Are you reading the Bible through with me? Grab your pen and journal, and get ready to write your thoughts as you journey through the Bible.
Today we are reading Deuteronomy chapters 16-19. Put a checkmark each time you see the phrase “the place the Lord your God chooses” or any similar phrase.
I found eight times that thought was being expressed in those chapters.
The “place the Lord your God chooses” was the sanctuary, or church. It was a building or tent-like structure in the Old Testament. But in the New Testament, it is defined by a group of people who gather to worship.
In Jewish law, males aged 20 and over were required to go to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem three times a year to worship God together as a massive group. “Three times a year all males must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles.” Deuteronomy 16:16.
Corporate worship, or worshipping together, was and is important to God. These verses are just a few to prove that point.
“And let us consider together how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another...” Hebrews 10:24-25.
“Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you! Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.” Malachi 3:8-10.
“For where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them.” Matthew 18:20.
Are you involved in a local church family where you can worship, serve, be discipled and help others? God desires that we come together regularly for worship.
Many have used the pandemic as an excuse to stop attending church, but as you can plainly see from the scriptures, this does NOT please God.
Perhaps this Sunday you will find the place the Lord your God has chosen for you to worship Him with others.
In your journal, list the names of people you know are unchurched. Pray over them and make an effort to contact them and invite them to church this week. If you are not attending yourself, write a promise to God that you will attend from now on.
PRAY: Oh Lord, I do not want to diminish the importance of Your bride, the church. Help me to be a more faithful member of the church family to which You have led me. Help me to be a better member, worshiper, servant and prayer warrior.
