If you undertake the primary work of a household project, it temporarily transforms whatever is involved to something that you 'own.'
So, the same kitchen floor that you've been trudging over with muddy shoes for the last week and a half is wordlessly deeded to you upon completion of mopping duty.
"Hey! Don't even think about walking across my clean floor with those disgusting golf shoes, Missy." You took a little initiative with soap and water, so it's 'yours,' at least until someone else mops it. You organized a drawer, cleaned a closet, painted a stairway...it's yours. "Don't touch my freshly painted wall!"
Isn't that how we must appear to people who listen to us talk about "our" churches? "Look at what they're doing to my church!" But who is the real owner of what goes on within our collective walls of brick, mortar and faith?
Here's what the Bible says,
"Consequently you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit." Ephesians 2:19-22
We can try and invent or organize a belief system into a church and then claim that it's 'ours.'
But we're really just painting over supernaturally created structure.
Jesus is the chief cornerstone and foundation. Past or present, anyone who wants to see what the founder of "our" church intended, his words are there to read in the Gospels.
And, despite his sovereign role, Jesus doesn't shout at me when I trudge the mud of sin and selfishness across His kitchen floor. He patiently waits for me to look down at my shoes and apologize (repent). Then He helps mop up the mess and its forgotten - that's how it works in His church.
What do you believe?
