He’s In The House

There is an in-phrase and related in-phrases that are the latest religious in-lingo in so much of the modern chruch scene, and even more particularly, sad to say, in the Pentecostal/Charismatic church scene where I predominately minister, and that is when referring to Jesus in worship by announcing,

“HE’S IN THE HOUSE.”

However, it takes on different forms, depending upon the mood and need of the moment, such as:

“THE MIRACLE WORKER IS IN THE HOUSE”

Or:

“THE HEALER IS IN THE HOUSE.”

Or:

“THE DELIVERER IS IN THE HOUSE.“

Of course, all of these house in-phrases are referring to Jesus Christ and how He is in the house to do what we have asked Him to do, or scheduled Him to do, or advertised that He would do at any given time.

Once again, modern religion has plagiarized the world’s tactics for the purpose of pizzazz and promotional impact. Jesus Christ is no longer the “Holy Lord In His Temple ,” but rather, He is the “Headliner In The House” for today’s “Dazzle-Me Charismania.”

After all, studies indicate that attendance and attention are much greater if the “Marquis Mentality” is massaged for all its worth. I mean, can it get any better than “The Healer Is In The House” tonight?” Shazaam! This is the “Showstopper” to top all “Showstoppers.” It is all designed for your viewing and entertainment pleasure and pulse.

Another in-lingo phrase used to introduce worship in the modern church is:

“LET’S ROCK THE HOUSE.”

Or:

“LET’S ROCK THIS PLACE.“

It is again a phrase that is taken from the hard-rock culture of our day, and is now being used to psyche people into hard-rock worship. It is but a centimeter away from the rock-world’s slang:

“LET’S ROCK THIS JOINT.”

I can barely believe what I am hearing in my own Christian-Pentecostal churches. It is out of control! It is as if we have lost our minds and now have rocks in our heads! Why is this happening?:

“IN ORDER FOR THE CHURCH TO GET THE WORLD IN THE

HOUSE, THE CHURCH HAS GONE TO BED

WITH THE WORLD.”

Our coming together is not for the purpose of rocking a house or a place or a joint. Rather, our coming together is:

“TO PRAISE AND WORSHIP THE ROCK OF AGES.”

We must realize this critically important principle that has totally been lost sight of:

“TRUE HOLY SPIRIT LED WORSHIP IS NOT FOR THE PURPOSE

OF BRINGING DOWN HEAVEN TO EARTH, BUT FOR THE

PURPOSE OF BRINGING EARTH UP TO HEAVEN.”

Thus we read words like those in Psalm 149:6,

“Let the high praises of God be in their mouth.”

And again, in Psalm 9:2,

“I will sing praises to Thy name, O Most High.”

Listen good:

“SO MUCH OF THE MODERN CHURCH IN THEIR WORSHIP OF

THE MOST HIGH GOD IS TAKING THE LOW ROAD AND

NOT TAKING THE HIGH ROAD.”

GOD SEEKS SPIRIT-AND-TRUTH WORHSIPPERS

The Lord Jesus said to the woman at the well in John 4:24,

“God is spirit, and those who worship Him must

worship Him in spirit and truth.”

In the previous verse Jesus tells the woman at the well that spirit-and-truth worshippers are the only ones that the FATHER SEEKS TO WORHIP HIM. (John 4:23) If it was so then, it is far more the case today, that God has TO SEEK FOR THEM, LOOK FOR THEM, HUNT FOR THEM, because they are such exotic jewels and rare trophies. They always have been difficult to find, and it would seem now more difficult than ever.

Why? Because sensual man always has tended to carnalize, temporlize, and earthlyize God. Hence the worship of saints, statutes, paintings etc. – idols! Man has always brought God down to his level, rather than allowing the Holy Spirit and the Truth of God’s Word to bring his spiritual consciousness and truth convictions about God up to His level.

“He’s In The House!’ How nice of Him to drop by! Sounds like a really nice domesticated Jesus, doesn’t He? “Hey Jesus, good to have You with us in the house. Hope you can stay for a spell. Sit back and relax. Would You like coffee and a doughnut?”

Allow me to show you where this “He’s In The House” jargon and slanguage leads. I now quote from my book Modern Christianity Corrupted on pages 314-315, “For instance, a Los Angeles company called “Teen Millionaire” produced and sold T-Shirts on which was written the slogan:

“JESUS IS MY HOMEBOY.”

The company knew something about the current religious-humanistic mindset in America. The T-Shirts orginally retailed for around $25.00, and they sold like hot-cakes. Not just teens and hipsters, but Christians of all ages as well, loved the ‘Jesus Is My Homeboy‘ T-Shirts.

If you will, Jesus is just one of the boys around our house. We just love having that boy around here. He is welcome here anytime. I get the drift of it. Adults as well as young people want Jesus to simply be one of the fellas. You see, that way they don’t have to deal with His Divine splendor, sovereignty, and majesty. That is all too threatening to modern religious man and makes him feel too accountable as a subject of the King of kKngs and Lord of Lords.” End of quote.

Dear Lord, don’t we have any spiritual sensitivity and truth awareness left so that we use the ‘jive‘ and ‘juice‘ of the world to showcase Jesus Christ? If we were at all truly spiritually discerning, we wouldn’t be so dead and dumb in our brains, and thereby unable to determine any more what is shamefully and shabbily happening.

Allen Dixon’s father was a TV repairman. Allen relates that when his father came home in the evening, the last thing that his Dad wanted to think about was repairing televisions. Allen’s mother often commented on how every television in the neighborhood worked except their own. For example, the antenna on the top of their house had one arm broken off by a windstorm, resulting in poor reception. Yet Allen’s Dad never got around to repairing it.

Then as the story goes,  a new family moved in next door. Soon their new neighbor appeared on his roof to install his own antenna. Knowing that the man next door to him was a TV technician, the new neighbor faced his antenna in exactly the same direction as the Dixon’s.

Then, studying the TV technician’s roof a moment longer, the new neighbor reached up and, with a yank, broke off the arm of his brand new antenna. After all, if that’s the way a TV technician installed his antenna, he reasoned, it must be correct. He soon complained to his TV technician neighbor, that his reception was very poor.

So today, much of the church’s spiritual antenna is broke, and therefore the modern church is no longer receiving signals from Heaven, but only from the immediate culture around it. So we all come dressed down to the ground, caffe latte in hand, to hang out with God in the house for a couple of hours on Sunday morning, and tell those in attendance, “He’s In The House.” (That is, He is there for whatever we need Him for at that moment,)

Thinking “Homeboy Jesus” and casual, comfy, religion, I some time ago saw a pastor conducting Sunday morning service in Bermuda shorts, sandals, and a gaudy colored and patterned shirt. The guy look like he was either going golfing or had already been. Instead of worshipping the Triune God, I felt like stand up and shouting “Four.”

My dear Lord, what house is this – a clubhouse, or a bathhouse, or a nuthouse?” Have we so lost spiritual senstivity and truth awareness that we have totally become brain dead to  the realization that this is:

“A HOLY HOUSE OF WORSHIP OF THE HOLY GOD.”

It has become so disgusting and blasphemous, that someone should stand up and say:

“HE’S JUST LEFT THE HOUSE.”

It more than likely would be much closer to the truth. Just ask the prophet Ezekiel about the Holy Spirit leaving without anyone noticing His departure and absence.

THE GREAT GOD ENTERTAINMENT

However, “He’s In The House” is all part of a far larger and more pathetic contemporary picture. Fact:

“IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN THAT THE ILLUSTRIOUS ENTERTAINERS

CRAVE RECOGNITION, AND THAT THE ENTERTAINED CRAVE

THE ILLUSTRIOUSLY RECOGNIZED.”

That is exactly what A.W. Tozer describes in a book entitled “The Root of the Righteous.” He calls it “The Great God Entertainment.”  I can’t put it any better or more pinpointed than Tozer, so I quote from him the following, “For there are millions who cannot live without amusement; life without some form of entertainment for them is simply intolerable; they look forward to the blessed relief afforded by professional entertainers as a dope addict looks to his daily shot of heroin. Without them they could not summon the courage to face existence.”

Tozer continues, as he then applies the thrills-and-chills addiction to the church, “So today we have the astonishing spectacle of millions of dollars being poured into the unholy job of providing earthly entertainment for the so-called sons of heaven. Religious entertainment is in so many places rapidly crowding out the serious things of God. Many churches these days have become little more than poor theatres where fifth-rate ‘producers’ peddle their shoddy wares with the full approval of evangelical leaders who can even quote a holy text in defense of their delinquency. And hardly a man dares raise his voice against it.” End of quotation.

Speaking of worshipping God in spirit and in truth, we are no different today from the pagans throughout the ages? How so? Because:

“ONLY WHAT DAZZLED THEIR EYES WOULD THEY WORSHIP

WITH THEIR HEARTS.”

It is better known as false god – idol worship, or, if you will:

“ONLY THAT WOULD BE CONSIDERED DIVINITY WHICH SHONE

AS A GOLDEN-STATUE gOD HALOED BY THE SUN.”

So too today:

“ONLY WHEN WE SEE GOD SHINE IN PERFORMANCE WILL WE

BOW DOWN OUR KNEES IN PRAYER.”

After all, that is how He is billed on the marquis, and that is how He is announced and introduced by the pastor-MC. What choice does the “Performer In The House” have after all?

You know exactly what I am talking about! Dazzle me, don’t disciple me! Carnivalize me, don’t convict me! Pamper me, don’t principle me! Amaze me, don’t analyze me. Stir me, don’t scrutinize me! Thrill me, don’t threaten me! Arouse me, don’t arrest me! Pleasure me, don’t prescribe to me! All of which is exactly what the people of Isaiah’s day were demanding of him in Isaiah 30:9-11,

“For this is a rebellious people, false sons, sons who refuse

to listen to the instruction of the Lord;”

“who say to the seers, ‘You must not prophesy to us what is right,

speak to us pleasant words, prophesy illusions.’

‘Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no

more about the Holy One of Israel.”

SCRIPTURE ANNOUNCES HIM QUITE DIFFERENTLY

You see, people today don’t really come to worship! They come to be wowed. Hence, “The Miracle Man Is In House!” Or, “The Healer Is In The House.” Very popular arousers and stimulants in the contemporary, thrill-me and show-me churches! The “Divine Dazzler” has arrived in the house! Right here on our stage!

Enough of this worldly shallowness and carnality which brings God down to the earthly level of “American Idol” and screaming maniacs, and instead let us allow the Word of the Lord to lift us up to “Heaven’s God” before whom the angels are bowing down and crying “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord,” as they cover their faces and feet with wings before God’s most holy presence. (Isaiah 6:1-5) Where did all that disappear to?

It wasn’t too long ago while I was preaching, I noticed an adult relative of mine on the front row texting during my sermon, and it wasn’t Bible texting. We are covered with modern technology today, not with old-fashioned reverence and fear of the Lord.

So then, let’s now get to the inspired words of Scripture and Biblical Christianity. Not even close to it so far!  What we are about to read  is to the modern church-goer is a totally foreign language. We read a completely different consciousness in Habakkuk 2:20,

“But the Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth

be silent before Him.”

Or again, Psalm 11:4,

“The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord’s throne

is in heaven.”

You see, “He’s In The House” is not only sickening “Hollywood Hype,” it is infinitely far wide of the Holy and Heavenly mark. Christianity is not a ticket to a “Broadway Show,” but rather an audience with the Holy Lord of Heaven and earth.

When announcing Him, something infinitely more AUTHORITATIVE, IMPERATIVE and MASTERFUL is mandated by the Holy Spirit through Habakkuk! Something far more LORDLY! Anything less is not only a very weak introduction, in fact, it is no introduction at all. If you will:

“TRUE WORSHIP IS FIRST AND FULLY MINDFUL OF OUR DUTIES

This is where it has all gone amuck. There has been an outbreak of what at first appeared to be a mysterious but deadly disease in modern Christianity which I could not get my hands on or wrap my mind around. Almost from the very beginning, that disease caused a high fever in me, if you will, it brought my blood to a boil, but I didn’t understand why. Then as time went along, the disease became globally pandemic, which is exactly what is happening now.

It little by litttle, by God’s grace and Spirit, became clearer and clearer to me what the disease was and is, and where it is coming from. The disease in the modern church is a lethal and terminal illness called:

“G0D-SERVE-ME-ITIS.”

More exactly, it is RELIGIOUS HUMANISM, the essence of which is:

“DIVINE SERVITUDE COMBINED WITH HUMAN LORDSHIP.”

And where most specifically does this brain-damaging spiritual virus and spiritual meningitis come from? Its source is found in the reversal of the true Christianity’s spiritual-genetic code. Simply put:

“GOD NOW EXISTS FOR MAN, AND NO LONGER DOES

MAN EXIST FOR GOD.”

If you will:

“GOD IS THE SERVANT OF MAN, AND NO LONGER IS

MAN THE SERVANT OF GOD.”

Hence:

“WE HAVE GONE FROM THE LORD IS IN HIS HOLY

    TEMPLE, TO THE MIRACLE MAN IS

IN THE HOUSE.”

If we don’t see this, then the disease has already progressed in us to a critical stage. We are then already in a spiritual coma, which in fact vast numbers in the modern chruch are in. You see, in the modern church’s unconscious, brain-damaged state:

“GOD HAS IN ESSENCE BEEN DETHRONED, AND MAN

HAS BEEN ENTHRONED.”

The truth is, Satan could not pull off that coup d’ etat for himself, though he tried and got booted out of Heaven by God for the attempt. (Isaiah 14:12) So instead, after careful planning and skillfully putting his own ideas into religious minds, he has now managed to put man in the modern church on the throne of Heaven which alone belongs to God. (Psalm 11:4) Now across the earth, the religious are in such a catatonic condition, that Satan can work on their minds like a power saw works on helpless lumber.

The truth of God’s Word throughout that has been erased from the modern religious mind is this:

“MAN EXISTS FOR GOD, NOT GOD FOR MAN.”

That changes everything back to where it belongs. This alone can heal man of the modern pandemic of “GOD-SERVE-ME-ITIS.” We read the inspired words Revelation 4:11 from the KJV, and modern religious man needs this to be injected into his spiritual system in huge doses:

“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power;

for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they

are and were created.”

If you will:

“MAN WAS CREATED BY GOD FOR GOD, BUT GOD WAS NOT

CREATED BY MAN FOR MAN.”

Again:

“GOD CREATED MAN FOR HIS OWN PLEASURE, BUT MAN DID

NOT CREATE GOD FOR HIS OWN PLEASURE.”

So here in Habakkuk 2:20 mankind is in the presence of the Lord in His holy temple, and man, silent before His Lord, like a subject bowing before his King, must await his King’s edicts. Here we have the posture and attitude of the meekest and most humble submission.

This of course is totally contrary to man’s nature in his sinful, fallen state.  Every man comes into the world proud, self-willed, and totally unsubmissive to the Lord. But here in Habakkuk 2:20,

“THE MOUNTAIN HAS BEEN REDUCED TO A VALLEY, AND

NOW THE VALLEY BOWS BEFORE AND WORSHIPS

AT THE MOUNTAIN OF GOD’S HOLINESS.”

That very day will soon come, that every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. For most their confession will be too late, as the eternal pain of their haunting profession will match its awful, holy profundity.

WHAT HOUSE – WHOSE HOUSE?

We read again our text from Habakkuk 2:20,

“But the Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth

be silent before Him.”

“He’s In the House.” Whose house? What house? “He’s In The House” tells me nothing. What domicile are we talking about here? It is all very generic and non-specific like much of modern religion. I mean, “He’s In The House” doesn’t tell us at all just who the place belongs to. It is sort of like “Unisex Dormitories.” You know, “Unitemple.” It belongs to whoever happens to be in the house at the time.

As to whose house, let’s remind ourselves that when we come to worship Him in His Holy Temple, we are His guests, He is not our guest. This is His house-temple, it is not our house-temple. Hello!!! He is the “Divine Proprietor” and we are His “Human Parishioners.” He just doesn’t drop by and we don’t  just drop in like a “Cohabiting Timeshare House-Temple.” 

As to what house this is, for many today, the church is a custom made, pretty little church playhouse filled with all the fun things that sugar-and-spice little girls should surely have. Of course, for the snaps-and-snails and puppy-dog-tails little boys, there is their very own church treehouse filled with all of the fun things that little boys should have also.

And be sure to build those play-and-fun houses strong and sturdy so that they can be passed on to the religious children and grandchildren. We must keep this ecclesiastical gingerbread house of syrups and sweets and treats and eats well supplied for the generations to come, that is if we are to keep them coming.

For many today, going to church is like the old song says:

“To Grandmother’s House We Go.”

There is no house like granny’s house – cookies and cakes and candies in full supply. I ask, who will spoil you like granny spoils you? I mean to tell you, there is no better place to binge than in granny’s blessings-binge-bungalow. She will even let you get away with plate-licking as a sign you want more. She considers it a compliment for her cooking. Of course, we really wouldn’t care to live there, once a month would be plenty, but just as long as she is there when we need some more of those granny goodies. I mean to tell you there is no better place than when:

“GRANNY IS IN THE HOUSE.”

Cracker Barrel, eat your heart out!

Well now, I could easily go on, but I trust that the point has been made, and that is:

“SATAN WILL ALWAYS ASSIST US IN REPLACING IN THE CHURCH

PREACHING ON THE GODLY LIFE, WITH PREACHING

ON THE GOODIES LIFE.”

Or again:

“SATAN LOVES IT WHEN GOD’S HOLY TEMPLE HAS BECOME

MAN’S HOUSE OF CONFECTIONS, RATHER THAN

GOD’S HOUSE OF CONVERSIONS.”

I pray that this will enable the lesson to be strongly and indelibly learned. God forgive us that we have reduced and defaced the Lord to being little more than:

“SANTA IS IN THE HOUSE.”

Or again:

“THE CANDYMAN IS THE HOUSE.”

And we all know and believe that the “Candyman” can.

But the Bible has a holy-different sound:

“THE LORD IS IN HIS HOLY TEMPLE”.

What is the Lord’s holy temple? In its Habakkuk 2:20 broadest context, the next phrase is the clue:

“…let all the earth be silent before Him.”

Wherever God is, and God is everywhere in Heaven and on earth, there is the Lord’s Holy Temple, for He makes everything and everywhere holy by His holy omnipresence.

God once commanded Moses at a “Burning Bush Temple” in Exodus 3:5,

“…remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on

which you are standing is holy ground.”

I recall with great gratitude doing evangelistic crusades in Slovenia with pastor/missionary Steve Telzerow, and as we approached our first house to visit, he quickly told me to be sure to take off my shoes just inside the front door. It would be considered a grievous insult to the host family to take the dirt of the world into their home/sanctuary. It would be worse than household vandalism. In America we housebreak doggies. In Slovenia they housebreak humans. We had better start doing that in God’s House today.

Moses is standing on a piece of dirt near a burning bush wherein God’s burning holiness has set the bush on fire, but even that piece of dirt had been transformed into the floor of God’s holy sanctuary by the Divine Presence, and therefore could not be trampled upon by dusty sandals. The Lord was in His holy temple, and His presence literally knocked the shoes off from Moses’ feet.

I am so strongly drawn to the man in the Bible known chiefly to us as Jacob. He lies down in a no place of a place for the night, puts a rock under his head as a pillow and fell asleep. He has an astonishing ladder vision with angels climbing up and down. In that vision the Lord stood at the top of the ladder and told Jacob that the land on which he was laying would be his; that his descendants would be as numerous as the dust of the earth; and that God would protect him wherever he went. And so Jacob uses his rock pillow to build an altar to the Lord, and he says in Genesis 28:17,

“How awesome is this place! This is none other than

the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

Many church serviced today are like the door to Harry’s Coffee And Donut Shop.”

  “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth

is filled with His glory.”

Listen, God has set limitations to man’s days on earth. God has set boundaries to the seas and the oceans. But there are no boundaries to His holy glory, and wherever men are:

“THE LORD IS IN HIS HOLY TEMPLE.”

Whether we climb a mountain, or walk through a field of tall corn, or walk down a street in a city slum, or sail the oceans, or fly the jetted skies, we cannot get away from His presence. It is holy ground and holy water and holy firmament. Oh that men could see the world as the holy temple of the Lord, obey Him in all His words, and praise Him in all His works.

Now to His Holy Temple in the narrower context. I was brought up in this world by wonderful, Christian parents. My father worked long, hard weeks, and eagerly looked forward to Sunday, not just for rest, but above all he loved to go to church and worship the Lord. Church was the most special place in his world, for he knew that God had always designated special holy places for the worship of His Holy Name. Maple Avenue Christian Reformed Church was one of them, in fact, holier than all of the others in Holland, MI.

One of my dad’s favorite Scriptures was one that he not only loved, he also lived. It is found in Psalm 122:1,

“I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to

the house of the Lord.’”

It was his greatest joy in life, and I can say that without the least bit of exaggeration. When the pastor began with the words:

“The Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth

be silent before Him,”

I saw Dad’s lips then moving in silent prayer as he prepared Himself to worship his Holy Lord. How he embraced to his heart and life each Sunday the reading of his Lord and King’s 10 edicts. How he sang praises to God with all his heart, even though he was tone-deaf “Daddy One Note” and made every hymn sound the same with his very own tone-deaf melody line. How he literally ate the Word of God as his bread of life as it was proclaimed by the pastor. How he loved visiting after church in the yard with his neighbor buddy as they compared notes on their church experiences that day.

  “O God, Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee: my soul

thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for Thee in a dry

and thirsty land, where no water is;”

“to see Thy power and Thy glory, so as I have seen Thee

in the sanctuary.”

Truly for my Dad and Mom, and for all of their children to this day and forever when we go the church:

“THE LORD IS IN HIS HOLY TEMPLE.”