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- Written by: Don Goulding
Then Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up his spirit. Just then the temple curtain was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks were split apart. (Matthew 27:50-51)
Hot tears streamed to their chins as Adam and Eve stumbled out of the garden. An invisible barrier forced them away from the fullness of their Creator.
In the time of Moses, the barrier between God and humans manifested into the curtain before the ark. The message was clear—God’s holiness must be separated from man’s sinfulness.
Fourteen hundred years further into history, we came to a crossroads of epochs, and God revealed his wild plan.
At three o’clock on the darkest Friday, a rumble began deep inside the earth. It raced to the surface and, at the point of our Messiah’s last breath, the seismic phenomenon exploded into a reimagined supernatural landscape. As the dust settled, angels were the first to realize what happened.
The physical curtain in the temple, and the spiritual curtain between God and humans, were rent in two. God had taken the topmost hems in hand and shredded the barriers down to the soil line. The new message was even louder than the last. God’s Spirit relocated from the temple’s most holy place into the hearts of his children.
How blessed we are to live on this side of the timeline, after the curtain was torn. With a prayer, I can bring a universe of goodness inside me. I should be shocked that God can now dwell in me. And it would be so if only I wouldn’t take my privilege for granted.
Prayer: Everlasting Life, thank you for destroying the curtain.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
Now without faith it is impossible to please him, for the one who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)
Dear Brittany,
It’s good you question God’s existence. Faith should be the result of an informed choice. So it’s okay to wrestle our doubt monsters. Let me tell you about a few of mine.
One beast whispers that I’m foolish to disagree with the majority. Most people, he says, know how pointless it is to ask questions about origin and purpose. But I can’t stop thinking about where we came from. The beast mutters scientific theories but he never has an answer for where matter first came from.
Another monster leans into my face, “How could a God of love allow so much suffering?”
I pinch my nose against his breath, and point into the Bible. It says Satan, not God, introduced pain into the world. The Bible changes the question from, where is God when there is suffering? to, where are humans when God offers a solution? That brut goes limp too.
A third monster reminds me that believing in God will mean accountability. He thumps my chest and says I’d better drop the God stuff so I can do what I want.
I reply, “And pretending to hide from accountability is the dumbest kind of stupid.”
Brittany, I know the monsters are powerful. Please don’t give in to them because the new earth will not be the same without your precious smile.
Prayer: Savior God, I pray for more faith for Brittany, for myself, and for all the doubters.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty pieces of silver. Then David built an altar for the Lord there and offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings. And the Lord accepted prayers for the land, and the plague was removed from Israel. (2 Samuel 24:24-25)
David lost sight of the fact that God was the source of his military victories. Against the counsel of his advisors, he sent a general to count his fighting men. The result was a plague that killed seventy thousand Israelites.
Grieving over the losses he had caused to his own people, King David went for a prayer-walk. He came to the threshing floor on Mount Moriah. Instead of wheat, it was David’s heart that would be threshed, pummeled, and crushed. He saw the angel of death with a sword raised over Israel. David’s response defined the rest of his life.
The king put on sackcloth, threw himself on his face, and pled for God’s mercy. He bought the threshing floor and sacrificed burnt offerings on the spot. Only a supernatural removal of his heinous guilt could save him and his people.
Seventeen years later, David bequeathed the land where his heart was threshed as the site for the first temple.
Like David, I’ve made epic mistakes in my lifetime. We’ve both been threshed by our own guilt. Can God do for me what he did for David? Can he transform my threshing floor into a temple of praise? The answer depends on my response. If I also repent in anguish and place my shame on the Lamb of God, then yes, I can still see a temple rise where my betrayal once stood.
Prayer: Merciful God, transform my worst sins into praise for your best grace.