Jesus broke through religious barriers and went straight to the heart of what worship was all about.
In my opinion, church shouldn’t be so church-y. My church isn’t all that church-y, and I’m pretty happy there. Over the years, I’ve seen people come to my church with religious ideas, and it’s kind of fun to see their preconceptions of what church should look like challenged.
The ones who stay are the ones who look for the heart behind what we do; the ones who leave were looking for a comfortable place, one probably like the church they left.
But lest I get on my high horse, are there legalistic tendencies I’m harboring, even if they are coming from a good place? What do I mistake as evidence of God’s work in someone or something, but really, it’s all about my own personal taste?
And where do I throw out the baby with the bath water, thinking something very unspiritual, when, in fact, God is at work there?
Last summer, as I read through Old Testament books in which God was speaking to His people about their rebellion, I was struck by the idea that the Israelites had put up idols in the Temple. What a mind-blower! The Temple was the symbol of all that was pure and holy and beautiful, and they defiled it with the one thing God told them not to do – worship other gods.
Where are the idols we’ve put up in our church? Maybe that worship has to be on fire for us to really get into it? Maybe that the people we sit next to are (mostly) like us? I don’t know, entirely… I just remember my heart being soft at the mention of idols in the Temple.
All I know is that we’re called to do the same thing Jesus did – get through all the other stuff, and find the heart of worship.
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