Temple Prayer Blog

My kids used to ask me, "Dad, why do you pray so many bible verses outloud?" It seems many people who consider praying the Word at some point wonder why they should do it. On one hand it seems kind of foolish, praying the words God wrote back to Him. Are we so dull that we cannot come up with meaningful prayers ourselves? I told my kids at the time that when you pray alot you run out of your own words and since I want God's promises to come alive in our family I declare them outloud. The Bible is full of people praying that way, quoting other Scriptures. By watching me they are learning how to pray the Word as well. The other day I felt like the Lord let me in on a even better reason why praying the Word is so important. The revelation came through my son D.J. He's two years old now and learning to talk up a storm. How does he learn to talk? The same way we all did, by making the same sounds his dad and mom make. He learns to speak to us by saying the things ...

My theory is that prayer is the activity but worship is what we are doing. Basically God instructed Moses to build the first portable Tabernacle in the wilderness so he could dwell with his people. Today we are a 2.0 version of that tabernacle in the wilderness. We are portable temples that God dwells in, and we are to conduct our lives accordingly. This Temple pattern of worship is throughout the Scriptures from Moses, to David, Solomon, the Kings, Prophets, Herod's Temple, Jesus saying "tear down this temple (him)", to Paul telling us we are temples of the Holy Spirit, to a look at the real temple in heaven in Revelation, Ezekiel, and other passages. So the Temple is really THE PATTERN for worshipping (drawing near to God). I don't see any other one. But wait a minute, what about Jesus Christ? Jesus is the mediator of the new way to worship God the Father. He is our Savior (Brazen Altar), our Lord (laver), the Spirit & the Light (Candlestick), the Word ...