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by Staci Stallings

In the first part of “In the Temple,” we looked at how Mary and Joseph lost Jesus after the Passover Feast, and it took them three days to find Him.  When they did, they found Him in the Temple, listening, asking, and even doing a little teaching.  Mary was angry and said, “How could you do this to us?” To which Jesus said, “Did you not know I would be in My Father’s House?”

The second thing that blew me away when I heard this story recently was this… where did they find Jesus?  “In the Temple,” right?

Well, that doesn’t just mean in some building in Jerusalem.  Here let me show you a few verses and see if you get what I got:

“If you love me, you will obey what I command.  ¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever — ¹⁷the Spirit of truth.  The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:15-17).

“And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you” (Romans 8:11).

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being.” (Ephesians 3:16)

Did you get that?

The Temple now is not some building in Jerusalem.  The Temple… is YOU!

Because of the sacrifice of Jesus and because He sent His Spirit to live in you, God’s home on earth has become your heart.  Any Christian, Child of God, is now the Temple on earth.

So what does that mean with regards to this Scripture?  Think about it.  Mary and Joseph went back and Jesus tells them, “Hey, where else would I be?  My place is in My Father’s house, the Temple” (i.e. your heart!)

But here’s something even cooler.

Notice what Jesus was doing in the Temple (and what He continued to do in the Temple throughout His ministry).  He was listening and answering questions and teaching.

That’s what He does inside each and every one of us.

He listens.

Do you think no one understands or cares?  Jesus does, and He’s right there in your heart, ready to listen.

He answers.

Are you confused, stressed out, and anxious about the unknowns in your life?  Listen to the answers Jesus is giving you in your own heart.

He teaches.

So many of us do not understand the purpose of this life, which is to learn and grow in God.  It is through this life that He teaches us–how to love, how to forgive, how to trust, how to become what He meant for us to be.

Without the trials and the setbacks, without the moments of confusion and concern, Jesus would have no way to teach us how His light can shine in our darkness.

The point of this story is that Jesus is STILL in the Temple–listening, answering, and teaching us!  And as per, Part 1, if we feel distant from Him, all we have to do is go back to the Temple (our hearts!) to find Him.

Now that’s cool!

About the Author:

A stay-at-home mom with a husband, three kids and a writing addiction on the side, Staci Stallings has numerous titles for readers to choose from. Not content to stay in one genre and write it to death, Staci’s stories run the gamut from young adult to adult, from motivational and inspirational to full-out Christian and back again. Every title is a new adventure! That’s what keeps Staci writing and you reading. Although she lives in Amarillo, Texas and her main career right now is her family, Staci touches the lives of people across the globe with her various Internet and writing endeavors.