The Meeting Place

May 19, 2014

Good Morning My Beloved Ones,

    I pray that with every blessing you receive today, you become one to someone else.

    Today I want to talk to you about “The Meeting Place”.   For centuries, churches have been referred to as meeting places.  People would put on their “Sunday-go-to-meetin’” clothes.  This description originated during the time of the Israelite’s exodus from Egypt.  They’d carry with them a tent that they’d erect every place they’d camp.  It contained altars,

lavers, holy instruments and the Ark of the Covenant.  It was called the “tabernacle of meeting” because it’s where the people went to meet God.  The tabernacle was a place of sacrifice, forgiveness of sins, and worship.  Moses went there to get divine direction from God.  God’s presence resided there.  It could be seen visibly in the form of a cloud.

    How our churches today have strayed from that tabernacle of meeting!  They are meeting places alright, but the majority of the people attending are not going there to meet God.  Nowadays, people go to church to meet their next spouse, meet their friends to catch up on their week, get their physical needs met, or to meet someone else’s expectations of them.

    I know a woman who spent a short time at a church, then visited another, then moved on again.  When she landed at my church I asked her, “What brings you here today?”  She blatantly told me she was husband shopping.  Where else are you going to find a decent man nowadays?  When I managed an apartment complex, I had some tenants that went to church once a month.  They’d live riotously all month long, then when rent was due and their money was gone, they’d go to whichever church would give them a hand-out.  When the financial support stopped, so did their attendance.

    What is church to you, beloved one?  Is it a meet market, where you go to meet other eligible singles?  Is it a meeting place where you go to have your physical needs met or a place you go to meet another’s expectations of you?  Is it a place where you go to meet your friends or meet to discuss community issues?  It seems we meet at church for every reason but the intended one:  to meet with God, to receive forgiveness of sins to worship and to seek His will and direction for our lives.

    I challenge you, my friends, to erect the tabernacle of meeting in your church.  Go there to meet God, to seek His face, to worship Him.  Let it start with you.  God will meet you there, meet your needs and change your life.

    I long for the day when once again, God’s presence fills the church to such a capacity there is no room for anything else.  It will only happen when the meeting place again becomes the place we go to meet God.

Raising the tabernacle, Raelynn