The Temple Lies In Ruins

Hplease reacquaint yourselves with the book of Haggai

The temple lies in ruins. What, you say?

Is anyone else sick and tired of the "church" wanting "revival"? We need a revival. I said to myself awhile back 'if I hear one more time that we are waiting for the Spirit of God to move here' I will scream. My screams have been silent; up until now, that is.

Two weeks ago I stopped by a local church. I was greeted by an arrogant pastor. There was no smile on his face as he inquired what I was doing there. I was then told that I'm cursed for not tithing to a local church body. It was only after appealing for mercy did he eventually relent and admit that not everyone has the physical capabilities to get to a church without some form of transportation.

Anyway, back to the curse. So I was told I'm cursed. According to Malachi chapter 3, I'm cursed because I haven't been tithing at least 10% to a local church body. Tithing the 10% will cause the Lord to rebuke the devourer on my behalf, which will remove the curse. Then after that there are the required tithes and offerings, but I must first tithe my ten percent.

Consequently, I tithed ten percent to them and - woosh - the curse is gone. Who knew!

After I left him I studied the book of Malachi. Interesting that the people of Israel where supposed to bring their tithes into the storehouse. What was the storehouse? It was the place set aside in the tabernacle and then in the temple for the tithes and offerings. Those tithes and offerings were actually given to the Levite priests so they would have food and drink. Sustenance.

The Levites were the people from the tribe of Levi; one of Jacob's sons. There were 11 other tribes, and each was given an inheritance of land. Levi had no inheritance of land, because they (the males) were set aside as priests and to care for the tabernacle and/or temple of the Lord. Their time was supposed to be devoted to the Lord, so it would have been a real strain, maybe even impossible, for them to care for their priestly duties as well as work the land, etc.

To bring the tithes into the storehouse meant to bring sustenance for the Levites.

The Temple lies in ruins. What temple? There is no longer a viable temple for worship in Jerusalem. There is no tabernacle. Why, there isn't even a verifiable Levitical priesthood. So how can the temple be in ruins, and how can a person truly tithe ten percent and bring it to the storehouse to sustain the priests?

As I was contemplating these truths and wondering about the curse of not tithing, (which, by the way, if it was so important, why wasn't that one of the ten commandments I wondered) I went to another church and we read the book of Haggai.

Haggai pretty much summed up what I've been going through.

The Body of Christ is the temple.Each individual member is said to be a temple for the Holy Spirit. How much more, then, is the body of believers as a whole! And the Body of Christ - The Temple - lies in ruins as long as the Body does not function as a whole.

Revival, true revival, will escape us as long as we neglect the whole body. And there are bodies lying in ruins: real bodies of poor and neglected believers who are veritably shunned by those who 'build their paneled houses'. 

Revival, true revival, will never happen until the missing ingredient is added. What did the first century Christians do that believers aren't doing today? They pulled their resources. There was no lack. Read for yourselves at Acts 3. 

Now is the time to rebuild the temple of the Lord. The time for selfish interest is over. We need to build up the Body of Christ.