We all have experienced, or are experiencing, standing within the gates of Jerusalem; not a physical city but a spiritual condition within the Church. It is a place of status quo, of routine, a place of “practicing” our faith, a place of warmth and activity and of hope for the age to come. But something seems missing, an element of our faith we perhaps once had but has now slipped into the realm of a good religion ⎯ and that element is spiritual life, not just exuberance of spiritual activities, but of an inward transforming power that works in us every day that we live.

Then, we hear the passing by of believers equally hungry for something higher, willing to abandon the familiar, the religious life of routine, rituals, services, and the “good” of people, worship services, and intentions of well doing. This people have their eyes fixed on something higher, not willing to settle for religion, they seek “life,” not mere eternal vitality but a transforming life born out of a spiritual union with Jesus Christ and God our Father.

This “house” of the Lord is not a physical building, a church or elaborate cathedral, or even of a temple fixed on Mount Zion. It is even more than noting the heavenly dwelling place of God. Even as our father’s house in the natural was so much more than a residence, but a place of relationships and fellowship with family and friends. So too this “house of the Lord” is a relationship and fellowship with our Lord and Father in which His mere presence transforms our very souls.

Upon hearing this some men or women might have been offended, and have said, “I am happy for you and your adventures in faith, but don’t bother with my business; let my religion alone. But to others the invitation strikes a chord of harmony in the inward man, bringing forth a desire to press on, whatever the cost.