Where is the House you would build for Me?
Written by Ben Dismukes
When I was a child, my mother was an organist in the Southern Baptist church we attended. I remember going to the church building with her on a weekly basis, where she would practice for next Sunday’s musical lineup. While she tickled the keys of the massive pipe organ, I entertained myself by exploring the various nooks and crannies one is capable of finding in an old-fashioned Baptist sanctuary, including classrooms, closets, an empty baptismal and a choir loft, to name a few. I had been taught in Sunday school that this was the House of God, but I couldn’t, for the life of me, understand why anyone would want to live in such a sterile place. Sure it was entertaining for an hour at a time for a nine year old boy with nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon... but a house?
Now that I’m older and have a much firmer grasp on the House of God, I’m utterly shocked that anyone who thinks that God lives in a building would be given authority to teach the scriptures to children.
The House of God is a major point of emphasis throughout the scriptures, and the revelation brought forth in the New Covenant is that God has no desire to live in buildings (Acts 7:48). It doesn’t matter, then, what fellowship you’re a part of, the structure in which it meets has nothing to do with the dwelling place of God. This is quite offensive to many who were given the same shallow Sunday School teachings I was exposed to as a boy, just as it offended the Jews in Acts 7, but your church building isn't holy or consecrated or special in any way, and it means nothing to the God of creation.
Such a warped understanding comes about quite organically when we rely on our own logic and reason in interpreting the Bible. Israel had a physical tabernacle in the wilderness and a literal temple in Jerusalem. Both housed the Presence of God for a period of time, so it’s easy for us to jump to the conclusion that God is quite taken by the places in which we assemble to worship Him, but this isn’t even remotely accurate. The Old Testament presents us with types and shadows that point to a spiritual reality that’s now directly accessible in the Person of Jesus Christ. Those Old Testament buildings are pictures of a covenant reality that you and I are invited to experience personally.
Peter tells us, “As you come to Him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ,” (1 Peter 2:4-5). This reveals to us a truth so simple, it’s often missed in the modern day church: God’s great desire is to tabernacle within and among His people. You and I are the material God deems to be suitable for building His house – not brick and mortar. As believers, which is precisely to whom Peter is writing, we are in process of being shaped into living stones that can be fitted together. This is clear imagery when we consider the nature of stones.
Stones, in their natural state, aren’t buildable materials. By that I mean they are not squared with smooth edges, capable of being handled by the builder and ready to be put in place. They are large and jagged and uneven and must endure a very involved process in order to be transformed into something useful – or as Peter would call it in reference to us, “living stones”. They must be cut. They must be shaped through extreme force and abrasion. It is a violent process.
The same is true of you and me. The narrow way of becoming Christ’s disciple involves a brutal process of being shaped, in a similar manner to natural stones. This truth runs counter to the bless me gospel of American Christianity, but it’s absolutely biblical. Consider the apostle Paul. It was through imprisonment, beatings, shipwrecks, being stoned, going hungry, going sleepless and experiencing a whole host of dangers that he was being made ready as a living stone in the House of God. This type of suffering is not unique to Paul. The apostolic was given to us, in part, to show us what it looks like to have Christ living within, so that we have a clear understanding of the nature of this relationship. That means that Paul is a picture of what it means to follow Christ.
The way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
The American church, in its present condition, is largely comprised of unbuildable stones. I say this not as a criticism, but rather as an honest assessment. We not only have not endured the necessary processes of God required to become living stones (and I’ll talk more specifically about this in a later post), we insulate ourselves against those processes through doctrines of demons that lead us to think we can live our best lives now and still be disciples of Christ. We need a wake up call in what calls itself the House of God, and we need to get back to the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets. That foundation is none other than Christ – not a doctrine or an idea or a story, but the Person, Himself.
He is the Narrow Gate, and there are few that find Him.
