03/13/2020
Are you proud of the faith you have? Is your nose held high as you look down on the faithfulness of others? Do you go to church thinking “What a great Christian I am!”, or that you have built such a wonderful church building for God... isn’t it beautiful, and He most certainly comes here because of my exquisite handiwork! If you entertain thoughts such as these then my friend, you are teetering on the precipice of hell. God works in us, and our work without His presence means nothing. Jesus prepares a place for us, and we have nothing to prepare for Him, or offer Him, except our humbled heart that longs to believe in Him, and love Him.
“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
Philippians 1:6 ESV
God is at work in each of us, and His ultimate goal for the run down shack of a body that He originally found us inhabiting is to lift it up and make it a wonderful place for us to abide with Him. Our bodies, churches, and cathedrals, are exactly that... they are places where He comes to meet with us, they are not His home where we come to visit Him. How do we read the following passage of scripture?
“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.”
1 John 4:15 ESV
To abide in God we must first be wrapped in Jesus Christ. We abide in Jesus who covers us with His blood, and God’s grace, then, and only then, can we abide in God... not by our own merits, but by the perfection of Christ that shields God from who we once were... fallen men and women. So where does that leave our selfish pride in faith, and the “glorious” structures we have built to lure God? It leaves us, and what we have built with our own hands, lacking.
“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.”
Psalms 127:1 ESV
On a beautiful fall day I visited a tiny stone church on a tree covered lane in Virginia. It was a pretty little church with a bell tower above the front entrance... nothing grand, or even exceptional, it was like any other small country church, and yet it was irresistible to me. Each time I passed by it I was beckoned you come... What was it about this place? So one afternoon I pulled off the road, and walked around the building taking pictures. I didn’t really know why but it was as if I had to. Then I walked up to the door, and it opened. There stood an elderly woman, she was dressed in a rather formal dress and looked almost regal with her perfectly kept grey hair, and searching blue eyes. She looked at me for a moment then invited me inside.
The entry foyer was dark, and paneled in walnut with a table covered in literature on one side, and a set of stairs on the other. The woman was gracious, and her voice calming, as she told me how old the building was, and how local families had been come here for generations. Then she asked if I would like to see the sanctuary, and I heard myself excitedly saying “YES!”’
We walked to a set of large wooden doors at the far end of the foyer and she swung them open before us... as the light rushed out of the sanctuary to cover us I was immediately overcome by the Holy Spirit, and every hair on my body stood up at once. The sanctuary was a single room with a central aisle lined on both sides with old wooden pews capable of seating possibly two hundred people, if they were friendly, and at the front was the altar highlighted by an old wooden podium, and backed by a stained glass window that went from the floor to the ceiling... it was a mural in glass of Jesus on the cross. Light was streaming in from every direction and tears filled my eyes. It was beautiful, but much more than that... it was Holy. I knew immediately why this church had always called out to me... it wasn’t built by human hands, it had been built by God, and He was meeting with us here.
What I felt in that church is exactly what we should feel in our bodies, and in all of our churches. God should be at work there, He should abide there, and His light should flow out in abundance. We can’t do this... we can’t make ourselves feel what the Holy Spirit does, we can’t perfect ourselves like Jesus can, and no matter how many windows or lights we build into our sanctuaries we can’t fill them with the incredible light of God. Only our Heavenly Father can give these things to us, and make us to be transformed... to grow in Him.
“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.”
1 Corinthians 3:6-7 ESV
We feel the drawing and call of Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father, but until we walk into that seemingly plain and unremarkable place, and experience the glory of God firsthand, the loving sacrifice of Jesus transforming us, and the presence of the Holy Spirit pouring into us, there is no way we can possibly understand how our efforts alone can never be enough, and how lost we have been. So are you ready to step out of that building you have constructed with your own hands, and away from the life you have made for yourself? Are you ready to stop at a small nondescript church in the middle of nowhere... and find what no man can describe or prepare you for? Are you ready for every hair on your body to stand up in awe, and tears of wonder and humility to flow from your eyes? Are you prepared to wrap yourself in the cloak of Jesus Christ, and abide in God Himself? I hope so because God doesn’t live in that place your hands have built to attract Him, nor the religion you have made for yourself... He lives within us if we will only choose to let Him...
“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”
Acts 17:24-25 ESV
And it is never too soon, or too late, to pull off of the road you are traveling down, and visit that place where He will meet you...
“even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.”
Isaiah 46:4 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for calling us to you, and turning our heads towards home. Thank you for your Son Jesus Christ who adorns us in His robe of redemption, and makes us acceptable to you. Thank you Lord for your Holy Spirit who thrills us, and gives us understanding as we seek to know you better each day. Help us Heavenly Father to set aside those things we have made by ourselves, and listen to your will that guides us as we build with you new places, heavenly places, and walk in righteousness with you in them. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who wishes for us to abide in you, and for you to abide in us. We praise your name Lord as we lift our hands towards heaven, and ask you to bless them, and use them for your glory. You are a great God, and bless us by allowing us to serve you. All glory is yours Father as you shine your light upon us, and pour your grace over us. Hear our prayers Merciful Father, and transform us from who we have been into who you desire us to be. Make the labor of our hands righteous by your direction, and our faith complete through Jesus.
“By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.”
1 John 4:13 ESV
Rich Forbes