God Does
"But I, by your great love, can come into your house; in reverence I bow down toward your holy temple." -Psalm 5:7
One of the biggest changes for me in coming to college has been not having the same church home. When I was seven years old, we moved to our current house and started going to the United Methodist Church I now attend. In fact, our pastor had just moved as well and he was the same man who preached at our old church in Indianapolis. So starting completely from scratch in Marion was a bit of a culture shock to me.
Thankfully, God led me very quickly to a mission field that I believe will easily become my home church while I am attending college. I have the great opportunity to participate in a church plant at a small, country church near my school.
Perhaps it is preparation for this task that God has been consistently bringing me back to the Psalm verse mentioned above. For whatever reason, I have been spending some time for the past week meditating on this scripture. Two particular things about it have begun to stick out to me.
The first is in the beginning of the verse, when King David writes, "I, by your great love, can come into your house..." When Christ died on the cross, the Bible tells us that the curtain in the Temple was torn in two. This is a very symbolic miracle on God's part. The curtain was what separated the everyday worshiper from the Ark of the Covenant, which held the presence of God. No longer was the Ark only accessible for the Most High Priest (and only once a year), but now God was sending an open invitation to every Israelite, from the greatest lord to the lowliest slave. It is because of Christ's sacrifice that we are now able to enter into the presence of God and into His house. The blood of Jesus has washed us clean.
The second thing that has truly struck me is in the latter half of the verse where David uses the adjective "reverence" to describe His attitude toward God in the temple. Perhaps we are too deeply entrenched in our own traditions, but often I believe we see our services as only the elements that they are made up of. The pastor's sermon was really good today. I didn't like the song they played during the offering yesterday. The choir sang really well this morning. I fear that church has become a production and God is slowly being given a smaller and smaller role.
In truth, it doesn't matter how good the worship music is or how well the pastor preaches if God isn't present and moving in our hearts.
Sermons don't change hearts, God does. Songs don't change hearts, God does. Eloquent prayers don't change hearts, God does. It is for this reason that we bow down in reverence to God. Because when it seems that everything fails us, we can always remember the one in whom we hope. No person can guide your path perfectly. No thing can fix how broken we are.
But God? God does.
One of the biggest changes for me in coming to college has been not having the same church home. When I was seven years old, we moved to our current house and started going to the United Methodist Church I now attend. In fact, our pastor had just moved as well and he was the same man who preached at our old church in Indianapolis. So starting completely from scratch in Marion was a bit of a culture shock to me.
Thankfully, God led me very quickly to a mission field that I believe will easily become my home church while I am attending college. I have the great opportunity to participate in a church plant at a small, country church near my school.
Perhaps it is preparation for this task that God has been consistently bringing me back to the Psalm verse mentioned above. For whatever reason, I have been spending some time for the past week meditating on this scripture. Two particular things about it have begun to stick out to me.
The first is in the beginning of the verse, when King David writes, "I, by your great love, can come into your house..." When Christ died on the cross, the Bible tells us that the curtain in the Temple was torn in two. This is a very symbolic miracle on God's part. The curtain was what separated the everyday worshiper from the Ark of the Covenant, which held the presence of God. No longer was the Ark only accessible for the Most High Priest (and only once a year), but now God was sending an open invitation to every Israelite, from the greatest lord to the lowliest slave. It is because of Christ's sacrifice that we are now able to enter into the presence of God and into His house. The blood of Jesus has washed us clean.
The second thing that has truly struck me is in the latter half of the verse where David uses the adjective "reverence" to describe His attitude toward God in the temple. Perhaps we are too deeply entrenched in our own traditions, but often I believe we see our services as only the elements that they are made up of. The pastor's sermon was really good today. I didn't like the song they played during the offering yesterday. The choir sang really well this morning. I fear that church has become a production and God is slowly being given a smaller and smaller role.
In truth, it doesn't matter how good the worship music is or how well the pastor preaches if God isn't present and moving in our hearts.
Sermons don't change hearts, God does. Songs don't change hearts, God does. Eloquent prayers don't change hearts, God does. It is for this reason that we bow down in reverence to God. Because when it seems that everything fails us, we can always remember the one in whom we hope. No person can guide your path perfectly. No thing can fix how broken we are.
But God? God does.
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