In Gods House

24“God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25“Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26“And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27“so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us"
Acts 17: 24 - 27 NKJV

I used to have a christian coworker who would every so often ask me if I had been in "Gods house" on Sunday.  Of course, it is widely known that Jesus had refered to the temple as "My fathers house" for good reason.  For indeed it was well known that in the temple the presence of God would dwell.  In fact, the Jewish priests were the only ones permitted in the inner sanctums of the temple.  How could God indeed tolerate a common man in the inner regions of His house?  No, there had to be a segregation.  No common people allowed in the holy parts.  So did the Jewish traditions contiue even to this day.  Even among christians, the church building itself has become well known as Gods house, as I was reminded every so often.  The church building was the epicenter of the faith.  The church housed all that we believed in as christians.  More than one pulpit pounder has called upon Gods presence to be realized in a Sunday sermon, as if God only dwelled in that particular building.  And as christians we all bought it hook line and sinker.  This was Gods house, and He was to remain there.  Talk about putting God in a box.  But wait, what if God indeed is not limited to just a building?  What if God does not dwell in His house at all?  Well, there goes thousands of years of christian philiosophy straight down the crapper!  Now the important question.  Is the creator of all creation limited to a building?  The apostle Paul didn't think so at all.

19Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body gand in your spirit, which are God’s.
1 Corinthians 6: 19 - 20 NKJV

In Acts 17 Paul tells those assembled in Athens that day that the God whom he served was not limited to any ornate building.  Indeed, the presence of God has no limitations.  We ourselves are the ones who place limits on who God is.  As Paul tells it, God does not dwell in temples made by men.  What?  Well, if indeed He dwelled in His house only, the ol' Paul would never have encountered Him on that Damascus road.  Someone would have had to escort Paul into Gods house.  Not into the holy area however, because that was forbidden.  What we as christians must realize is that God indeed does have a home, but it is not in a building.  No, Gods dwelling place today is within those who have recognized Christ Jesus.  It is the Spirit of God that lives through us.  Whatever we experience, see and live today, we do so as Christ who is in us.  That entire notion of a seperation between God and His children which was manifested in the temple no longer exists.  For it is through the man Christ Jesus that we now have a advocate to our heavenly Father {1 Timothy 2:5}.  It is though Christ Jesus that the relationship mankind shared with God before the fall has now been reinstated.  Our original factory settings have been made as they once were.  The notion that we travel each and every Sunday to Gods house is steeped in old testament thinking.  We don't travel to Gods house, we ARE Gods house.

20“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
Galations 2:20 NKJV

~Scott~