Isaiah 65:1-66:24; I Thessalonians 2:13-3:13

Thought from Today’s Old Testament Passage: Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. —Isaiah lxvi. 1, 2. That is an excellent answer which was given by a poor man to a skeptic who attempted to ridicule his faith. The scoffer said, "Pray sir, is your God a great God or a little God?" The poor man replied, "Sir, my God is so great that the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him; and yet He condescends to be so little, that He dwells in broken and contrite hearts." Oh, the greatness of God, and the condescension of God!... What kind of a house… would we build for God? Sons of men, of what material would ye make a dwelling-place for the Eternal and the Pure? Would ye build of alabaster? The heavens are not clean in His sight, and He charged His angels with folly! Would ye build of gold? Behold, the streets of His metropolitan city are paved therewith, not indeed the dusky gold of earth, but transparent gold, like unto clear glass. And what were gold to Deity? Men may crave it and adore it, but what careth He for it?… Now secondly, let us muse awhile upon God’s choice of spiritual temples. "To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word." Observe, beloved, that God chooses to dwell in men’s hearts. He is a Spirit, and He takes our spirits to be the resting place of His Spirit. Charles H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of the Bible, Vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1962), pp. 897-98.