Rethinking The House of God

 Familiar feelings arose in me a few Sunday's ago when I read once again the house of God scriptures in Psalms that suggest our corporate church gatherings as Christians should be a place of safety and rest in the presence of the Lord.  What goes on at church is a subject we misfits return to as we process what's happened to us since we left our controlling churches and what our future holds.  For another post on The House of God I wrote a few years back, click here if you are in the mood for further reading.
Here are a few of the scriptures referencing the house of God: 

Psalm 27:4-5"One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock."

Psalm 84: "How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty!  2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.  3 Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young—a place near your altar, Lord Almighty, my King and my God. 4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you."  10 "Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked."

Reading these verses this time around I found myself feeling angry with the people who have turned the weekly Christian gathering into something we can no longer trust.  It's not our fault that we no longer fit in a church system that doesn't fit into God's description of what it should be.  Those scriptures infer safety and protection and a place of refuge, but it's obvious that someone has hijacked the meaning of going to church.  What we have lost is a true place of refuge, a great assembly to meet with the Lord, and a much needed reprieve from what we go through in the world.  It's been replaced by elements of the world system such as political posturing, elevating the pastors and their families to celebrity status and blatent nepatism and favoritism.  Instead of receiving replenishment for the week, we receive pressure to give a huge portion of our time and money to the machine, and sometimes even a chiding that we aren't doing enough to keep it alive and running. 

We are encouraged in scripture to honor the Sabbath, but Sabbath rest certainly doesn't come into play since there is no rest to be had.  It has become less and less about finding Jesus within what He called the house of prayer - in fact, prayer itself is one of many duties we must perform to assure the mighty machine runs smoothly.  We are made to feel like work horses who need to pull our weight.  This is taught from the pulpit and inferred weekly in the announcement segment that can last up to a half hour, plugging the need for all the groups and activity we need to support. 

Think about this:  For those in charge of God's House, it's a glorious place of sustenance and fulfillment. As long as the lead pastors can keep the volunteers busy propping up their ministry it works really well for them. Then think about the rest of the people, the worker bee volunteers, who lose sight of the Lord's true plan for their lives. It's like they are handing over their destiny to someone they have been taught is more important who deserve their undivided allegience and resources because they are in the work of the ministry.  As long as the layity is kept busy making the Pastor's vision succeed, there is little time to implement the vision God has given to each of them. If you observe the lives of people who are currently serving in churches today, their lives are consumed with meetings and events involving the church.

NonCelebrity Christian and I have been talking lately about how we can relate to the fury of Jesus when he encountered money changers in the temple when he took a whip to drive them out.  Jesus had an issue with turning His Father's house into a marketplace when it was supposed to be a house of prayer.  He also had an issue with the religiosity of the church leaders lording their positions over the people.  It seems so apparent that these issues have not only infilitrated the Church today, they have taken over.  Makes me want to cry out to Jesus 'where is your whip when we need it most?' 

Not to think too highly of ourselves, lest we become like those who are suspect in our minds, but perhaps the voice of the blogging world on the internet is one of the whips?  Just a suggestion, but will anything change until we are mad enough to stand up and say enough is enough?  Actually many of us are doing that.  As NonCeleb has often said, we are voting with our feet. 

Once we have voted with our feet, then what?  Is this where the journey takes a turn into an even deeper walk with the Lord one on one?  Can we be satisfied accepting that His house is a more personal one and can we trust Him to meet our every need of blessing and protection without aligning ourself to a local pastor family?  It's not like we can give our hearts to yet another church because the same government structure exists there as well.  And the answer doesn't necessarily lie in beginning another church, mainly because it will end up the same way.  Shouldn't the Christian walk be about each person being free to do the work of the ministry in the way God has called him to, touching the lives who God brings his way? 

So perhaps the answer is to continue to hang loose and wait on God and let whatevers going to happen 'happen organically' as my daughter is fond of saying.  "It" may never involve four walls again.  If that's what God has planned, is that enough for us?  It doesn't mean we haven't grieved over what should have been and that we don't pray for God to salvage what He can from the mess we have seemed to have made of His Church these days. 

I am doing my best to rethink these scripture concerning God's house and personalize them more.  Maybe that's what was meant all along, I don't know.  I do know I am comforted when He meets with me in the secret place which is indeed a type of house.  And yes, it is enough when I allow it to be, because He fills my cup like none other.  And no man or demonic plan can infiltrate His presence and take that from me or any of us.

Quest for the House of God

Jesus will always be the one I worship, my prophet of choice, Saviour, friend, teacher and guide. I would never pass over his living essence for a chunky piece of dead stone, no matter how peaceful and loving the idol-relic rhetoric comes across. It's just not a temptation for me, although I can see how it would be for some, depending on what they've gone through in the christian culture, and whether they feel completely deserted by God in their circumstances.

The spirit of Jesus is like the wind, or sometimes a gentle breeze, according to the need, who wafts in breathing new life with his presence. He's made himself real to me in so many ways throughout my lifetime, that there's no question of leaving him.

Leaving, or not engaging in, christian culture is a different story for me these days. Although I haven't entirely left its sphere, I have been content now to remain on the outer rim of it.

However, I have been wondering what to do about my affinity for the verses of Psalm 27:4-6 that say:

"One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high on a rock...at his tabernacle I will sing and make music to the Lord."

Is that only for people who want to spend time in church culture and be caught up in its orbit? I used to sing these words with more of the church in mind - serving there - my music supposedly being there. But time and circumstance has changed that.

When you feel the Lord has lifted you out of a certain sphere and placed you in another one that isn't by definition the church or its culture, where then is the house of God? I feel no affinity for serving in church, not because of bitterness and unforgiveness (some people automatically think that's the problem), but because I see now that the Lord has lifted me out. But I still feel a kinship for those verses that hold meaning for me even if I'm not sure of the meaning. Maybe the Lord has wanted the meaning redefined all along.

So I've been on a quest to find out what the house of God means to me now.
I know what it no longer can be for me. Especially when the Pastor at the Good Church periodically sounds too much like our former pastor at the Church of Questionable Conduct - that if you aren't doing your part (he calls it doing chores) at your local church you must be in rebellion to God. Like that's really motivating, thanks. I can't wait to jump in now and let you suck my energy bone dry so I have no time left to do my art which is the calling of my life. At the time of this blogpost it's not logistically going to work if I try to do both (just like it wasn't early on when I started this blog). And I don't sense the Lord asking me to lay down my art to walk back into the church to help with that particular family's chores. I've done that already for far too long and have suffered for it. If I do that now, how do I know THAT is not rebellion to what God wants me to do? Besides, if you go by the rebellion-to-God dogma, where is the longsuffering and patient love of God in that?

Jesus said that if two of his followers gather in his name, he is there in the midst. This may be one of the keys to the door of God's house. Where two or more of us encourage each other in faith and hope, pray for each other and with each other, that would be fulfilling the 2 most important commandments according to Jesus when he uttered: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.

Another thought that has come to mind in the reading Psalm 27 passage again, when I see "at his tabernacle I will sing and make music to the Lord." "At" makes me think of standing next to something, in this case it could be an altar. Wherever you build an altar for the Lord to worship him, wouldn't that be the place of his dwelling and therefore his house? Or how about under the shadow of His wing? When I sing to the Lord even by myself, I feel I've passed through a threshold, walked into a place of worship and communion. When I talk with the Lord wherever I am, I share with him the secrets of my soul, my needs and desires. In so doing, I hand my burden to him in faith that he's taken it since he's promised to shoulder it much better than I ever could. That's the kind of exchange pastors always tell you needs to happen when you go to church. It can happen anywhere though, not just in church services.

Perhaps the spirit of the Lord doesn't WANT to be walled up in a building where communal chores are necessary to keep its household running. Maybe he really IS like the wind that wants to blow where a place of desire and need exist, where it can do most good.

Not to say that can't happen in church too, because I know that's very valid for those who seek refuge in the churches. It was for me at one time. Still can be sometimes. The Lord is never one to turn anyone away, so my guess is he's in both types of houses. For those who like the idea of being part of a family where, sort of like children, they do their chores while the pastor-father oversees (and yes, does his chores too), that's great for them. But to assume we all need to be there when some of us have spread our wings and flown the nest, isn't that a bit presumptuous? That's like telling my adult children what they are doing out in the world beyond our home isn't as valid as coming back into the fold and helping us keep our household running.

My hope is that the house of God dwells within us, wherever we may be, as we seek his face and he touches our lives. Like that beautiful painting of the finger of God touching the finger of man, both reaching to one another in need and desire, the Spirit of God gives sustenance and breath to help us keep on living, enabling us to follow the path of destiny he's given us without fear and distraction. Walking in harmony and communion with him is his house because he is our father, teacher, saviour and friend. That seems right to me, but since this is a quest, I'm open to adjusting anything out of harmony with the scriptures.