Today living in this world where there is not much place for God and where certain groups of people may be endangered by the aversion of others against their sort or beliefs we might be limited to come into the open or should be aware of the dangers, like two weeks ago a car trying to run over two Jewish pedestrians in the Pelikaan straat in Antwerp (a father and son). In Antwerp the Jews may receive protection from the Belgian army, but at other places it can be better not to come to much in the public.
As lovers of God we should show our connection with and to each other. We should not refrain from coming together and to have meetings to praise the Most High Almighty. We have to offer a place where we can show are oneness with God and with each other. We are obliged to be there for each other and to help each other every moment of our existence.
We may not forget we are asked to share with each other and not to hide for our like-minded brethren and sisters.
We should remember our ancestors, how they where prepared to suffer for their faith. We should remember how they in the midst of idol worship, like Elijah, were proclaiming Jehovah’s name for the sake of repentance and to make it known that the Elohim Hashem Jehovah was turning His people to Himself.
We should remember how our ancestors build temples, houses of gathering and prayer, to show that they were willing to come in discipleship, willing to learn from each other in the hope to gain more knowledge. Gathering with that hope we want to show all those who want to belong to the People of God, our string or connection with each other and with the Most High.
To know more about God, we do have to spend more time studying His Word. To do so classes and conferences can help us to grow. We also do know we have to grow as “a People for God” and as such we want to know how to grow a community and how to construct such community, ecclesia or church, reaching more than one generation.
We do know that in these times, not having many interested in God, we should not be disillusioned when we only can gather with a few. It is better to have effective small groups, have good marriages, raise our children the way God wants, than being part of this world and being popular by the majority of the population.
We have to set a goal. As we see in both Elijah’s ministry and the ministry of John the Baptist, we first of all have to show repentance and have to live a life in accordance to the mitzvot that produces fruit.
It is a repentant heart that should drive us, because of our humble state, to share honestly what we know about God and to explore the Scriptures honestly for answers. We should be conscious that it is only when we are willing to live a repentant lifestyle, that we can honestly talk about sin and consider how we might put those sins aside. It is only with that right attitude of a repentant spirit that we can come closer to the others around us and can come to show them our genuine willingness to share our love in community. to share such love we can go and visit the others, but we can also prepare a place for many to come together to share and show their unity.
With our knowledge that material blessings were not promised to people based on their degree of faith, and neither was God’s grace withheld because emunah was lacking. God’s grace always abounds, and He distributes resources according to the counsel of His own will so that we might steward what ultimately belongs to Him.
The Adonai looks at the world and knows where need is high. We may love to see that we can be a growing community and would have all comfort as community. We may be sure that it is God’s desire to dwell in an ordinary world, the one in which we live. You may feel Him or you may not be aware He is there close to you. We do known He is close to us and we even feel Him and trust Him. Though we do know we do have to be patient. But we also do know these are time that we do not any more have to have such big temples or great synagogues to come together. We should know that it is better to come together in each-other’s house or in a special made small place for gathering to praise God, than not coming together to show our unity with God.
With the knowledge that out of His desire comes not only this world, but all worlds and all things within them, we should recognise the facts and not ignore how we are just a ping-pong ball in the big game of this world.
Too many people do forget that everything belongs already to God, so we cannot give Him something extra. There is nothing for the Divine Creator to gain or risk losing, for God lacks nothing. He desires without cause, just to desire.
Rabbi Tzvi Freeman lets us know that God
desires to breathe a soul that is of His essence into a physical body, dressing it first within another soul, an earthly one, one very much a part of this ordinary world.
And He desires that this body and its earthly impulses will obscure and hide the divine soul breathed into it. And that nevertheless, somehow, through all this struggle, that divine soul will filter away the ugliness and refine the preciousness of the body, of the animal driving it, and even of its share of this world.
We living in this world should not become being of this world, but should be partakers of a Body that wants to be a Group of believers in One God, who want to offer themselves as repentant souls to the Most High. With the knowledge of our weaknesses we do not want to hide our weakness but want to let others give the opportunity to work at them in the hope that we all can grow stronger in our faith and become a people that shall be able to go through the big tribulation which one day shall come.
For that reason we may not hesitate to look for a place where we can gather and share our dreams in union with God. We should make the effort to find unity and to find a place where we can share that unity.
Rabbi Tzvi Freeman says
This is the sanctuary that each person makes in his life, a place where an animal is raised up onto an altar of G‑dly fire. It is here that G‑d is found in all of His primal essence, dwelling in an ordinary world.
With the knowledge that it is the divine Creator’s desire to dwell in the world where we live, we should prepare Him a house where He is welcome where He is praised. God does not mind when it is a tiny place. Big or small what is important for God, is that it is a Place for Him and worthy to be From Him. From which material it is build does not matter. How big or small it is does not matter. What matters are the souls which are willing to come together over there. The people making the place where God is welcome. It are those coming together who make the ‘synagogue’ or the ‘ecclesia’.
Being limited with means, not having much money, perhaps even not enough to buy a little house or even not an apartment or even not able to rent a place we should still try to find somewhere to come together and should know even when it is a public space, when we carry God in our heart He shall be willing to be with us. As such every moment we can gather in unity in the Name of the Most High, we shall be blessed by having God with us. Let us strive for that.
Let us try to make a “Mishkan” and be an encourager, wherever we live and let us come to invite lovers of God to that ‘Tent of meeting’ to worship in unity the One God above all gods, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah.
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Additional reading
- God won’t ask
- A Holy week in remembrance of the Blood of life
- Gods measure not our measure
- Gods design in the creation of the world
- Compassion and Discipline
- Be an Encourager
- Congregate, to gather, to meet
- Congregation – Congregatie
- Meeting – Vergadering
- Gathering or meeting of believers
- Keeping an ecclesia in modern times
- Making church
- Expenses, costs – Onkosten, uitgaven
- Contribution – Contributie, bijdrage
- What’s church for, anyway?
- An ecclesia in your neighborhood
- Fellowship
- Integrity of the fellowship
- Learn how to go out into the world and proclaim the Good News of the coming Kingdom
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Related
- Make Every Place the House of God (reblog: Make Every Place the House of God )
- House of God, Gate of Heaven
- House of God
- Houses of God
- Gods House
- The House of God
- The House that God Built
- Loving the House of God
- House of God
- Haggai 1:3-4 Which House Is Being Built?
Immanuel Verbondskind - עמנואל קאָווענאַנט קינד 
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