Every Place Holy to the Child of God
Gen. 28:15-17 And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
When people come into the house of God, they put on a sober appearance. They act as if there is something very strange about the house of God.
I would not say a word to detract from its holiness. But let us bear in mind that every place ought to be holy to the child of God. We ought to be just as true to Him in our place of business as we are in the church. When Jacob said, "This is the house of God, and this is the gate of Heaven," he was under the canapy of high heaven. That was where God met him. God will meet us in the street as well as in the place of worship. He will meet us at home. He is also with us in our prayer closets. Anyplace where God is, is holy.
This putting on another air and a sanctimonious look when we come into the house of God and laying it aside when we go out, thinking that this is going to be acceptable to God, is all wrong. Every place ought to be holy to a true child of God.
By D. L. Moody
Labels: Christian Walk, Church, Devotional
posted by Jim @ 7:44 AM
4 Comments:
Good post. I couldn't agree more since we ARE the church, the very temple of the Holy Spirit, so everywhere we go, the presence of the Lord is there are we need to treat it as such.
Karen,
It's good to hear from you again on my blog... I know you keep in touch fairly regularly with my daughter Courtney's blog, but it has been awhile since you stopped by my way and left a comment.
Yes, the Holy Spirit abides within us, the believer, and is with us always. It is hypocritical for a Christian to act one way in church regarding their speech, dress, music, etc., and another way outside of church. I have met Christians who believe it is OK to dress one way while out in the world, yet would never set foot in the church dressed the same way. I never could follow their reasoning to justify those actions. (scratching head???) We should be transparent at all times and show forth Christ-like actions and attitudes at all times. I agree that we should approach life each step of the way knowing that we are in the presence of God.
However, as we have discussed before in the past, I'll have to disagree with your perception that an individual believer is equivalent to a church. The church is made up of individuals, but an individual alone is not a church. He is a part of a church, and represents a visible local church body, but he himself does not meet the biblical definition of a church. The Bible clearly defines the operation of a church, and it is composed of a called-out assembly of believers. It has been given specific duties and lists specific offices that one individual can not be or do alone.
Forgive me if I have misunderstood you.... by the way, how about coming to our church when you come down south to God's country??? :) We would love to have you and your family join us....
If a mining operation would make an interesting field trip, I can set up a tour of our facility where I work. It is about an hour and a half from Cary....
What a generous offer! That field trip is something right up our alley but right now some things are happening that might preclude us taking our trip at all....just an employment situation---a good one---but stuff that is up in the air. I guess there's no harm in saying it here but my husband has suddenly found himself getting offers from other companies. We don't want to change our situation unless we know God is in it and right now, we're just not certain which situation He's drawing us to. Time to put that fleece out there.
As far as my views on the church, I don't believe that I am the church all by myself just as my arm is certainly not a body all by itself. I also don't believe that the church is that building we all go to on Sundays or that church is something we DO. I also think we, at times, look at the pastor as the head, rather than Christ...and I have a much different biblical understanding of the role of a pastor. I think it is a gifting rather than an office. You could probably get a better understanding of my whole view of this from reading all my posts on 'the church' at my blog. Please know this, I do love the church, I love spending time with the church, and I have regularly times of fellowship with the church. It just doesn't look like a "service".
So, when are you and your family going to get Momma Rachel to start blogging?
Karen,
I'm sure the Lord will lead you and your husband regarding the job picture laid out in front of you....
Courtney, Joshua, Caleb, and I have all encouraged her to join the blog world.... however, so far she has declined; she is too busy with other things right now.... she has written a small booklet several years ago and has a desire to write a book for her children; I know that is first place in her heart before a blog....
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