Etreme Home Makeover - Daily Devotional August 11th 2009

Daily Bible Reading Plan - 1 Kings 6, Jeremiah 32, Mark 6

Extreme Home Makeover

I love watching Extreme Home Makeover on TV Sunday nights. It is one of our favorite things to do. There is just something so awesome about seeing someone get a new start and a new chance. The demolition and power tools are pretty cool as well! The neat thing about this show is that they don't just come in and build some cookie cutter house but they come in and do the Extreme Makeover. When finished this house is a site to behold and one that we all say WOW about.

In our passages that we read today I see the original Extreme Makeover expert (God) doing a WOW in people's lives and in His people. In 1 Kings 6 we see that Solomon is building a temple for God to dwell in. This is not an ordinary temple but as you read you see that this is a glorious, magnificent and very particular temple. Everything was done with care and precision. 1 Kings 6:11-12 are of special interest for us today as you see the real heart of God as it reads, "The word of the LORD came to Solomon: "As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, carry out my regulations and keep all my commands and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promise I gave to David your father...". In other words God is saying, look this temple, it is great and it is beautiful and I appreciate what you are doing but if you just obey and live right I am going to bless you. God cares about what is taking place on the inside for it says in Acts 17:24b, God "does not dwell in temples made by man". Where does he dwell? He dwells in you and Me.

The fact that God dwells inside of us is essential for us to understand because then we realize that the Extreme Home Makeover God wants to do is in your life and my life. He wants to take the wreck we may be in or the sin we may have and remove it from our lives and have a beautiful house to dwell in. We see this principle again in Jeremiah 32:36-41 as God takes back the children of Israel to be His own and rebuilds their land and an everlasting covenant with them. And lastly today we see how much God really cares about people and what is taking place on the inside in Mark 6. In this chapter in vs. 7 Jesus gives the disciples authority over unclean spirits and to cast them out of peoples lives. In vs. 13 we see the disciples taking this authority they were given and casting out the evil spirits and doing an Extreme Home Makeover on people so that God has a place to dwell.

It is not about how fancy our churches are or how powerful our services can be. It is not about our great Sunday morning worship gatherings or how many volunteers we can recruit. It is not about our programs and our weekly attendance. It is about living a holy life and being a clean vessel so that God has a place to dwell. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 2:20-21, "Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.".

How about you? How is your life today? Are you spending more time on how you look on the outside, on what people see. Or are you allowing God on the inside and letting Him do an Extreme Home Makeover so that when someone sees you they say, "WOW" because after all, He wants to dwell in you.

Thanks For listening. We would love to hear from you.

Tomorrows Bible Reading - 1 Kings 7, Jeremiah 33, Mark 7

Dream Big
Ben