Sanctuary

I have consecrated this house that you have built by putting my name there forever.  My eyes and my heart will be there for all time.  I Kings 9:3

God's eyes and heart are in his sanctuary.  What does that mean to us who enter?  How would it affect our entering, our worship, and our leaving if we grasped this fact?  We talk about going to God's house; but that keeps him at a distance, like some kind landlord.  We may even talk about his presence in our time of worship but what does that mean?  A good feeling?   A sense of holiness, reverence, awe?  What if we knew, really knew, that as we walked in the doors of our churches this morning, that we were walking where the eyes and heart of God were?  Just stop and think about that!

The eyes of God - seeing everything, nothing hidden.  When we are being looked upon by God, he sees and knows all those things we think are so cleverly hidden.  But he is also looking at us with such great love and compassion.  He is our Abba, our loving Father.  When he sees us he is delighted, overjoyed, looking on his children with more love than we can ever imagine.  So, as he sees those secret, hidden places in our hearts - our sins, fears, hurts, doubts - he's reaching out to us, calling us to come to him and receive his love, his healing, his forgiveness.  Do we really think about the loving eyes of our Father when we enter his sanctuary?

His heart is there, too.  We can't separate his Father's heart from his loving eyes; but to think of walking into the place where his heart dwells - walking into Love, himself, as well as peace, safety, comfort, welcome, true unconditional love.  This should bring us to our knees in worship and adoration!

In the passage above from I Kings, the temple was made holy simply by his name.  The holiness of the Name that is above all names sanctified the temple.  Apart from God's name, it would have been just a building; an incredibly beautiful building, but a hollow shell nonetheless.  

Have you made the connection yet?  Aren't we, like Solomon's temple, beautiful on the outside but hollow on the inside without the Name of God?  The Good News in Jesus is that we don't have to wait until the Lord's day to enter his sanctified dwelling place, to be looked upon through his eyes of love or to know his heart.  God's promise through the Old Testament prophets and to us today is that he will and does dwell among us; he is our loving shepherd, our God and  has made us his people, the sheep of his pasture.  We are the temple of his Holy Spirit, we are being sanctified by his Name, and we are the apple of his eye, dwelling, abiding IN God and God in us - always and for all eternity.

Walking in the doors of our churches, we gather with our brothers and sisters to praise, worship, listen and learn at the feet of our Lord all the while knowing the blessing of his life filling us, pouring out his love in us and through us, transforming us into the image of Jesus.  What a miracle!  What a privilege and blessing!