We are the Temple
Why do most churches meet at the same time on Sunday morning?!?!?Ok - that's more of a rhetorical question that I completely understand the answer to - and I guess I'm ranting over nothing here - but it gets me SOOOO frustrated. Not only are people forced to wait a whole week to visit a new church when they are looking for a home church, but each weekend only gets one service (only a couple hours long), because most church's main event seem to all meet at the same time. Do you know how much time people would save if churches all spaced out their services at all different times?!?! I could hit 6 churches a weekend and 5 more in the evenings in one 7 day week. I'd be done looking at all my possibilities in a few weeks tops! I could gather together with God's people constantly!! If you go to one church with good teaching and crappy worship (and you know what I mean by "crappy" worship - not worshipping in Spirit and Truth), you could just grab a quick lunch and make it in time for church number 2, which has crappy teaching (you know what I mean by "crappy" teaching - not teaching God's Word as taught by the Holy Spirit) and awesome worship, and by the end of the day, you'd actually get fed with a well balanced meal practically in one sitting - metaphorically speaking of course.
Even when I was a member of a church, all my life - I never understood why we all had to go a whole week without having worship again (not a service... the worship). Worship should be an everyday thing, but let's face it - how many people worship God every day like they do in corporate worship?? How many people have the time (or make the time) or are dedicated enough to set aside an hour, turning off the world - cell phones, email, tv, family, friends - to sing, dance, bow down, or lift up hands to God with all their might - praising and worshipping God focusing only on Him every day of the week? I'm guessing not too many. If we can't even set aside an hour a day to worship God fully now, we're going to be playing catch up when we get to heaven! Jesus did away with animal sacrifices and offerings that cover sin, by being the once for all atoning sacrifice on the cross. But He didn't do away with heart sacrifices and offerings. Aren't we told "to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship" (Romans 12:1) and "Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased." (Hebrews 13:15-16)?
About prayer... think about the prayer life of western believers today compared to the set times of prayer in Israel from the Jewish traditions in the Bible - 9 AM, Noon, and 3 PM were official hours of prayer - but especially 3 PM. The temple was open and active every day and people would stop working and go to the temple to pray at 3 PM every day. Do we, in this time and culture, stop in the middle of work to pray for an hour? Do the majority of us even take an hour at anytime of the day to pray everyday? I know I certainly don't - not every day. A lot of us can't even fill up 20 minutes of intimate conversation with our Lord and Father yet we are told to "pray without ceasing" (I Thessalonians 5:17) and "With all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints" (Ephesians 6:18).The Jewish historical tradition of three hours for prayer a day is even lacking in light of these verses.
And what about God's Word? The Sabbath was used as a one day a week time to gather to read God's Word and be taught by those who studied it. But after believers received the Holy Spirit, the church gathered to read it, be taught it by the Holy Spirit, and be used by the Holy Spirit to teach each other and speak God's continued Word to each other. Some searched and studied Scripture daily! (Acts 17:11-12) These people were diligent and passionate about getting all of God's truth into them, and making sure they were obeying it according to His will. Even when God's people in patches got off - they were corrected and led back by those who were still following God's heart. It is clear that we are also meant to read, meditate, and learn God's Word every day, because Jesus is the Word of God, the Bread of life, the Manna from heaven that doesn't carry over for many days - but must be gathered and eaten fresh every day (John 1:1-5, 14; 6:31-58). This is why Jesus instructed us to pray "Give us each day our daily bread" (Luke 11:3). God's written Word is a manifestation of God's Living Word, Jesus. It holds the truth of God which can only be unlocked by Himself personally into our hearts and minds by the Holy Spirit. This is a huge chunk of how we can live out a personal relationship with Christ, and stay rooted firm in Him - by knowing, believing, and living the Word of God by His life and power in us. We are taught to "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the Word of truth." (II Timothy 2:15) and "Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another..." (Colossians 3:16).
The Lord's Supper, ministry using the gifts of the Holy Spirit to one another, baptizing those born-again, fellowshipping in brotherhood and sisterhood in the family of God - providing for, supporting and encouraging one another - loving one another... this is the life of the Body of Christ Jesus our Lord. It's no wonder that the Church is stuck in a powerless state, unable to preach the gospel of Jesus like we are meant to (we preach a religion, a mental acceptance of facts from long ago that comes with heart but no hands, or hands but no heart, or human heart and hands without the Holy Spirit's power to enable God's heart and hands through us) - it's not the gospel of Christ that the early church preached, evidenced with signs and wonders, that demanded a radical lifestyle change), and seeing few touches of God on this earth. We can't even get our individual lives together, and our corporate lives only meet one or two times a week - for organized pieces to the puzzle, but rarely having all the pieces needed at once. How starved we are as branches on the Vine, coming together with Christ and His Body just often enough to survive, but not often enough to thrive. Don't we understand that we are God's Temple? Individually - we hold in ourselves God's Presence that we can fellowship with and get our Life from, and corporately, that Life in others can be released into us in ways we don't have ourselves. We ought to be seeking to give out to others what God pours into us daily - we ought to be seeking to give back to God what He's poured into us to give Him daily! (Acts 2:42-47) We need to be prepared and stay in season to do the works that Jesus did (John 14:12-17). It's time the rest of our lives (family, work, fun, even rest) was fitted around our relationship to God and within God's family - and not the other way around (John 6:27)! Everything we do and say should be in the context of our serving and loving the Lord, in the continual Presence of God! We need to live and function as one living Body together as God's Temple every day!
I guess I said all that to say this... I wish I had the option of corporate worship 24/7. I guess I should just start with developing my own personal worship and fellowship with God on a 24/7 basis while I appreciate the interval times of getting together with God's family.
