The Building Blocks Of God’s Church

The majority of people are convinced that the church, the temple of God, is a building, or an organization or a brand name. br /
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…the Lord [is] in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him (Habakkuk 2:20). br /
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Where is the church. And where is the Temple? br /
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If you have the Holy Spirit residing in you, then you ARE the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16). br /
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Truly converted Christians are, collectively the temple of God, each being a lively stone within the temple. The temple of God consists of lively stones, a holy priesthood, offering up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:5). Christ is the chief corner stone (verse 6), the head of the corner, disallowed by the disobedient builders (verse 7). br /
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The stone, which the builders refused has become the head stone of the corner (Psalms 118:22, Mark 12:10, Luke 20:17, Acts 4:11, 1 Peter 2:7). Christ is the chief corner stone. Who are the builders? These are the religious leaders who pretend to be building the congregation of God, the temple of God. Anyone who rejects Jesus is a counterfeit builder. This includes all religions (belief systems) that reject Christ. This includes Christians who have a Christ only policy because: when they reject the Father they reject the Son also because the Father must first draw the person to the Son (John 6:44). This includes the leaders of commercial Christianity (including all the healers that put on a show, claiming to heal the sick, throwing crutches in the air, rolling wheelchairs off the stage, putting on a show for people who, in many cases, desire to be deceived). br /
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The builders who reject the chief corner stone, Christ, are counterfeit builders. All they can build is a counterfeit temple. br /
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But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). br /
As members of the royal priesthood, should we be sacrificing bulls and sheep and goats?br /
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No. br /
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…present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service (Romans 12:1). The body cannot be a living sacrifice without including the mind. br /
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The sacrifices that are pleasing to God are: a broken spirit and a contrite heart (Psalms 51:17). br /
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The mind is like a computer: the hardware is the brain, the software is the thought patterns which consist of spirit. The heart of the mind is the center of the mind, the controller of the mind. The King James contrite is from the Hebrew dakah, meaning: crushed, imploded, broken, collapsed. Why is a broken heart required? The heart [is] deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9). br /
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Being a priest of God requires us to break the old controller, the center of the mind completely. For most of us this requires a lot of overcoming. He that overcomes will be given power over the nations (Revelation 2:26). He that overcomes will receive an identity that is unique throughout the entire universe, a white stone, given to him by Christ himself (Revelation 2:17). br /
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…a peculiar people… (1 Peter 2:9). br /
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The King James peculiar is from the Greek peripoiesis, which means treasured purchased possession. People willing to receive a new heart (controller), with the law written in it from God (Jeremiah 31:33, Hebrews 8:19) are considered as a treasured purchased possession — jewels of the Lord (Malachi 3:17). You are bought by the blood of God (Acts 20:27-28) because Christ was (and is) the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16). br /
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The Lord [is] close unto them that are of a broken heart; and saves such as be of a contrite spirit (Psalms 34:18). br /
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They that feared the Lord spoke often to each other: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, says the Eternal of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, like a man spares his own son that serves him. Then shall you return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serves God and him that serves him not (Malachi 3:16-18). br /
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-wilyelderbr /
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