The Tabernacle

VERSE:                          Psalm 15:1‑2

    Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle?  Who may dwell in Your holy hill?  He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart.

REFLECTION:

     Can you abide in the Lord's tabernacle, or dwell in His holy hill? Perhaps you are wondering what the requirements are.  This verse gives us some guidelines to follow so that we may truly abide in God's

tabernacle. A tabernacle is a temporary sanctuary such as a tent, and was used if there was no temple available.  The Israelites used one in the wilderness up until the time that Solomon had the temple built.

    Let's examine the three requirements for dwelling in the tabernacle:

    Walk uprightly ‑  Walk with pride in Christ, don't slouch over. Don't be proud of your own self, but boast of Jesus.  Stand firm on your moral beliefs.  Let others know by the way that you live that you will

stand by the precepts set forth in God's word.  Try not to stumble and hold on to the promises that God has given you.

    Work righteousness ‑ We are saved by grace alone but it is by our works that others will know that we love God.  Our works need to be done not with the motivation of getting to heaven but because of our undying love for Jesus.  That is what righteousness is all about. When we work, it should be done with righteousness in mind.

    Speak the truth in your heart ‑ Truth is not always what we say but how we feel when we make our statement.  What really is truth?  In this age of moral relativism, truth is perceived as being what seems right to you.  We need to focus on the truth of God.  What does His word tell us?  Truth is following His precepts and knowing in your heart that it is absolute truth.  For example, you drive your car and follow the speed

limits but in your heart you disagree with the speed limits.  You are only following them so you don't get a ticket not because you believe them.  We may follow God's laws because we think if we don't, we will go

to hell.  This is not speaking the truth in our hearts. We need to follow God's precepts because we love Him and know the truth!

    Tomorrow we will look at some more aspects about the tabernacle.

PRAYER:

    Pray for the truth to dwell in your heart.  Pray for righteousness to abound in your life and pray that you will walk upright and just.

Dwell in His Tabernacle

VERSE:     Psalm 15:1-2

Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle?  Who may dwell in Your holy hill?  He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart.

REFLECTION:

            Can you abide in God’s tabernacle?  Can you dwell in His holy hill?  There are many people today who profess to be Christian yet do not possess the correct credentials to abide in God’s tabernacle.  There are what might be construed as Sunday Christians.  Those are the people who put on a good front when at church but the moment church is over they continue in their sinful ways.  It is true that we enter the kingdom of God not by works but by God’s saving grace.  And it is only by our repentance of our sins and putting our trust in Jesus that this is established.  However once we put our trust in God we will want to do all we can to show that we deserve to abide with Him.  If we say we are a Christian but our life doesn’t bear that out that confession may be false.  We need to examine our heart and our true intent of our actions to really know whether we can dwell in God’s holy hill.  Let’s take a look at what needs to be done. 

Verse 2 tells us that we must do three things: Walk uprightly, Works righteousness and speak the truth in our heart.

• Walk Uprightly - Walking uprightly means that we will want to obey God’s laws.  Not out of compulsion but out of desire to please God.  Essentially it means to live by God’s word to the best of your ability and let others see the witness of Christ through that.
• Works Righteousness - Do you do righteous things?  We need to find a way to further God’s kingdom.  We are not here to fulfill our own pleasure but instead we are here to please God by telling others about Christ.  We should do works that are righteous, essentially, plug into a ministry at your church or elsewhere.
• Speak the truth in your Heart - Is what you say really what you mean?  God knows the intent of our heart so if we speak the truth but don’t mean it, He knows.  Likewise the bible is the truth and we must not only speak it audibly but we must cherish it within our heart.  The truth of Christ must come from every fiber of your being. 

With those three points examine yourself and ask yourself can you abide in God’s tabernacle?

PRAYER:

Pray that you can walk upright.  Pray that you can find righteous works to do in your church.  Pray that the truth is always in your heart.  Pray for opportunities to tell others about Jesus.