One Temple

There is only one physical temple for God in this world and that is our bodies, the bodies of those who have trusted Christ. We can meet anywhere at anytime with anyone we choose to edify one another as we worship God in Spirit and in Truth as we walk through this life.

These church buildings that people attend have made the believers lazy. They do not read their Bibles at home, pray at home or witness in their communities.

Their once-a-week gatherings give them a sense of having done their duty, and they go home with no change in their hearts or enthusiasm for Christ. They have placed their trust in that "institutionally educated" man paid to do his job, instead of in Christ.

The gatherings have become a structured system with men's expectations that include no one speaking except the one man up front.

This is not at all the Biblical model given to us in the Bible for the gathering of believers. God told us that as we gather together we are to edify one another.

We are not called to make sacrifices to God as in the Old Testament times. We are called to receive His sacrifice for us as the final word. Our sacrifice is our service to Him in the world.

The gathering of the believers is for edifying one another, speaking to one another, all participating as led by the Holy Spirit. This is what bonds us together, elevating Christ not ourselves.

We are the living sacrifice with Christ living in us.

Romans 12:1-2 "1Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God."

When we edify one another in the Lord, He is glorified, the focus is Him.

1 Peter 1:3 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,"

Our time with the believers in gathering should enhance our daily walk, giving us boldness and the ability to share Christ in the community.

In the modern church gatherings, people are discouraged from speaking while they face forward in worshipful fashion toward the one man speaker. Anyone who disrupts him will be silenced or ushered out if they will not stop talking.

Hebrews 10:24-25 "…24And let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds. 25 Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

Acts 2:42 "They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer."

Matthew 18:20 "For where two or three gather together in My name, there am I with them.”

There is no formula in the gathering in which someone else makes the decisions of what to sing, speak and what to pray without the input of the others. The Holy Spirit leads each one to bring a prayer, a speaking or a song; the Holy Spirit is preeminent, not a person up front.

1 Peter 4:11 "If anyone speaks, he should speak as one conveying the words of God. If anyone serves, he should serve with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen."

Philippians 2:9 "Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name above all names."

The modern churches do not glorify man and are full of dead, lifeless ritual with emotion thrown in to make it seem legitimate.

God's way of gathering glorifies Christ and not people. I grieve every time I hear someone say something like: "I like that preacher because of the way he preaches", or worse: "I go to that church because of the music."

We should never gather to enjoy ourselves! We should gather to edify one another to the glory of Christ.

We are living in the end times full of false doctrine, false worship, false humility, and everything else false too. It's all ritual to satisfy the emotions of people who have little depth, living entirely on superficial sentimentality.

Glorifying Christ is not on the minds of most Christians; their personal feelings and happiness drive everything they do.

2 Timothy 4:2-4 "…2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction. 3 For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. 4 So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."