The Most High Dwelleth Not In Temples Made With Hands

                                                                                    
                   

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Act 7:48  Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,

Christianity has become a tremendous buildup of things which were not at the beginning. 

The Christianity which we know today is a very complicated thing. 

The hands of men have come upon the things of God, and men have tried to build this great thing according to their own judgment. 

And so we have all the confusion, all the divisions, and all the complications. 

It is really hard going in Christianity. 

Christianity has become its own great hindrance.... 

You will go about this country, you will go about this city, and you will see these great religious buildings with a cross at the top. 

And when people enter those buildings, they bow themselves; they look very reverent. 

And they think that this is a sacred building. 

If you interfere with anything there, it is called sacrilege. 

To God that is all nonsense. 

It does not mean anything at all. 

The only thing that matters to God is not the wonderful building and all the wonderful things inside the building, and not even the cross on the top. 

The one thing that matters to God is whether He is there. 

Is God Himself present in this place?

But what about ourselves, we hear Christians who come into a meeting like this speaking about coming into the house of God. 

Perhaps they say when they are going to this meeting place, "I am going to the house of God." 

And when they pray, they say, "We are very glad to be in the house of God this morning; it is a good thing to be in the Lord's house."

What makes any place the house of God? 

What makes this place sacred? 

If it is sacred at all, what makes it sacred? 

It is not the building, this is not a sacred building. 

It is not a congregation gathered here. 

The only thing that makes it sacred is that the Lord is present. 

The Lord is not interested in our places or in our congregations;

He is only concerned that He may find a place for Himself where He may be present in pleasure. 

I wonder where the tabernacle in the wilderness is now? 

I expect it is buried somewhere deep under the earth. 

I wonder where the great temple of Solomon is now?

I think you would be wasting your time to try and find it. 

You see, God had buried those things.... 

Everything that is not of Christ is going to be dissolved. 

Make no mistake. 

This whole structure of Christianity is going to be tested according to Christ. 

Christianity is just going to be tested as to how far it was the work of the Holy Spirit of God according to Christ.

~T. Austin Sparks

What The LORD Is Doing Will Not Allow For ANY Neutrality!

Luke 12:49  I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?

Luke 12:50  But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!

Luke 12:51  Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:

If you and I are going to be men and women of the Spirit, we are not going to have an easy time. 

Hell will see to that. 

At once the clash arises...

And it is true that the more the Holy Spirit is able to have His way in us...

And to lead us into all the will of God...

The more we find this opposition, this antagonism. 

And it not only comes between us and the world...

It sometimes comes in the circle of the Lord's own people. 

It is inevitable provocation. 

You wonder why, sometimes. 

As you read the New Testament you wonder, What is the matter with these people? 

Why should they be so upset and so annoyed? 

And why should it be so spontaneous, this thing? 

And persistent; so unreasonable?" but there it is. 

There is the fact. It is inevitable.

You see, this thing that the Lord came to do and is doing, will not allow for any neutrality. 

It is going to be one thing or the other. 

It is going to be for or against. 

The eyes of flame (here the fire comes in again) the eyes of flame will not allow lukewarmness or anything that is of the Laodicean character. 

The fire is a positive element always, and it will create positive situations. 

If everything is all just nice and quiet, no disturbance, no trouble and no antagonism and opposition, you have reason to question whether the Holy Spirit is doing much...

Because He does aim at such a positiveness, which is a very, very costly thing.

It is either with the Lord, or not with the Lord, and there is nothing between. 

It is going to come out sooner or later and be precipitated. 

Now, the Lord says that is what He came to do. 

This is not an accident, a chance or things having gone wrong or miscarried. 

This is exactly what He came to do...

To scatter fire on the earth and these are the inevitable effects of the fire. 

They are going to work out.

~T. Austin Sparks

In GOD Not Out Of Trouble

                                                                                  

Jer 45:5  And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the LORD: but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest.

A promise given for hard places, and a promise of safety and life in the midst of tremendous pressure, a life "for a prey." 

It may well adjust itself to our own times, which are growing harder as we near the end of the age, and the Tribulation times.

What is the meaning of "a life for a prey"?

It means a life snatched out of the jaws of the destroyer, as David snatched the lamb from the lion. 

It means not removal from the noise of the battle and the presence of our foes; but it means a table in the midst of our enemies, a shelter from the storm, a fortress amid the foe, a life preserved in the face of continual pressure: 

Paul's healing when pressed out of measure so that he despaired of life; Paul's Divine help when the thorn remained, but the power of Christ rested upon him and the grace of Christ was sufficient.

Lord, give me my life for a prey, and in the hardest places help me today to be victorious.

~Days of Heaven upon Earth

We often pray to be delivered from calamities; we even trust that we shall be...

But we do not pray to be made what we should be, in the very presence of the calamities...

To live amid them, as long as they last, in the consciousness that we are, held and sheltered by the Lord, and can therefore remain in the midst of them, so long as they continue, without any hurt.

For forty days and nights, the Saviour was kept in the presence of Satan in the wilderness, and that, under circumstances of special trial, His human nature being weakened by want of food and rest. 

The furnace was heated seven times more than it was wont to be heated, but the three Hebrew children were kept a season amid its flames as calm and composed in the presence of the tyrant's last appliances of torture, as they were in the presence of himself before their time of deliverance came. 

And the livelong night did Daniel sit among the lions, and when he was taken up out of the den, "no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God."

They dwelt in the presence of the enemy, because they dwelt in the presence of God.

If We Were Directing The Affairs Of Our Own Lives!

We often think we could do better, if we were Directing the affairs of our Own lives.  

We think we could get more happiness and greater good out of life, if things were in Our hands.

We would at once Eliminate all that is Painful and Unpleasant in our lot.

We would have only Prosperities, with No Adversities; only Joys, with No Sorrows.

We would Exclude all Pain and Trouble from our life.

Our days would all be Sunny with Blue skies, and No Clouds or Storms.

Our paths would all be Soft and Easy, and Strewn With Flowers - Without thorns or any Rough places.

Would we not be Happier if we could Direct our own affairs - and Leave Out the Painful, the Bitter, the Adverse, and the Sorrowful?

So most of us would probably say at first, before we have thought of the question deeply and looked on to the end.

But really the greatest Misfortune that could come to us in this world would be to have the Direction of the affairs, and the Shaping of the experiences of our lives, put into our Own hands!

We have No Wisdom to know what is Best for ourselves.

Today is not all of life...

There is a long future, perhaps many years in this world, and then immortality hereafter.

What would give us greatest Pleasure today, might work us Harm in days to come.

Present Gratification might Cost us untold Loss and Hurt in the future.

We want Pleasure, Plenty, and Prosperity...

But perhaps we Need Pain, Self-denial, and the Giving Up of things that we Greatly Prize.

We Shrink from Suffering, from Sacrifice, from struggle...

But perhaps these are the Very Experiences which will do the Most Good for us...

Which will best mature our Christian graces...

Which will fit us for the largest service to God and man.

We should always remember that the object of living in this present world is not merely...

To have unlimited pleasure and comfort...

To get along with the Least trouble,...

To Gather the most we can of the World's Treasures...

To win the brightest fame...

No we are here to grow into the beauty of Christ, and to do the portion of God's will that belongs to us!

There is something wonderfully inspiring in the thought, that God has a Plan and a Purpose for our lives, for each life.

We do not come Drifting into this world, and do not drift through it like waves on the ocean.

We are sent from God, each one of us with a Divine plan for his life-something God wants us to do, some place He wants us to fill. 

All through our lives, we are in the Hands of God, who Chooses our place and Orders our circumstances, and Makes all things Work Together for Our Good—and His Glory. 

It is the highest honor that could be conferred upon us, to occupy such a place in the Thought of God.

We cannot doubt that His way for us is better than ours, since He is infinitely wiser than we are and loves us so. It may be painful and hard—but in the pain and the hardness, there is blessing.

Of course we may not know all the reasons there are in the divine mind, for the pains and sufferings that come into our lives, or what God's design for us in these trials is. 

Yet without discovering any reasons at all, however, we may still Trust God, who Loves us with an Infinite Love, and whose Wisdom also is Infinite!

When we get to Heaven, we shall know that God has made No Mistake in anything He has done for us, however He may have Broken into our Plans, and Spoiled our Pleasant dreams!

It should be Reason for Measureless Gratitude, that our lives are not in our own poor foolish hands - but in the Hands of our Infinitely Wise and Loving Father!

Psa 31:15  My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.

~J. R. Miller