You inhabit the praises of Your people…

…so the Psalmist says (Psalm 22:3).

Where is God?

It is my firm belief that God does not live in buildings. A church is not the house of God because God lives there when there is no-one else around.

Looking back into the Old Testament, God’s presence was in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle. This seems to directly contradict what is stated above – God evidently lived in a place, even when there was no-one else around.

This all ties in with Christmas and the Incarnation, but more strongly with Easter, and specifically Communion.

Because Christ died, we can be with the Father. The New Covenant, sealed with Jesus’ blood made this so. This is what we remember, and symbolise at Communion.

Communion is something quite complex and therefore confusing – I read an interesting take on it in an extract from a book called God Still Matters by Herbert McCabe, given to me to prepare as part of one of my Cambridge interviews for Theology. McCabe states that Jesus is not in paradise, Jesus is paradise. This sets an interesting spin on the purpose of Communion – by symbolically eating the body and blood of Jesus, we are having paradise infused into us in some way. At first glance, this seemed like a fantastic exposition of the true purpose of Communion, a real ‘lightbulb moment’ for me. However I’ve come to decided that I’m not entirely satisfied with McCabe’s idea.

This is where I make a tenuous link with the question above: ‘Where is God?’

God does not move in buildings when there is no-one there – have you ever heard of God repairing the brickwork, or updating the interior design? Of course not, for God is a God who deals in relationships and love. When God moves, His Spirit is in people. This is why a building can never be called a church, because it is simply a shell.  A church is the group, or fellowship, of people who meet together in that shell to worship… God is in them, not the building. We see this idea repeatedly in scripture, most memorably where Paul talks of our bodies as the ‘temple of the Holy Spirit.’ (1 Corinthians 6:19, NIV).

Until this summer, at events like Soul Survivor, my visual imagination of the healing power of God was a streak of light from the sky, filling the tent and touching people wherever it went, not dissimilar from the scene toward the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, when the Nazis open the Ark of the Covenant and are struck dead by this ‘light force’.

Now, I have come to realise what actually happens – the power of God does not come from the sky, but from the hearts of the people in the tent, who worship Him. God is not in buildings, He is in His people.

This is where Communion starts to make sense – it symbolises one’s acceptance of Jesus into their heart. By eating His body and drinking His blood, He becomes part of us.

The chorus of the song, ‘The Same Power’ illustrates this beautifully:

‘The same power that conquered the grave lives in me, lives in me…Your love that rescued the earth lives in me, lives in me.’

We can have the power of God within us, if we so desire.

‘Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.’ – Revelation 3:20, NIV.

This helps us to understand the concept of worship. We should worship the Lord our God with all of our being, our bodies, our minds, our hearts and our souls. If we can do this, then God will truly be inhabiting the praises of His people. He inhabits us, and our purpose is to praise Him. We are His praise.

I want my life to be pictured as a mirror – constantly reflecting something brighter and better than I, constantly showing others the way to be with the Father.

Jesus Christ is the Saving One.

Bonhoeffer on Confession

I came across this in David Westlake’s blog – you should certainly check it out if you have the time: http://www.davidwestlake.com/

It’s some quotes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, without doubt one of the most inspired and inspiring men ever to have lived.

‘In confession there occurs a breakthrough to assurance. Why is it often easier for us to acknowledge our sins before God than before another believer? God is holy and without sin, a just judge of evil, and an enemy of all disobedience. But another Christian is sinful, as are we, knowing from personal experience the night of secret sin. Should we not find it easier to go to one another than to the holy God? But if that is not the case, we must ask ourselves whether we often have not been deluding ourselves about our confession of sin to God – whether we have not instead been confessing our sins to ourselves and also forgiving ourselves. And is not the reason for our innumerable relapses and for the feebleness of our Christian obedience to be found precisely in the fact that we are living from self-forgiveness and not from the real forgiveness of our sins? Self-forgiveness can never lead to the break with sin. This can only be accomplished by God’s own judging and pardoning Word. Who can give us the assurance that we are not dealing with ourselves but with the living God in the confession and the forgiveness of our sins? God gives us this assurance through one another.’ (113)

‘But it is precisely for the sake of this assurance that confession is about admitting concrete sins. People usually justify themselves by making a general acknowledgment of sin. But I experience the complete forlornness and corruption of human nature, insofar as I ever experience it at all, when I see my own specific sins.’ (113)

‘Does all this mean that confession to one another is a divine law? No, confession is not a law; rather, it is an offer of divine help for the sinner.’ (114)

From: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together and Prayerbook of the Bible. Buy on Amazon.co.uk.

I found this fascinating, and also pretty hard to swallow!