I find myself at a spot in time when I'm reading quite a bit of E. Stanley Jones and I came across this in my daily reading yesterday.
"The Holy Spirit came upon the waiting group not in the Temple nor in a synagogue but in the upper room. And the upper room was a home (Acts 1:13-14). The Holy Spriti came upon them when they were in the most common place-a place where we all live-a home. Under that apparently insignificant fact lies a deep significance. It was an amazing emancipation for religion. For up to this time religion had been associated with sacred places...Now the center of gravity in religion shifterd from services to service....Religion was put where it belongs-the human heart....Holy persons gathered together make a holy place, not the other way around. This coming of the Holy Spirit on persons, rather than on places, was one of the most important happenings in history. It took religion out of the magical and put it in the moral. And in doing so universalized it. And further it saved the Temple. For the Temple was no longer the center-the persons in the Temple were. As such the Temple could be used."
From Mastery by E. Stanley Jones
Is what we are looking at - X-ile, a way that God might begin to save the Temple of the Modern era, Church with a big C?
I'm looking forward to catching up with you all next week!
Dana
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Thanks Dana, that's an awesome quote!!!
This certainly strengthens us in worshiping outside a given "sanctuary". Our hearts are the true sanctuary now.
"Holy persons gathered together make a holy place, not the other way around. This coming of the Holy Spirit on persons, rather than on places, was one of the most important happenings in history."
-that's pretty neat, haven't ever heard that 'people are the church' really said like that before
Post a Comment