Jesus describes himself three ways here in the Book of John. Today people are looking for the way, the truth and the life. Whatever you are facing today, Jesus is the way. You may say, "I don't know what I'm going to do, I don't know how we are going to make it." Jesus is saying "I am the way!" When you got too much month and not enough pay check rest assured that Jesus is the way. When you go to the doctor and you get a bad report, Jesus is the way. When your child is messing up, and they are driving you nuts, Jesus IS the way. We lose focus on the fact that Jesus is a way maker. I have found that if you go from house to house and offer prayer there are many people who are NEEDY that will turn down prayer. We act as if prayer no longer has much meaning anymore, as if it is not necessary for us to pray for one another. There are few churches where the altars are open for people to seek God. In many churches you will be called down or discouraged if you go to the altar to pray too many times. I have even heard people say, "Why don't these pray at home, why do they need to come to the church altar and pray all the time?" We are living in a cold, heartless, faithless generation. What did Jesus say?
Matthew 21:13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves.
We shouldn't be rebuking those who want to pray in the House of God, we should be rebuking those that don't come to the house of God to pray. I know there are a lot of ministers that are using the pulpit for financial gain at the expense of spiritual gain in the hearer, but there is more than one way to rob God. Jesus said his house would be a house of prayer, but often people come to church thinking it is there house, not God's house. When people come up and pray, they get mad because the service is taking too long. They are eager to get out of the house of God and get back to their worldliness. They have robbed the house of God of it's glory by refusing to honor God in his own house. They want it there way, not God's way. They don't want the house of God to be a house of prayer. They want to get over with it so they can go back to their sinful living.
People should pray at home, but the house of God has always been a house of personal and individual prayer, not just corporate prayers. Jesus gave this parable:
Luke 18
9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
13“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
14“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
These men went to the house of God to pray and seek God's face. If you didn't come to church to pray and seek God's face why did you bother to show up at all? It's not about us and our quaint little sermons, and nice packaged music. It is about God and his glory! Both of these men were in God's house PRAYING, personal prayers...now I want to take you to our generation and this century, to see another man sitting down, who is NOT praying at all. Imagine a third man is this parable looking at the other two that are standing and praying. Imagine them having the mind set of many church goers today. Here is what many church goers today would have said about these two men praying in God's house:
I wish these people would pray at home. They get up and say the same prayers for the same ole things all the time. I pray at home so I don't need to pray at church all the time...They are pitiful just crying and carrying on about their problems all the time. It's pathetic. I'm going to see the Pastor puts a stop to this, it is so wrong. What is our visitors going to think about all this? Our church won't grow until we get a bit more professional. This is so pathetic, there they go at it again. They ought to be embarrassed. Did this man go away justified before God?
Our generation has strayed away from God, and we go to church and say that we serve him, but we get offended if people want to take time to seek his face. If you didn't come to church to seek God, why did you come? If you aren't going to seek God in his house, why not just stay home in the first place? Or, at least let other seek him...
Matthew 15:8 These people draw near unto me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
Has someone persecuted you because you sought God at church? Just keep on seeking him, remember JESUS is the WAY.
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