God Never Changes

In Haggai 1:8, God commands the Israelites to "go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house (which means 'temple') so that I may take PLEASURE in it AND be HONORED." The commandment given to the Israelites in terms of the Old Testament temple, which was a building where God manifested His presence among His people, is the same for us regarding the New Testament temple of the Holy Spirit, which is your body.  In other words, we are commanded to eat for God's glory, exercise for His glory, and otherwise take care of His holy temple in order to PLEASE and HONOR God not to attract a spouse or look good in a bikini.
 
The Holy Spirit dwells in (meaning He lives inside of) you when you accept Christ as your Savior.  You become His home!  "Do you not know that YOUR BODY is the TEMPLE of the Holy Spirit WHO IS IN YOU, whom you have received from God?  For you were bought at a price (the blood of the Lamb); therefore, HONOR (or glorify) GOD WITH YOUR BODY and in your spirit which are God's."   Furthermore, Jesus said he who loves Me obeys My commands (John 14:21).  In 1 Corinthians 6:20, we are specifically commanded to honor God with our bodies.  Likewise, we're further commanded in 1 Corinthians 10:31 to eat and drink for the glory of God.
 
This command was actually first given in the Garden of Eve when God told Adam and Eve to abstain from eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil but to partake from every other tree in the Garden.  He made no exceptions when they disobeyed His command.  On the contrary, He cast them out of the Garden of Eden, and as promised, they experienced death. The same held true for the Israelites when they broke their covenant with God which included eating for His glory. As promised, God punished them with enslavement and death as a result of the Babylonian attack on Jerusalem.
 
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8)." God didn't accept excuses for disobedience then, and He won't accept them now!  As Adam and Eve and the Jews learned the hard way, you must also learn that God does "discipline those He loves like a father the son he delights in (Proverbs 3:12)."  Since your body is God's house, it doesn't belong to you.  That means you don't make the rules concerning it just as a child in the natural has to abide by his parents' rules while he lives in their home.  Consequently, you don't set the limits on rebuilding and repairing the damage you've done to the temple of the Holy Spirit. God does!
 
Unless He says, "That's enough!  I'm pleased and satisfied," you resist the temptation of cravings, you ignore the whining voice of fatigue, and you push through every plateau until the temple is a place that glorifies and honors God! You'll know when you reach that point because His presence will be manifested in you like never before just as it filled the physical temple in 2 Chronicles 5:14 when God was pleased because King Solomon and the Israelites completed construction of the Old Testament temple.
 
You can choose to obey His commands to honor Him with your body by eating and drinking for His glory, or you can continue to be lazy, procrastinate, or otherwise make excuses for your disobedience and suffer the consequences of hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, cancer, stroke, and ultimately, premature death. Tomorrow is not promised to you, and even if you do live to see it, it could be too late as heart attacks and strokes often occur with little or no warning.
 
But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose this day whom you will serve...but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15)."  If you’re ready to serve the Lord by eating and drinking for His glory, ​order your copy of the Eating as an Act of Worship Teacher's Edition TODAY at Amazon.com!