After a prayer, a group recitation from Psalm 68 ("The protector of orphans and the defender of widows is God in God's holy dwelling") and a round of applause for a nun celebrating her 50th anniversary, or golden jubilee, as a member of the order, they settled down to business.
Archaeology has traced the temple back to the earliest periods of settlement, and though the very early temple plans still pose many unsolved problems, it is clear that from the Early Dynastic period onward the temple was what the Sumerian (e) and Akkadian (bītum) terms for it indicate; i.e., the temple was the god's house or dwelling.
If the goal of life is to gain access to heaven, and death is in God's hands, there's no point, and no grace, in dwelling on the particulars of how we die.
In specific, Christians celebrate God's promises to Isaiah about dwelling with us as Immanuel (the One God with us), son born of a young woman or virgin (Isaiah 7 14), a prophecy quoted in the earliest Christian gospel, as fulfilled in the birth of Jesus to Mary Mattheww 1 22-23).
And all must love the human form, In heathen, Turk or Jew; Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell There God is dwelling too.
They believe with perfect faith that "Where Mercy, Love and Pity dwell, There God is dwelling too".
Regardless of whether God's people were in temporary dwellings or a temple made of stone, these sacred spaces were vital reminders that God was with them.
So we went to the Catholic Bishop's dwelling, thinking we would be protected in God's house".
God's plan is that one day He will make His dwelling place among His people to dwell with them.
