People tend to associate holiness with a place. They tend to worship created things like church buildings and sacred spaces. And they think those are holy places that make them closer to God when they're there. That might have been the case in the Old Testament, but Jesus came to destroy that thinking.
The truth is, if you try to take away someone's idol, they react violently. We attach ourselves to our idols and when someone tries to remove them, we tend to attack.
Jesus says in the Gospel of Luke: 'The temple will be no more.' He's declaring all of that no longer necessary -- the priests -- the sacrifices -- the temple -- because He's our priest now. He's our sacrifice. He's our temple. He's the presence of God on the earth. And He lives inside us. Not in a building.
Buildings are important. They hold the body of Christ as they gather together on weekends and at other times. We appreciate our building at KFA -- it's an awesome building -- but when we get there, God wasn't sleeping in the rafters waiting on our arrival. We brought Him with us. And when we leave, God doesn't stay behind to indwell the baptistry. We take Him with us.
It is so important that we internalize this as Christ-followers in 2012.
And be blessed.
1 comment:
I really do feel that being at church feels more holy than my home, I don't feel natural when I pray there, though. It feels much more "proper". When I am at home, then I can just be myself and talk to God. Or out in nature on a sunny day on a walk. The sunshine warming my face always makes me think of God. It is as if His hand is on my cheek and I feel loved and happy for the moment.
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