TEMPLE OF GOD

What beholds You, O God,
When You look upon my heart?

Do golden doors bid You welcome
To a sanctuary of rest
Beneath the cherub's wing?

Do sacrifices await Your Presence
Upon the altar of Your Most Holy Place
As an offering, acceptable to You,
In the sweet aroma of worship and praise?

As You foretold in that time of old,
Your Son has built Your Temple
His very life the consecrating sacrifice

All to make a lasting place
For Your Name to dwell eternally
He calls You 'Father'
And You call Him 'Son'
For Your Name rests upon Him, pure and holy

But the rotting stench of sin
Left unrepented ~ unforgiven
Has plundered this place into disrepair
Only to greet You
With grave sorrow, grief and despair

Raped and pillaged beyond recognition,
Is there any hope for this damaged soul?
O, God, I've been brought low!
What can I do? ... What have I done?
Save me now and grant me Your Name
That I may call You 'Father'
And You may call me 'son'

My son, My son ~ My Name has ne'er departed
Forgotten, yes, and covered over
At the altar of forgiveness
Restored only now
By your humble repentance

Accept the skilled craftsmen
I will send your way
Faithful servants to clean and repair
Bringing peace for your despair

So what beholds Me
When next I look upon your heart
Are golden doors bidding Me welcome
To My Most Holiest of Places
Where I'll find rest beneath the cherub's wing
To enjoy the sweet aroma of sacrifice
Being raised in your worship and praise

Scripture Path ... NAS

I Chronicles 22:10
'He shall build a house for My name, and he shall be My son and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.'

II Chronicles 3:7;10
He also overlaid the house with gold--the beams, the thresholds and its walls and its doors;
Then he made two sculptured cherubim in the room of the holy of holies and overlaid them with gold.

II Chronicles 5:7-8
Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, to the holy of holies, under the wings of the cherubim.  For the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim made a covering over the ark and its poles.

II Chronicles 6:10
"Now the LORD has fulfilled His word which He spoke; for I have risen in the place of my father David and sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built the house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

II Chronicles 6:14-42;7:1-3
He said, "O LORD, the God of Israel, there is no god like You in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and showing lovingkindness to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart; who has kept with Your servant David, my father, that which You have promised him; indeed You have spoken with Your mouth and have fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is this day.  "Now therefore, O LORD, the God of Israel, keep with Your servant David, my father, that which You have promised him, saying, 'You shall not lack a man to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your sons take heed to their way, to walk in My law as you have walked before Me.'  "Now therefore, O LORD, the God of Israel, let Your word be confirmed which You have spoken to Your servant David.  "But will God indeed dwell with mankind on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You; how much less this house which I have built.  "Yet have regard to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your servant prays before You; that Your eye may be open toward this house day and night, toward the place of which You have said that You would put Your name there, to listen to the prayer which Your servant shall pray toward this place.  "Listen to the supplications of Your servant and of Your people Israel when they pray toward this place; hear from Your dwelling place, from heaven; hear and forgive.  "If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath, and he comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this house, then hear from heaven and act and judge Your servants, punishing the wicked by bringing his way on his own head and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness.  "If Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and they return to You and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication before You in this house, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You have given to them and to their fathers.  "When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin when You afflict them; then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants and Your people Israel, indeed, teach them the good way in which they should walk. And send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people for an inheritance.  "If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, if there is locust or grasshopper, if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities, whatever plague or whatever sickness there is, whatever prayer or supplication is made by any man or by all Your people Israel, each knowing his own affliction and his own pain, and spreading his hands toward this house, then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and render to each according to all his ways, whose heart You know for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men, that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways as long as they live in the land which You have given to our fathers.  "Also concerning the foreigner who is not from Your people Israel, when he comes from a far country for Your great name's sake and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm, when they come and pray toward this house, then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name, and fear You as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by Your name.  "When Your people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatever way You shall send them, and they pray to You toward this city which You have chosen and the house which I have built for Your name, then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.  "When they sin against You (for there is no man who does not sin) and You are angry with them and deliver them to an enemy, so that they take them away captive to a land far off or near, if they take thought in the land where they are taken captive, and repent and make supplication to You in the land of their captivity, saying, 'We have sinned, we have committed iniquity and have acted wickedly'; if they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been taken captive, and pray toward their land which You have given to their fathers and the city which You have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for Your name, then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, their prayer and supplications, and maintain their cause and forgive Your people who have sinned against You.  "Now, O my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place.  "Now therefore arise, O LORD God, to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your might; let Your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation and let Your godly ones rejoice in what is good.   "O LORD God, do not turn away the face of Your anointed; remember Your lovingkindness to Your servant David."  Now when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the house.  The priests could not enter into the house of the LORD because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD'S house.  All the sons of Israel, seeing the fire come down and the glory of the LORD upon the house, bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave praise to the LORD, saying, "Truly He is good, truly His lovingkindness is everlasting."

II Chronicles 7:12-16
Then the LORD appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.  "If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.  "Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place.  "For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that My name may be there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.

II Chronicles 7:19-20
"But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot you from My land which I have given you, and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

II Chronicles 29:1-5
Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old; and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.  He did right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father David had done.  In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the LORD and repaired them.  He brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them into the square on the east.  Then he said to them, "Listen to me, O Levites. Consecrate yourselves now, and consecrate the house of the LORD, the God of your fathers, and carry the uncleanness out from the holy place.

II Chronicles 30:8-9
"Now do not stiffen your neck like your fathers, but yield to the LORD and enter His sanctuary which He has consecrated forever, and serve the LORD your God, that His burning anger may turn away from you.  "For if you return to the LORD, your brothers and your sons will find compassion before those who led them captive and will return to this land For the LORD your God is gracious and compassionate, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him."

Psalm 116:6
The LORD preserves the simple;I was brought low, and He saved me.

1 Corinthians 6:18-20

Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.  Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.