Unless the LORD builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the LORD guards the city,
The watchman stays awake in vain.
Psalm 127:1

Recently while attending Power-Plant with our teens which is a Mission Trip ran by the NAMB this verse was used.  I could not shake it out of my mind.

I look at churches and see us with our projectors our good choirs our nice seats our multi million dollar sanctuaries and so forth and can’t help but wonder is there room for God.  I mean we have regulated our services down to the minute to the point the spirit has no freedom to move unless He will move in our time frame.  What are we doing?  At what point has man taken over building the house and left God out of it.  I was forced to ask am I building in vain.  I have been struggling with this for over a week.  I do not want my labor to be in vain.  I want God to be in it and if He is not then what is the use,  I am merely wasting time.

I just can’t help but feel that all across America on any given Sunday we have congregation that are based on man made tradition and philosophy they are houses built with straw houses built in vain where God is not in it.  Sure they may have the appearance that everything is great but if the building was gone, the nice chairs were gone and there was nothing there and people had to come and sit on the dirt floor would the presence of God be there?  Have we somehow confused stuff with the presence of God.  If He is not there I don’t want it.