Then Solomon said,
“The Lord has said that He would dwell in the thick cloud.
2 “I have built You a lofty house,
And a place for Your dwelling forever.”
2 “I have built You a lofty house,
And a place for Your dwelling forever.”
3 Then the king [a]faced about and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel was standing. 4 He said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who spoke with His mouth to my father David and has fulfilled it with His hands, saying...."
The Shekinah Glory
7:1 Now when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house. 2 The priests could not enter into the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house. 3 All the sons of Israel, seeing the fire come down and the glory of the Lordupon the house, bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave praise to the Lord,saying, “Truly He is good, truly His lovingkindness is everlasting.”
Holy, is the Lord God Almighty that he would leave his place in heaven and become a man, suffer, die, rise again, ascend, and send his Spirit to dwell in us!
Guys, I know I just wrote but we did my favorite thing today and I have to tell you about it!
This morning we started out for the Temple Mount, but it was closed when we got there so we ended up learning about the "Western Wall" and going to that. My Prof doesn't want us to call it the wailing wall, because WE aren't suppose to be wailing about anything. I think its ok to say what I am about to though. Just to get into the wailing wall, one must go through a metal detector and have their bag rummaged through. When I was walking up, my first thought was, "Is that really it?" In my head, the western wall shined and shimmered with God's glory, and it held a sort of awe. But in the wise words of my professor, "Its just blocks stacked up to make a wall that was a retaining wall for the temple, many many years ago, we don't worship it." So true, but still.
As we stood in front of the wailing wall and heard the chapters above, chills ran up and down my spine, and tears filled my eyes, not because I was mourning the loss of this place, but because I mourned for those who stood here and had no idea about the "big picture." I was sad for the people who worked here and lived here in this once holy spot, and did not even remotely know the sweet merciful God, that had once dwelt here!
In FIRE! He came to this place in FIRE! Can you even begin to imagine the awe and fear that one would feel, standing there? My knees would have hit the ground so fast, surgery wouldn't have healed it. The king of Kings showed a tiny peice of his power and allowed HIS PRESENCE to DWELL here! Can you imagine?!
Anyways you can understand my awe as I stepped up to the wailing wall (above). Lord! Your OWN people don't even know! Oh GOD! Bring them to you! Deliver your people! As a space cleared and stepped closer and placed a shaking hand on the wall. PEACE. His timing is perfect. He knows who will call on His name, HE knows. And yet He still loves.
We got to put a prayer on a piece of paper in the wall. What did mine say?
"Hear O Israel the Lord our God the Lord is One. Take my life Lord and let it be consecrated to You. Lord, Deliver your people! Intervene and save your people! Take me for whatever I may be worth and help me reach your people! Love, Maribeth"
There is NOTHING like standing before that wall and thinking of my God is so vast a way....It was very precious and I wished to have stood there for the whole day. But alas, I had to move on.
To the Dome of the Rock. Here I didn't know what to expect, until I went through security. Outside the little mobile home which held the security scanners, lay BIBLES. A few of us were puzzled as to why, but I instantly got it..NO BIBLES ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT. Can you imagine? What would Solomon say? The Holy writ thrown out of a building as people attempted to enter the temple mount. I was immediately overwhelmed. This is the place where God dwelt, this is OUR place, OUR history. But no, the Muslims have taken over. there was a small corner of the larger mount where there were pillars left over from the 2nd temple era, and i felt that this was the only thing left to Jesus followers! How humbling, it is hard to believe that God's presence EVER dwelt here. a mosque and the Dome of the Rock, nothing Christian there. how sad to imagine it!
Well thats about all I got. People in our group got their Bibles back, it was still sad. thanks for listening to my vent, I guess it just really disturbed my spirit, idk. See you guys later!
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