Church in the Home By C.H. Spurgeon
by Floyd on 03/24/09 – NewsPrintE-Mail this
These first believers were in such a condition that their homes were holy places. I beg you to notice this, that they were breaking bread from house to house, and did eat their food with gladness and singleness of heart. They did not think that religion was meant only for Sundays, and for what men now-a-days call the ‘House of God’. Their own houses were houses of God, and their own meals were mixed and mingled with the Lord’s Supper. They elevated their meals into diets for worship. They so consecrated everything with prayer and praise that all around them was holiness unto the Lord. I wish our houses were thus dedicated to the Lord, so that we worshipped God all the day long, and made our dwellings temples for the living God. Does God need a ‘special house’? He who made the heavens and the earth, does he dwell in temples made with hands? What crass ignorance is this! No house beneath the sky is more holy than the place where a Christian lives, and eats, and drinks, and sleeps, and praises the Lord in all that he does. There is no worship more heavenly than that which is presented by holy families, devoted to his fear. To sacrifice home worship to public worship is a most evil course of action. Morning and evening devotion in a cottage is infinitely more pleasing in the sight of God than all the cathedral pomp which delights the carnal eye and ear. Every truly Christian household is a church, and as such it is competent for the discharge of any function of divine worship, whatever it may be. Are we not all priests? Why do we need to call in others to make devotion a performance? Let every man be a priest in his own house. Are you not all kings if you love the Lord? Then make your houses palaces of joy and temples of holiness. One reason why the early church had such a blessing was because her members had such homes. When we are like them we shall have “added to the church daily of the saved.”
I LOVE this. This is exactly what were hungry for. I want to learn to make our home like that. Flowing in the kingdom and pursuing the glory of God in ordinary life.
Wow, this is so great! We desire this! Praying for this today for our family and our home! Thanks for exhorting us and giving us truth about making our house “the church” flowing joy and holiness!
God has challanged me lately on my idea of church. I had my preferences of what church should be and I held them superior to other views.
I’ve always been critical of the massive congregations of the mega-churches. My attitude was, “what good can come out of that”. Then God challanged me to go to one of the biggest churches in town. I hated every thing about the place. Parking a mile away, walking through hordes of people, trying to find a seat, getting bumped and pushed around by the crowds,… and I could go on. But when the pastor taught, God met me. That was the challange. Was I willing to give up the offenses of my flesh in order to meet God?
Sitting in a similar church I was struck by the croud around me. I was reminded of Jesus preaching to the multitudes, or even Peter. If 3000 were added to their number in one day, how many people were in the audience?
This multitude of people followed Jesus wherever he went, and he sat and taught them about His Father. Isn’t that church just as much as the intimacy of the disciples in the upper room?
I really had to reconsider my opinions and preferences. I want to make my life, all of it, about my Father’s business. And I want all of it to brint Him glory. So if that happens in a group of my closest friends or with 5000 it’s all the same to me.
yes, i get it… but… the point is that we bring change; that culture actually starts to run toward Jesus – not an institution or a place, but to Him!
Our Church’s can, if we are not careful, produce Co-Dependency on a person; the Pastor that “Feeds The Sheep” every Sunday so the “sheep” dont have to do anything… the body must be empowered not just into works, but into Spirit!
As Paul would say; “This thing is about the power, not the showing up, or just talking about it”!! 1COR 4:20