spirit and truth

The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”  (John 4:19-24, NRSV)

Is there any one place that is the place to worship God?

Some might say their congregation is a better place to worship than the congregation down the road. But does that mean that God is not at the congregation down the road?

There is no one place to worship God, in fact you can worship God at home, at work, at school, at the park, at the playground, at Wal-Mart, at the grocery store… Any where!

Because worshiping God does not need a place, it needs your praise from your spirit and the truth of the Love of God!

So worship God where ever you are!

foundation laid

In the second year after their arrival at the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak made a beginning, together with the rest of their people, the priests and the Levites and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity. They appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to have the oversight of the work on the house of the LORD. And Jeshua with his sons and his kin, and Kadmiel and his sons, Binnui and Hodaviah along with the sons of Henadad, the Levites, their sons and kin, together took charge of the workers in the house of God. When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests in their vestments were stationed to praise the LORD with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, according to the directions of King David of Israel; and they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.”  And all the people responded with a great shout when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. (Ezra 3:8-11, NRSV)

And they all praised the Lord for the foundation of His house was laid!

What a celebration! God had been traveling with them, which He still would, but now they get to give Him the house they have been wanting to give Him for some time!

The priest with their trumpets sang and played praises and responsively sang and praised the Lord, as the foundation of His house was laid!

And we have that same foundation in Christ! Give praise for the sure foundation!

right in the sight

Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old; he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. He did what was right in the sight of the LORD, just as his ancestor David had done. In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the LORD and repaired them. He brought in the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the square on the east. He said to them, “Listen to me, Levites! Sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD, the God of your ancestors, and carry out the filth from the holy place. For our ancestors have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the LORD our God; they have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the dwelling of the LORD, and turned their backs. They gathered their brothers, sanctified themselves, and went in as the king had commanded, by the words of the LORD, to cleanse the house of the LORD. The priests went into the inner part of the house of the LORD to cleanse it, and they brought out all the unclean things that they found in the temple of the LORD into the court of the house of the LORD; and the Levites took them and carried them out to the Wadi Kidron. They began to sanctify on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the vestibule of the LORD; then for eight days they sanctified the house of the LORD, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished. Then they went inside to King Hezekiah and said, “We have cleansed all the house of the LORD, the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the table for the rows of bread and all its utensils. All the utensils that King Ahaz repudiated during his reign when he was faithless, we have made ready and sanctified; see, they are in front of the altar of the LORD.” (2 Chronicles 29:1-6, 15-19, NRSV)

Hezekiah was a man who listened to God and did what He asked him to do.

He helped the people and the priest focus on who they were in God and to do what God had asked them to do.

He was a man after David, a man after God’s own heart.

If we could strive to be like Hezekiah and David, and do what the Lord is asking us to do. To focus ourselves and others towards God!

This would be a godly undertaking for this season of understanding who we are in Christ!

love endures

Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands. Now, O my God, let your eyes be open and your ears attentive to prayer from this place. “Now rise up, O LORD God, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. Let your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let your faithful rejoice in your goodness. O LORD God, do not reject your anointed one. Remember your steadfast love for your servant David.” When Solomon had ended his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. The priests could not enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD’S house. When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD on the temple, they bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” (2 Chronicles 6:12, 40-42; 7:1-3, NRSV)

God’s love will always cover whatever we put before Him.

He will not reject His anointed, or put us away from Him.

His love is enough for any and all of us!

For He is Good and His love is steadfast and will endure forever!

house of prayer

Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves; and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. He was teaching and saying, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching. And when evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city. (Mark 11:15-19, NRSV)

A house of prayer.

How many of our congregations are a house of prayer?

I wonder what Jesus would think of the congregation I serve right now. We have pizzas for sale in the narthex, and candy bars waiting for kids to pick them up in the office. We have signs up for our Fat Tuesday Wild Game dinner…

We are raising funds. Would Jesus come in and turn the tables, drive the pizzas out and throw out the candy bars?

If our focus isn’t on prayer, and worship of Him, I think He would!

So where is your focus?