{"id":2190,"date":"2014-09-23T03:30:30","date_gmt":"2014-09-23T08:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicbookblogger\/?p=2190"},"modified":"2014-09-15T19:34:55","modified_gmt":"2014-09-16T00:34:55","slug":"church-fathers-day-sixty-four-barnabas-says-find-the-temple-in-your-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicbookblogger\/2014\/09\/23\/church-fathers-day-sixty-four-barnabas-says-find-the-temple-in-your-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Church Fathers, Day Sixty-Four: Barnabas says find the temple in your heart"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"barnabas_1\"<\/a>Find the temple in your heart <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

When the Epistle of Barnabas was written, the Temple in Jerusalem\u2014the center of the worship of God for a thousand years\u2014had been destroyed, never to be rebuilt. But there is still a temple of God, says Barnabas. <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Is there still a temple of God? There is\u2014where he himself declared he would make and complete it. <\/span><\/p>\n

Learn, then, how it will be built in the name of the Lord. Before we believed in God, the dwelling of our heart was corrupt and weak, just like a temple made with hands. It was full of idolatry and was a dwelling for demons, because we did what was opposed to God. <\/span><\/p>\n

But now it will be built in the name of the Lord, so that the temple of the Lord may be built in glory. How? Learn: since we have received the forgiveness of sins, and put our trust in the name of the Lord, we have become new creatures, remade from the beginning. So now the dwelling of God is really inside us. How? His word of faith; his calling of promise; the wisdom of the laws; the commands of the teaching; God himself prophesying in us, dwelling in us, opening to us who were slaves to death the doors of the temple\u2014that is, the mouth. By giving us repentance he brought us into the incorruptible temple. <\/span><\/p>\n

This is the spiritual temple built for the Lord. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013Epistle of Barnabas, <\/i><\/span>16 <\/span><\/p>\n

IN GOD\u2019S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . . <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Have I made my heart a suitable dwelling place for God? Or do I have a bit of cleaning up to do? <\/span><\/p>\n

CLOSING PRAYER <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Father, cleanse my heart from every kind of pollution. Drive all unholy thoughts away from me, and sanctify my soul and my mind.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

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