Exoskeleton

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. … But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, … and He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Ephesians 2:8-22

Life is a journey you get to participate in. 

The journey of life begins with you being made in the image of God. Slowly, the corruption of the world tarnishes that image. Then you take an inventory of your position and recognize that you need Gods grace to clean you up and rebuild the image of God you bare. He begins by giving you the cornerstone of Jesus Christ. Slowly, by walking in the good works that He has prepared for you to walk in, your temple expands as it conforms around the Holy Spirit that dwells inside it, like an exoskeleton. As you continue to build your temple, three questions will continually shape your journey: 1. Where are you, 2. Where do you want to go, and 3. How will you get there. As you actively build the temple, you have to continually examine where you are and make sure your building is conforming to the Holy Spirit. Since your DNA is shaped by the image of God, your intuition will want to build a temple that accommodates the image of God. And the way you get to be fitted together into a holy temple is by continually returning to the cornerstone of Christ to realign your next building phase. 

Where are you?

You need to continually determine where you are as you build your exoskeleton temple. When you keep this question as your focus, it will point you in two directions. It will point you towards Christ the cornerstone for realignment and inward toward the Holy Spirit for conformity. As you build the structure of your temple, you will find yourself in new settings, but you will always be able to figure out how you should go when you first determine where you are with the Cornerstone and the Spirit.

Where do you want to go?

The next question you should ask yourself as you go about the journey of building your temple is why do you want to build the temple. While the Cornerstone and the Spirit are holy, the land your temple is built on is still corrupted by the influence of sin. Along the building process, you have to make sure that the reason you want to build the temple is for the Holy Spirit and not to impress the world around you. There are many distractions along the way, so you have to remember that you are not building the temple to impress the world but to please the Spirit.

How will you get there?

Your exoskeleton temple becomes fit together with the Holy Spirit as the mortar, cementing together the bricks of your life. Christ is your cornerstone, and the apostles and prophets form the rest of your foundation. The way you build your exoskeleton temple is by building on the foundation laid out by the apostles and prophets. You follow the structure they’ve already established and continue to build upon what they have done before you.