And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever…
Ps 23:6
I’ve always thought that being homeless must be the most awful condition in life. My mum was a homemaker till I turned almost 13, because she constantly gave birth to some babies, and chose to do her preoccupation to make our home a good and safe place for me and my brother and two sisters. And it was great! Whenever I returned from school, she was always home with prepared dinner. I still remember the calm and warm atmosphere in our home when coming home from school, sometimes sad and freezing. If it was raining outside, it was always warm in our home, because my dad had put on fire in the fireplace, and mum had prepared dinner and lightened candles. When I entered the door, they were always happy to see me. When we were placed around the table, and had sung the prayer, mum and dad asked me; “how was school today?”
Not all kids experience this. Many experience to come home to drunken parents. In order to not get beaten for some insignificant bagatelles, they consider the best idea, to not go home after school, but hang outside in the streets with the people they find there till the very night.
It surprised me very much when I encountered several people who’re homeless, who were pretty satisfied with life. I remember once, while doing “Street-Aid” in Oslo with a group from my church, stumbling upon a guy sleeping in the street a rainy November-evening. Me and my friend, Kristin offered him to come with us to Teen Challenge Coffee House (Marita), and get some food and some rest. We expected the guy, to be happy and receive the offer; but surprisingly, he didn’t. He actually started yelling at us for waking him up from his beautiful sleep, explaining that he had found a really good sleeping position, on some dry newspapers in a corner were nobody (except us) woke him up or chased him away.
I could sense some of the devils hand in this situation. The devil is a liar, and he is blinding people’s eyes from seeing the truth. (2. Cor 4:3) He loves it when he can blind people enough to make them satisfied with eating the scrums together with the pigs and sleeping on newspapers, instead of having a home, sleeping in a bed, eating a good dinner with your own family.
The guy that slept in the corner was very high on drugs, and could obviously have slept everywhere. Kristin and I felt the Holy Spirit prompted us to hesitate although he rejected us. So with some love and strength from God, we finally got Geir up on his feet and lend him hands all the way to Coffee House, although he was still a little angry at us. But however, after getting food, fellowship, some rest in God’s presence and some encouraging words, Geir was thankful although.
God wants all Christians who are born again into His family to experience the first thing I was talking about; growing up in a warm home, where they can live freely with their entire being, receive food in time and enjoy fellowship with their family-members without fear or lack. And I’m so happy that this is not only a flaky spiritual idea, we can only experience in the invisible world if we pray long enough and stay non-interrupted in a cottage on the mountain; No! It’s very practical, and very easy to get into. The home is called the local church! You can enter the building with your own feet, embrace and shake hands with real human in a hall, sing songs with your own voice, listen to anointed teaching in an audible sound with your ears, and you can even use your own hands to vacuum-clean the carpets after service if you want and have time.
My intention with this chapter is to do the same with you as me and Kristin did with Geir; wake you up from your blindness and lead you by hands into the house of God where your needs can be filled, and you can start to live again with your whole being. Are you ready?
What is a church?
I tried to ask my girls in the rehab-center where I serve; what was your picture of church before you became a Christian? And their answers mostly sounded like; a nice building with activities for religious people.
And I asked them again; what is your picture of church now?
Honestly, they kind of surprised me. I mean, I more or less expected them to say that it’s a good place with nice people and stuff, but almost all of them answered: It’s a place where you can experience God’s presence!
The church is where God lives
However it’s true that God lives in the church, I have experienced walking into nice big churches, cathedrals with golden ornaments and eminent architecture. But I didn’t feel anything of God’s presence in there. But I have also experienced standing under a tent in India surrounded by a lot of Indian people and flies, singing songs I didn’t understand anything of –and been awestruck by God’s presence.
Why?!
Because God doesn’t live in buildings made of stones anymore. He moved out 2000 years ago! It’s true, that in the Old Testament the physical dwelling place of God’s presence was in a building. He lived in the great holy temple in Jerusalem. But one day, Jesus cried out on the cross: It is finished! Then it says in Matthew 27:51:
Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom…
So as Jesus cried out “It is finished –God moved. God moved through the veil, out from the temple of Jerusalem that was build out of bricks of stone, and…
-inside human beings!
God wasn’t pleased with living in buildings made of stone, when He had been longing for people since the beginning of the world! 2. Chor 3:16 says
Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
So now –God lives in people, people who have received Jesus as their savior. And the Bible says that when people filled with God’s presence are gathered,
God is building you, as living stones, into his spiritual temple. 1. Peter 2:4a
And Ephesians 2:21.22 says the same;
In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
Not a temple made out of dead stone, like the Temple in the Old Testament. No, the temple in the Old Testament is only a picture of the real thing. Maybe you have a photo of your wife or husband on the background on your cell phone. But it’s not her or him –it’s just a picture. In the same way, the temple in the Old Testament was not the real temple as God planned it–just a picture of it. The real temple is not an old dead one like a stone-building, but a new living one..
…consisting of people!
That is the new temple God is pleased with dwelling in! Because this is where you and I are the stones –and we are those God loves us and is pleased with! God’s presence dwells inside of you me, and when we come together, God is forming us into what the Bible in the New Testament calls The Church –the new temple!
So as you see that although the church is inside a building, the building doesn’t make it into a church –but the people inside it who are filled with God’s presence! When they gather, God is there!
Many places in the world, like in India, it’s so hot, so there is no need for a building before the rain-season. But here in Ukraine, there is absolutely a need for church buildings where people can stay in winter without dying, and although it doesn’t matter for God if the building is good looking or not –it’s smart to make it nice for us who’re more likely are going to spend hours in there:-)
But why do people need a church?
People need a church in the same way as they need a home!
1: People need a place to be born.
For most of us, the home was not a choice we made on ourselves, because we were brought there as fast as we were born, or maybe we were literally born there! Maybe your home was good, maybe not. Maybe you for some reason weren’t born in a home at all.
I’m of course talking about being born again –becoming a Christian. Maybe your “spiritual birth clinic” was on a Christian concert where you went by yourself. Maybe it was in your own house with a close friend who brought you to church the day after.
The church is however a “nest” where newborn Christians need to be brought as fast as possible, as it says so beautifully in Ps 86:4.
Babies that are thrown out on the street after their birth, die. It’s the same spiritually. If someone become a Christian and never become a part of a church –he or she will most likely sooner or later deny that he or she is a Christian. It’s really sad. The fact is that babies need to stay in a home, a warm clean place, protected from the worst infections and diseases. As you probably know, there is a lot of so called “baby diseases” that affect new born babies. They are not dangerous –if somebody takes care of the child in a warm, healthy and safe place. In the same way, the devil, or the world, or human being or however, have some “baby-diseases”, some thoughts and difficult questions they’re throwing over the newborn Christians. These are not dangerous, unless for those Christians who’re born again along a path, and are not taken to a home. Then it happens with their “new creation” what’s explained in Mark 4:4, the birds came and ate it up. When you have become a Christian you need to stay in “good ground, with some people filled with God’s love that are “deeper” than yours! They can answer the questions and tell the truth when “the viruses” are trying to get hold on your “newborn creation”.
Newborn babies also need love. I’ll never forget the testimonies of a woman in my church in Oslo who went as a missionary to Africa under a big famine crisis. She was nursing in a big orphanage where the pressure was very big. Suddenly, they experienced that several children just died without any visible reason. So what they did; they started to tighten the small, week babies to their own bodies. Soon, they were all nursing around with three or four babies tightened to their bodies. What a heavy work! But you know what? They saved the babies’ lives! Because close physical contact is the most basic need of a newborn baby!
Maybe you know some newborn Christians who’re very weak spiritually? Know that week babies are very rarely going to a hospital by themselves. So as you recognize them: Take them to church as you thigh them to yourself. Invite them for coffee after service. Spend time with them, share your life, and involve them in the certain ministry you’re serving in! Don’t demand everybody else there to “thigh them”. My friend Sergey Glushko, leader of TC Ukraine is my favorite example in this area. He “tights” the new Christians to himself as he does the ministry. He literally carries them around as he is serving, whether it is in street ministry, church, counseling, or social life. He carries them around as he cares and nurses other “babies”. And you know, I’m so amazed, these “babies” tightened to Sergey grow up so fast! And are soon “nursing around” with other babies tightened to them!
2: People need somewhere to be raised
As a baby grows up, there it needs more than love and protection. The new born church in acts 2:42 had found something they steadfastly held on to.
And they constantly abided in teaching, prayer, communion and the fellowship.
A: Teaching from the bible is like food, as it says in Matt 4:4. Actually, all people, independent on age or size, need food just for surviving.
Did you grow up in a house where mum and dad were working all day and said: Feed yourself? Imagine yourself coming home after school. You’re 7-8 years old. You’re starving. As you open the freezer, you find some vegetable-soup for putting in the micro, and there are also… Ice cream! What would you pick?
I know what I would pick… You can say whatever. But if a kid do this every day, it will turn really bad.
Spiritually food is the same. You need the word of God because this is what feeds the new creation no matter for how long you’ve been walking with God. And in church, you get dinner prepared! There are ministers, pastors, teachers and evangelists, who you can recon as “your parents”! And as we were talking about in chapter 4, they are more than willing to prepare you good healthy food! I’m in some way a “Bible teacher”, and I love it whenever I find somebody to feed! These “parents” have been Christian for a long time, and know how to “divide the bible” (2.tim 2:13). I’ll explain what I’m talking about. Maybe you say “But aren’t the whole bible is the word of God?” Yes! It’s all the word of God, and it’s all needful in order to strengthen the “person of God” (1. Tim 3:16-17. But on the contrary; it’s not true that everything written in the Bible has the same importance to all people in all ages! Maybe you understand what I mean when I say that it’s true that ice cream is food, but it’s not true that ice cream is food that all people should eat to all meals always.
An example, is when some newborn Christians get hold on some teaching or read in the Book of Revelation about the end of the ages and the sign of the coming of Antichrist. But this is like ice cream. It’s good to talk about some in a while, (tempting to talk about a way too often) but if you put your attention on this every day, you’ll become crazy and very scared.
Another example is people who only eat what they “like”. All kind of food need to be fresh and with varieties. Some Christians who rarely go to church, very likely find themselves reading their favorite psalms or passages from Isaiah over and over, because they’re scared of reading things they won’t understand or like. There are some ministers that has wandered through the scriptures with Jesus, like the guys in Luke . And they’re not afraid of giving you the whole Bible. You know why?
Because they know how to prepare it! Food need to be prepared in order to profit. Like potatoes. In order for them to profit you, they need to be cooked, and in order to be cooked, they need power. And do you know the power? The power is described in Rom 1:16: The gospel of Jesus Christ! Paul also says in gal 3:1 that “I’ve painted before your eyes: Jesus Christ crucified” (gal 3:1) Whatever biblepassage it’s talking about, all kind of issues in life, whether it is marriage, sins, behavior, problems, etc. It need to be prepared on the power –about what Jesus has done at the cross! All food taste good when it’s “well prepared” in the gospel of Christ. Because the gospel has power to save! It can save non Christians from hell, and all kind of Christians from temptations and problems they’re encountering in their lives. When you’re unaware about Gods’ power to overcome your problems, you will more likely struggle to solve it in your own power. And no man manage anything by own strength”, 1. Sam 2:9)
B: Prayer and worship is another thing Christians need in order to grow up. Not only alone, but also together. The Bible says that what two or three agrees about here on earth will be! I can’t count how many times I’ve been in a hopeless situation, without even knowing what to pray about! But because some other Christian has prayed together with me, we initially found out what to pray about, and secondly got the answer! Being in a church should make it so easy to “just pray!” In my church, we have a culture that makes this so easy. The bible says in fil 4:5-6 that whatever is on your heart –let it come before God with prayer, intercession and thanksgiving!
When you also take part in other peoples’ joys, not only sorrows, you’ll be such a happy person! And don’t worry about crying with those who’re crying; The bible says “blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
C: The fellowship with brothers and sisters.
People have so many ideas. I’ve heard some people say very radically that “I am the temple of God. I can lift my steeples and have service wherever and whenever I want.” In a way, this is true; God lives in you, and His heart’s desire is to show you His loving presence wherever and whenever.
Although, all truths can be stretched out so far, that it isn't a truth anymore. As I told in chapter 3, your destiny is to live for other people –and this is what church is all about! Whether you don’t feel like spending time with people or not -this is just a feeling –and you cannot use God’s word to excuse being a loner, although it says that God’s presence dwells in you. You’ll always experience being a “dead stone” unless you become a part of a church of living stones (1. Peter 2:4).
In my personal life, I have experienced that God treated me a little strict in this area. During certain periods, I’ve been crying out to God for His touch and His help, without getting any answer! –Why? Simply because God loves you too much to let you struggle and fight alone. Gen 2:18 states that
It is not good that man should be alone.
And Church is the answer! So when I finally pulled myself into the church, God answered all my prayers about feeling His presence! How? Through the people there whom God lived inside!
So my friend, if you’re struggling with unanswered prayers; Pull yourself into a local physical church! It’s for sure the answer to your prayers!
D: Communion
Comunion is a wonderful thing you can partake in your church, as described in the bible in 1 cor 11:23-26. It is a physical reminder we do as we gather to remind that Jesus was beaten for our sicknesses and that His blood was shared for our sins. This means health! God want you to find healing and forgiveness in His house! Maybe you come to church with a big sense of guilt because of something you had done, or not done right? However, in the temple in 2. Cronicles 4, it talks about how King Solomon build the temple, which is the image of the church we have today. And in it, he build “an ocean”, which was a big pool of water for those who came for service to wash. And as it is described, the “ocean” dwelt on 12 oxen! Because God gave you church for you to be released from your burden of sin. Imagine how these oxen, which symbolize strength, carries all the weight of your burdens. How many times I’ve ran out from a service after partaking in the holy communion, feeling happy again, full knowing that my sins are paid!
And in there, there was also build in the decoration a lot of pomegranates! Pomegranates are the fruits with the most vitamins in –wich means a symbol of health! God knew this and uses it as an illustration on how he want you to receive His healing: Eat it –‘cause everything is finished!
All Christians to all ages faces burdens of sin-depression and sickness. God is a God who heals you from your diseases and forgives your sins! (ps 103:2) All these, He has wonderfully artistically imparted in the interior of the local church, as a wine yard, where He will show you His love (songs 4..) as it is also written in Eph 3:18
May have power to, together with all the Lords people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ!
You need a home where all this is working. And partake in it! If you won’t partake in it, it won’t profit you.
The church consists of your presence!
Your presence is needed in the church! Maybe some of your “former names” were useless? The bible says that in a church God turns you into a living stone. God wants to use exactly you –to become a part of Gods most fantastic building –His church!
For me, coming to church was like being a dead stone and becoming alive again. You have probably experienced, that there are so many lies the devil are spreading out regarding the Church. And they’re all focusing on you. I struggled with thoughts like: It doesn’t profit the church more or less if I’m there or if I don’t. I’m not so important, unless I’d be in a high position or something.
I met one of my friends not so long time ago. And he said some of the same, that he actually would love to take more part in a certain ministry in church, but he wasn’t sure whether the church would like his personality. He excused that he is a more calm and sound person, than the spontaneous and merry people you see in the worship-team and preaching.
My friend, Church is not about you –it’s about Jesus. 1. Peter 2 says in the previous verse, verse 4 that “as we come to Him, He makes us into useful, living stones - that fit in the church architecture! It’s not my business to be suitable to the church, but His! In verse 5 it even says that He makes us into holy priests! Maybe you thought that you weren’t holy enough to be active in a church? There may be some sins which the brothers and sisters may tell you to repent from, but remember, that is not based on your own work, but the fact that Jesus has already made you holy, and completely able to live like a holy priest! And if you humble yourself enough to ask for help quitting the sin; you’ll for sure get it –from people who’ve probably went through the same struggles as you!
God didn’t create church for us to condemn each other –but to help and carry the burdens of each other! (Gal 6,2)
Show up every Sunday!
In Hebr 10:24 (NIV) it says:
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
I was definitely one of those in the habit of not coming to service. One day, I took the decision to go to church every Sunday –regardless of my desire to sleep, and the distance and bus-taxes and so on. I decided to let Jesus make me into this living stone by at least showing up every Sunday, regardless of my feelings of importance in the mass of 500 people. All stones are important in a building. It’s a lie that you are not important. (This lie keeps churches small. God wants big churches so they can be visible and unconquerable!) And I discovered that my life got so filled with purpose –I was nothing less than in the middle of Gods plan of salvation for the world! Why being a single stone lying on the street unable to move –when you can be a part of the most miraculous glorious building in the world?!
So many Christians are not going to church because they feel they have to know exactly which church to be a part of.
I tell you –God has one plan for saving the world, and that is the church! I’m a little harsh, but I tell you; you’ll never find yourself any purpose, unless being part of a local church. I had a hard time deciding what kind of church going to, ‘cause there was so many. But in the end, I just picked one; and decided to defy my feelings and get there every Sunday, and help in the ministry where there was needs, regardless if I felt it as a forever life-calling or not. Just do it- heaven is your final destination anyway. As you just do it, don’t worry that you won’t find “Gods plan for your life. God is the master-builder –He will for sure guide you. I stayed in Oslo Christian center the time I spent in Bible school, and afterwards, through the same church –God lead me to Ukraine and into another church, Word of life, and the ministry where I’m now.
The church is a body
The bible says that the church is also a body where Jesus is the head.
Ephesians 1:22-23
And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
The language in Ephesians is a little packed sometimes. But it actually says that The church is Jesus’ own body! It’s the fullness of Him. With other words: The Church is Jesus! And Jesus fills all in all –you and I –in His body!
So definitely –church is where God lives –it’s where He breathes! And you can more than experience His presence: You can be the lungs He’s breathing through!
I tell you; If you find a church where you can dwell physically with “the fullness of your being”; your time, your actions, and your devotions, you will experience physically the whole fullness of Jesus! The fullness of Jesus is more than getting some chills some in a while. It is the work of His hands, the steps of His feet, the smile on His face, the beat of His heart. Do you want to be where Jesus Himself is doing His works, setting captives free, healing sick and broken hearted, saving and delivering all as is written in Isaiah 61? Stay in the church –because the church is Jesus’ own body.
I hope you understand
You need to be a part of a physical church in order to experience God’s physical presence. Some other people who think they can just be Christians without being part of any local church, is committing to the excuse that “no, the church is something universal consisting of all the Christians in the world”
But being the body of Christ is a way more practical than being a Christian wanderer together with all the believers in the world.
God needs a body in order to show the world that He loves them. And you and I are this body –because we are mini-Christs! And people in the world –who don’t know the truth and are blinded by the devil, need a body to come and reveal the truth to them!
Back to Coffee House in Norway; I and Kristin were a great team. I remember once, sharing Jesus with another guy, named Robert. He told me that he had a hard time believing in God, because he couldn’t see Him. Especially was it hard for him believe that God loved Him, if God could never come and hug him, because he simply didn’t believe anyone loved him if they didn’t hug him. And as I tried to imply an explanation to him, Kristin appeared, and out of a sudden, she embraced Robert’s girlfriend who sat sleeping across the table. As I had tried to explain something like this, that the Christians are the body of Christ, Robert finally understood that God was visible, and that God could hug his girlfriend.
Some misunderstandings about church:
The Church is a family
Did you grow up in a family without parents? Most people I know who do that, says that they have no family. Cause a family is not a family without a mum or dad. Both is best of course. In a church we call each other brothers and sisters. God is the father of course. But we also have “spiritual” mothers and fathers in church. The bible says in eph 4,11-12
He is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ
In a church, there are many of these. You can have one –and you can be one.
It’s important to know that church is nothing you can make up yourself as you want it. No, it’s something Jesus is building, as I said, consisting of many people, founded on a certain structure Jesus himself has decided. Not by some radical people with cool ideas, but by real Apostles and Prophets, as it says in Ephesians 2:20.22.
having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone..
An Apostle is the person Jesus Himself chooses to build the foundation on the church; the Bible says that he is giving birth to it as a Father (1. Cor 4:15). The Apostle Paul even defends his apostleship with the argument that he has seen Jesus (1. Chor 9:1). So you see, it’s a very strict thing to make a church, please, don’t come up with any such plans, unless you are completely sure Jesus Himself has showed it to you. Don’t plant a church out from some fleshly desires that you can make a church on the ideologies that you find important and with the activities you like. No, the church is the work of Jesus himself. I advice you in love, that you will more profit and grow as a Christian if you stay in an already existing church. Committing under a leadership –parents, placed by God no matter whether you agree with them or not, is one of the best ways to grow with God into the person he has destined you to be.
