Worthy Brief - 12/17/2025
Friend, dedication and identity: you are the Temple!
1 Cor. 6:19-20 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit in you, whom you have of God? And you are not your own, 20 for you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.
The rededication of the Temple in the days of the Maccabees was more than the restoration of a building -- it was a prophetic declaration that God had not abandoned His people. Though the holy place had been defiled, heaven had not withdrawn. The cleansing of the Temple announced that the Presence of the Holy One still desired to dwell among a consecrated people. What was polluted was removed. What was holy was restored. Light returned where darkness had ruled.
In Yeshua (Jesus), this truth reaches its fullness. The apostle Paul declares that you are now the Temple of the Holy Spirit, bought with a price and inhabited by God Himself. The dwelling place of heaven is no longer confined to stone and gold -- it now resides within surrendered hearts. Chanukah, therefore, moves from history into identity. The question is no longer merely about a building in Jerusalem, but about the condition of the sanctuary within you.
Chanukah becomes personal -- and unavoidable. What altars have been allowed to stand in the holy place of your life? What compromises have quietly taken root where only the Presence of God belongs? Dedication is not a moment of emotion; it is a posture of obedience. It is the daily, intentional choice to tear down what defiles and to align every part of life with the authority of heaven. Cleansing always precedes filling.
Friend, before God fills the Temple, He cleanses it. Before light shines outward, surrender must happen inward. Chanukah calls us to rededicate the holy place within—to remove what does not belong, to guard what is sacred, and to allow the Light of Messiah to dwell fully and without rival.
Your family in the Lord with much agape love,
George & Baht Rivka (Mississippi)
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