difficult to sort out truth from fiction. There are three ways that false ideas and statements get in our heads. There are lies from our flesh, lies from the world, and lies from the devil. All three types of lies are enemies of God’s plan for our lives. Lies delude us, distract us, deceive us, and if accepted long enough, lies can even destroy us. A lie from your flesh might be, “Go ahead and do more drugs, it’s no big deal.”You body is craving drugs so that appetite is driving your behavior.A lie from the world might be, “Mankind evolved from monkeys.”We reject God’s truth about how He created people, then we believe any semiplausible explanation. (just as long as God is not involved). A lie from the devil might be, “You are a worthless person.” The devil wants you dead so any negative thought he can get you believing will help Him lure you away from God’s plan for your life. ...

Someone once said that the true measure of our faith is in direct proportion to our trust in the blood of Jesus Christ. When the going gets tough, what do we trust in? If you're like me, you spent most of your Christian life basically taking the cross for granted. We are so oversaturated with the cross, it's like a religious symbol. We are so familiar with it, it tends to lose it's significance. Or should I say, over time we take the cross for granted. At some point it fails to convict us any longer. We forget what Christ actually accomplished on the cross. The temple prayer performs a great maintenance function for us. It reminds us of the cross. We spend time praying through the many benefits of the blood of Jesus Christ. In praying the temple prayer we really begin at the brazen altar which represents the blood sacrifice. Faith in the blood is our title deed to everything. (Heb 11:1) Here we lay hold of all that the blood secured for us. Our level of faith in the...