Day 36 - FOUNDATION STONES IN A YEAR

Reading: Genesis 3:8; Exodus 29:45; Zachariah 2:10; Revelation 21:3

From the very beginning God, the Creator, purposed to live with His people.  

After all, He created the Earth and all that was in it, as a home for His people. Adam and Eve never knew a different scenario. Like a newborn baby waking up in its nursery in the family home, when they awoke (came to life) the first thing they saw was – their Father. Their whole reality was based on life in the ‘family home’, Eden. 

Even after they were put out of the garden of Eden, God did not abandon them. God was still with them.  God walked with Noah, was friends with Abraham and wrestled with Jacob. When God rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt He said ‘I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God’. And in Zechariah The LORD God says ‘sing and rejoice o daughter of Zion for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst’. It has always been God’s desire to dwell among His people and He did so most visibly in the person of Jesus, even though those who should have known him didn’t recognize him. 

Is God still dwelling with His people today? If so, how so? 

Jesus told his disciples that he would not leave them ‘as orphans’ but that he would be with them, now in the person of the Holy Spirit. Jesus not only came to Earth to dwell with mankind temporarily, but ultimately to reconcile all creation back to Himself so that He might dwell again with His people through His indwelling Holy Spirit.

God lives in us by His Holy Spirit and we get to walk each day with Him. To know Jesus dwells in us by His Holy Spirit is to know we have a constant companion who is also God. So talk to Him. Invite Him to come out of you and lead you into all truth. 

Prayer

Our Father in Heaven, thank You that it is Your desire to dwell among us, Your people. 

For the family

Share with the children how exciting it was to welcome them into the family home as babies. Explain this study in an age-appropriate way.