January 21, 2025
We have all kinds of names that we give churches now. We are creative about it, trying to indicate something of what the church is and stands for. But notice what Jesus declared His house, the temple in Jerusalem, to be.
And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a robbers’ den.” (Matthew 21:13)
Look at how God designed the temple, and you will see what it was for. It is a place that allows us to enter His presence.
Right at the entrance, there was a place of sacrifice and cleansing, indicating that we enter the presence of God only through the sacrifice of Christ. It is Him alone, and what He did allows us entrance, cleanses us, and prepares us for what is before. As we enter the temple, it is a place of cleansing and unceasing prayer, night and day, and all of it leads to one place: THE PRESENCE OF GOD, the HOLY OF HOLIES.
God’s great desire is for us to live in a continual state of prayer (communion) in His presence. He says about His temple, “It SHALL BE CALLED a house of prayer.” Not a house of preaching, or worship, or spiritual activity. All of that is crucial and to be done, but He calls all that is to be done there by one word: prayer—communion with God.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
What do people call your church? It should be the place where we gather to worship, learn, grow, and commune with each other and with God. But all of this to Jesus comes under one description: PRAYER. “I want people to look at your church and say that what is happening there can be described with one word: prayer. They are entering the throne room and communing with God. They are talking to the Father, listening to Him, communicating with Him, and receiving instructions from Him,” Jesus said. And we leave that place to "Go and make disciples of all nations."
Is this what people say of your church?
Brooklyn Tabernacle church in New York is an extraordinary anomaly. It is known for its praying. Every week, when they gather, there is preaching and great music, but at its core, it is a place of prayer. People come to encounter God. All that is done is designed to lead people into the presence of the Father through Jesus Christ and the aid of the Holy Spirit. People call it a house of prayer.
And that should be true of our churches. People should say, “Whatever that church does, I know this: they pray. They encounter God there, and God is changing lives.”
We must cooperate with God in ways that make it so. We should be careful that it is nothing less … that we are creating an environment where people are encountering God and communing with Him. A place alive with His presence.
“My house SHALL BE called a HOUSE OF PRAYER for all people.”
February 20, 2025
If you have questions about how real, how present, how personal and intimate the Lord is, then just read six words of travelogue in Luke’s journal as he traveled with Paul.
February 18, 2025
I have known many people who have had great joy and power in the midst of great suffering. It is humbling that the slightest inconveniences deter many of us from following God. We have not gotten to the bottom—settled the issue. Most often, we live for our comfort, reputation, or gain. When any of those goals are touched, we are troubled and discontent.
February 17, 2025
The repentant who finds God gains everything. “He who has God and everything else,” said C.S. Lewis, “has no more than he who has God alone.”
