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• Who Do I Live For?

Psalm 27 is one of those psalms that express the Lord’s heart in a truly timeless communication. Verse 4: "Just one thing have I asked of ADONAI; only this will I seek: to live in the house of ADONAI all the days of my life, to see the beauty of ADONAI and visit in his temple."

David here is relaying what God has put in His heart as far as the importance to be with Him where He is. In this familiar Old Testament scripture we see the importance of the worship of God and also that His people come together with one mind and one accord to accomplish two primary objectives: 1. To come together corporately to worship Him and 2. To come together and give heed to the teaching and the sharing of His word.

Obviously since that time there has been some change but the basic theme and structure remain intact. Come together as a body of believers for the purpose of worship and benefiting from His word. Now a couple of things to clarify what I’m not saying. We know that the Holy Spirit has chosen to reside in the body of every believer and that intimacy and fellowship with God is as far away as your heart (or maybe I should say the condition of) so we are not dependant on a particular physical location or bound to a particular set of tradition or culture to reach these goals but one thing for sure is we see that His heart is that the believers get together and get together often. In the book of Hebrews we see that the author under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is encouraging believers not to forsake the assembling of themselves as he has observed is the habit of some. In this exhortation we see the warning that accompanies it. The lack of fellowship leads to an independent spirit and according to Proverbs 18:1 "He who separates himself seeks his own desire; He quarrels against all sound wisdom." We know from the scripture that a person in pursuit of his own desire will eventually lead to ruin (See Proverbs 3:5). On the other hand, if we follow the instruction of the Holy Spirit as laid out in His word, then we insure success for the hearer and the one who practices His heart. There is a spirit that has and is attacking the Church today and that is a spirit of self sufficiency or independence that says I’ve got it under control or they have got it so messed up I won’t have anything to do with them. God’s design of the body is interdependence for the building up of itself in love (See Ephesians 4). Another spirit that is working in conjunction with the first is that of comfort and or my right to my desires. If I read the word correctly, that is a far cry from "take up your cross and follow Me." In my understanding that has sacrifice all over it. This life is not about us, it’s about Him so we should do everything possible to do it His way. I am challenged every time I come up against this in my own thinking when I am put in a position of choosing either for Him or against Him, especially when it has to do with my comfort or well being, knowing good and well that when I chose Him I will always come out ahead.

We as leaders in the church as a whole have brought a wrong objective to the purpose of the church, I’ll be the first to admit, everything to the most popular positive thinking tank to making church so relative and friendly that all of the taste of the salt is gone to the pressure of legalism by laying guilt as the motivator and for all these I apologize but that doesn’t mean that God got it wrong. Are there faults and weaknesses in the church today? Absolutely, but let’s not walk away from or ignore the very organism that the Lord Himself established to accomplish His will here on this earth. In the body, God has put in place safeguards to keep it from happening if we are willing to be led by Him and partner with Him to realize success. After all He, Jesus, Yeshua is the head.

The last thing I want to be responsible for is that I’ve made some feel condemned or unworthy from this exhortation but I would also not want to grieve the Holy Spirit by not conveying His heart. I love you all and hope this lifts as well as challenges your walk with Him today.

Pastor Clifford