What pictures hang on the walls of your imagination?

In the past few months, I’ve gained perspective on being God’s dwelling place. But it has  also sobered me on keeping a clean house. Solomon said, “Keep your hearts [house] with all diligence” (Prov. 4:23). 

Each of the Apostles had a way of expressing housekeeping: “Keep yourself in the love of God (Jude 1:21); “Keep a good conscience” (1 Pet. 3:1); “Keep yourself from free from sin (1 Tim 5:22); “Keep yourselves from idols” (1 Jn. 5:21). And Jesus' all-encompassing  command, “Keep My Word” (Jn. 14:23).

If your heart was a ‘house of thoughts,’ would kind of residence would it be for the Holy Spirit? Oswald Sanders asks, “How uncomfortable would you be if others saw all the pictures that hang on the walls of your imagination.” If we are to keep a clean house, we must be daily washing in the Word, and confessing our sins to be cleansed from all unrighteousness.(Eph. 5:26; 1 John 1:9).

'Doing' Church Adam Sandler-Style

Because I read a lot about the American Church, I know I'm not the only one concerned about the direction our "seeker-friendly" worship services are going.  It seems we are trying so hard not to seem "peculiar" that we have forgotten we are indeed called to be a "peculiar people" (1 Pet 2:9).

In our local assembly last Sunday, two associate pastors decided to commemorate Father’s Day by having a contest of all men (not just fathers) to see who was the manliest. They had all the men stand up, and then asked a series of very silly questions. If you couldn’t answer the question affirmatively, you would have to sit down. The last man standing was the manliest. What were these silly questions? “Have you ever killed your own dinner?” “Have you ever removed your body hair with duct tape?” and “Can you burp the alphabet?” were just a few.  The latter seemed to me to be more appropriate for an Adam Sandler movie than a worship service. Just when I thought the silliness would never end, they did another round to find the most sensitive man, and those questions just as silly. ‘What a shame,’ I thought. Instead of honoring godly fathers, they joked away the time with crude stereotypes of masculinity. Anyone who likes Adam Sandler films, known for their juvenile humor, would have loved it.

Is there any objective criteria for what is appropriate for a worship service? Consider this: “There must be no filthiness or silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but… fix your thoughts on what is true, honorable, right, pure, admirable, excellent, and worthy of praise” (Eph 5:4; Philip 4:8).

God Doesn't Live in a Warehouse

Yesterday, millions of Christians attended church services, held in buildings that are often called houses of worship. But unfortunately, we often refer to them as the “house of God”—an appellation caused by improperly comparing our places of worship to the Old Testament Temple where God’s Presence was, in point of fact, manifested. But in the New Covenant, you and I have become the house of God—“Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you…” (2 Cor. 6:19).

But knowing that a building cannot contain the Spirit of God has not prevented centuries of Christians from erecting grand cathedrals to house religious services. All the more curious that the current trend, at least in America, is to house our Christian worship services in ‘converted’ warehouses where we think nothing of taking a cup of coffee and a pastry into the worship service—an anathema when I grew up. You had too much respect for the building, even if you knew God didn't really live there!

This begs the question: how much respect do you have for the real house of God—your body? The eyes through which you are reading this page right now are the windows to the house of God. And your ears, its sound system. And everything your hands do, everywhere your feet go are happening in the sanctuary where God dwells. Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship (Rom. 12:1).