It is common for people to refer to church buildings (at least from denominations they agree with) as "The House of the Lord", as if a building that is used a couple of times a week is the dwelling place of God. Lots of people like to quote verses like Psalm 122:1: I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD!" on Sunday morning as if David was speaking about First Baptist Church in your hometown. We are not Old Testament Israel and the New Testament has a far different picture of how God dwells among His people today:
What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (2 Cor 6:16)
And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. (Act 13:52)
In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Eph 2:22)
God's dwelling place is in His people, not buildings made of brick and mortar, no matter what the sign out front says or which confessions that particular group holds to. When you gather with the church this morning, you are not going to The House of the Lord, you are meeting up with a bunch of dwelling places for the Spirit of God. It is kind of like a Holy Spirit block party! So don't focus on the place you are going or the things you are doing this morning, focus on the One you gather to worship and the ones you are gathering with. The church is about Christ and His people, not places and rituals.
2 comments:
"So don't focus on the place you are going or the things you are doing this morning, focus on the One you gather to worship and the ones you are gathering with."
This is an impossible request for believers who are devoting 75 - 85% of their "giving" to buy buildings and hired staff to dominate the personal expression of truth for them. Jesus said "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also". This is a axiom, a law of where your heart will be. It follows your money. Believers cannot do what you ask until their fundamental priorities for church life change so
1. 100% of their giving goes beyond themselves. It's not giving until it goes beyond you. That would be called pooling.
2. 100% of participation is "one another" driven. There are no instructions in the NT for any other kind of communication when believers gather. This is the only kind of communication that reflects our identity as "members of one another".
You can't do the same thing and expect different results. Transformation requires different actions.
Don't forget Hebrew 3:1-6. Here's part of that passage:
Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope. (Hebrews 3:5-6 ESV)
-Alan
Post a Comment