Meeting Report Dec 10, 2006:

Sis Debbie Rude spoke on God's Dwelling Place. She took her text from Isaiah 2:2-3 . And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

She provided us with some history, proving that heathen nations worshipped many gods. Every nation had their own way to worship / appease their god. Some gods lived in “trees” or groves. Other nations built special houses with their god in it and went to the “house of the gods” to worship. People would go to temple (say to seek health for a sickness) and pay the priest to perform a cleansing ritual. If it didn’t work, the priest would say the gods weren’t satisfied and the individual would be compelled to pay more.

Israel was at first a relatively plain nation. When the Israelites inherited Canaan, they weren’t the only ones there. For some amount of time, they coexisted with the Israelites. As a result, influence of the Canaanites rubbed off on them and they began to act like the heathen nations. This included the building of a magnificent Temple in which to worship their own God.

All along it was God’s desire to dwell with all of mankind, not in a house or building made with human hands. But He knew that the nations had so many preconceived ideas about “God” or a higher power and already established ways to worship those higher powers, that He had to change their thinking slowly. He picked out the Israelites to be the example to the world so when He blessed them, other nations would look on and be curious to know about “their god”. Much like giving them a King to rule over them, God never wanted to dwell in a temple but allowed the Israelites to build Him a temple where they could come worship him.

With the New Testament and Jesus, everything changed, including the way to worship God. Old things (old ways of worship) are passed away and now everything is new. God no longer dwells in a temple made with human hands. All Christians collectively make up God’s church (1 Cor 3:9) and we are each a stone in God’s spiritual / figurative house (1 Pet 2:5). The new temple of God or house of God is not a literal building. God used a literal building to help us now understand the spiritual concept of the church.

What about worship? The early church worshipped from house to house (Acts 20:20). The first recorded worship place by Christians was not found until 280 AD. “Church buildings” came in existence around the time of the 4 century AD when Christianity was adopted as the State religion by Emperor Constantine. At that time, the political system simply converted many pagan customs into Christian customs. Ornate churches and cathedrals were patterned after pagan temples. In fact, many of the pagan temples were simply converted to Christian places of worship. The high arched ceilings were designed to reflect the principle that God is so far above us that He can’t be reached.

If church buildings are born out of pagan customs, are they wrong? Not necessarily. Meeting places are good especially if the crowd is large, but large ornate, elaborate buildings can become a point of idolatry to the people who worship within them. They can be a source of pride. We don’t want people to be so mesmerized by our buildings that they miss the presence of God inside.

How do we “worship”? Just like they worshipped in temples with sacrifices, we worship in our everyday life with prayer, praise, thanksgiving and Christ likeness. God is more concerned with us being the church everyday and acting like Christ than He is us "going to church" every week. Our coming together isn’t for God’s benefit, but for each others. To encourage and provoke one another to good works. Heb 10:24-25

Let’s make sure we are all taking care of God’s temple every day so He can continue to dwell with us. Our focus should never be on a building, but on people. This edification can be done in a home, or anywhere God’s people gather together.