McChurch
Acts 7: 47 - 50 NKJV
I was asked by a friend of mine some time ago if I had been to "Gods house" on Sunday. Of course, this man knew that I was a christian and that I would attend church...on occasion. I honestly didn't know what to tell him. If I told him the cold, bold truth then he might just question my christian faith. However, if I told him what was not true, that I had indeed been to Gods house, then I would need to answer to my own conscience. See, while most practicing christians file into houses of worship each Sunday morning, a few select brothers in Christ will gather at a local fast food joint for breakfast with Jesus. Having now been dubbed "McChurch" by one of the wives, we gather every Sunday morning to catch up and some Jesus talk. Who would ever understand that our group of men who gather to dine on breakfast burritos, pancakes and coffee were indeed attending church? We don't have a pulpit. We have no praise and worship band. There is no first and second service. All we have is a few brothers in Christ Jesus who come together on Sunday in fellowship. Does this make our gathering more or less of a church? Well, in the eyes of many it would. The physician Luke refers in Acts 7 that the Most High "does not dwell in temples made with hands." Indeed, if God has created all things then "what house will you build for me?" The issue that I run into in my interaction of with others is that so many people defend their belief that our heavenly Father will only be "properly" admired and worshipped in a dedicated church...in Gods house. I will usually disagree with this assumption for more than a few good reasons. The most prominent of these reasons being that we cannot say that our Lord is all in all, and yet put Him in a box as to where He can be worshipped and praised. In fact, some of the christians I have had this discussion with will defend their claim that God dwells in His house, yet in the same breath they will tell me that He is all around us. So which is it? Do we serve a God who is all in all but stops by His house every Sunday that His children may worship Him? That sounds a little too old testament for my liking.
6knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be adone away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6: 6 - 11 NKJV
From what I can gather, many a christian will defend the coming together in worship for a select few reasons. One of these reasons is that they feel the need to "be close to God." I mean, how else would we feel closer to our Lord than in His house? To this I would suggest to more than a few others that we who have accepted Christ Jesus are already closer to God than we realize. The apostle Paul mentions to us in more than a few places in his letters that it is in we ourselves where the Spirit of Christ Jesus makes His home today. Indeed, if we "died with Christ, then we believe that we shall also live with Him" {Romans 6: 8}. Do we discount these proclamations made by Paul? Do we ignore his testimony that Christ was revealed in him when it pleased the Father {Galations 1:16}? I would say that it simply does not matter as to where we choose to gather in rememberence, worship or celebration of our heavenly Father. There is nowhere we can go where we will be closer to Christ than we already are. And if we are one in Christ Jesus, then we are one in God as well. What house will we build for He who has created all we see?
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~
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