Focus
Pay attention to the tension in your body. Let go of it and any expectations to do anything other than God’s will today. Prepare yourself to hear God’s word.
Read
Acts 7:44-53 (NRSV)
“Our ancestors had the tent of testimony in the wilderness, as God directed when he spoke to Moses, ordering him to make it according to the pattern he had seen. Our ancestors in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our ancestors. And it was there until the time of David, who found favor with God and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made with human hands; as the prophet says,
‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
or what is the place of my rest?
Did not my hand make all these things?’
“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.”
Reflect
What is the church? I have heard numerous ministers from a variety of denominations ask this question. Is the church the building where a particular group of people meets to worship? Is it the minister? Is it the people? I hear this same question in Luke’s words.
In my opinion, the church is not the building in which we meet to worship on Sunday mornings. Some of the best experiences I have had worshipping God have been on a mountain with the fog covering the valley below while the minister preached the word of God. It is not the building that praises God’s name, but the people. We glorify God through our actions—those things we do in God’s name and the love we show to others.
Pray
God, please help me always to praise your name through my actions. Thank you. Amen.
Go with God.
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