By Pastor William Y. K. Brown Ph.D
(Resident Pastor)
Seventh-day Adventist Church
Osu-Bethel.
Tel: 0244165628/0243310773.
wykbrown@gmail.com
MONDAY
THEME: WHY WOULD YOU STAY AWAY?
SCRIPTURE: Psalms 122:1,9
“[1]I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go into the house of the Lord.” [9]Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.”
REFLECTIONS
The best place to desire to be is in the house of God -where the Lord appears and mingles with His people. It is a place of the promised presence of God, which stimulates reverence, worship, adoration, and testimonies of His wondrous acts in the lives of His community of believers. To be close to His people and for them to cultivate the presence of God, He instructed in Exodus 25:8 – “And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.” The house of God is a citadel of peace and unity and a dwelling place of God.
The house of God is a house of prayer, and from there, we receive incredible answers to prayer as we nurture faith and trust in the Lord. Isaiah 56:7 reads, “Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, And make them joyful in My house of prayer. . . For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.” Read 2 Chronicles 7:12-16 for how God looks at His house. Unfortunately, some houses of God have become Satan’s poaching grounds. Luke 19:46 reports Jesus “saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’” Yet, God’s presence allows everyone to behold His face and receive His approbation, forgiveness, and blessings.
David’s first pilgrims’ song is Psalms 122. He expresses extreme joy going into the presence of the LORD. Verse 1 states, “I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go into the house of the Lord.” For the people of Israel, meeting God in the sanctuary was the high point in their bid to worship Him. The pilgrims were delighted to come to Jerusalem to pray and worship God. Today, some people hesitate to go to the house of God for healing, encouragement, peace, edification, and growth. For such, Hebrews 10:25 warns, “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” Every meeting before God is essential. Psalm 122:6-9 expresses shalom – spiritual, physical, and emotional well-being for the pilgrims or worshippers.
Do not let those who have determined not to go to heaven disorientate you from taking the steps to walk with God to heaven. We have a responsibility to meet and pray for the nation. Our peace is subject to the peace that prevails in the country. Every Christian is to spend time in the house of God for the growth and edification of the body of Christ and the nation. For David, the house of the Lord was everything to him. He says in Psalms 23:6 – “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.” Psalms 27:4 – “One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple.” The sons of Korah said in Psalms 84:10 – “For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.” Why would you hesitate to meet God in His temple? Why would you despise so many blessings in meeting the Lord in His house of prayer?
MY SONG OF COMMITMENT
SDAH 8 – “We Gather Together”
LET US PRAY
– Praise and thank God for His leading throughout the year; thank God for the opportunity to meet Him at Church; pray to participate fully in worship without fail in the coming year;
– Pray for believers who, for various reasons, do not attend service, the backslidden, and those in the valley of taking a decision;
– Pray and thank God for those who do not miss coming to Church, those who serve in the house of God, and members and well-wishers who contribute to maintaining the house of God;
– Pray for Christians to make the house of God a citadel of prayer, a character-transforming house, and a place to seek divine solutions to the nation’s myriad challenges.
