Where Is Your Sanctuary?

TAMPA, FL-The psalmist says in Psalms 122:1, "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD." We tend to recite this beloved psalm when we are making our way into the church building on the Lord's day but does it need to apply only to the church house? If we are not careful, we tend to limit the time of worship to those times when we are in the physical sanctuary where we corporately meeting a couple of times each week.

One of the reasons I so enjoy a long commute is that my vehicle (over the years its been a Lumina, two Saturns, a Cavalier and currently an Aztek) has been a sanctuary where the Holy Spirit and I commune and He feeds my spirit as I prepare to take on the day. But my car is not the only meeting place where I hook up with God's spirit. There have been times when my cubicle is the place of worship complete with my visiting choirs (Brooklyn Tabernacle, Chicago Mass, West Angeles COGIC, Mahallia Jackson, Darlene Zschech and Mississippi Mass) and guess preachers (Tony Evans, Charles Stanley, Joyce Meyers, Chuck Swindoll, Dan Chun, Wayne Corderio, Vashti McKenzie, Joni Erickson-Tada and many more).

God is so amazing to meet us at various places in our journey and He reminds us of His faithfulness and promises to us. One of the ways in which God speaks to us is through His continued creative hand in the great sanctuary of the natural world. Many times it has been in viewing nature that I appreciate the presence of the Lord in my life.

When I came out the door of my home in Hawaii and saw a glorious rainbow like that in picture to the left, how could one not praise the Lord (there's another sanctuary, a Montana mini-van) or be reminded of his promise to Noah to never again destroy the earth by flood?

The psalmist asks the question, "Where can I go from thy Spirit?" with the presumed answer being, Nowhere". I discovered yet another place of worship during those times when I was learning how to SCUBA dive as God would meet me on the water and then yet again underneath the water.

Let me invite you to expand your personal definition of sanctuary. Right where you are at this moment, you can "enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise". Revelation 3 paints the picture of Jesus standing at the door and knocking. When we open that door to Him, wherever we might be is transformed from a regular place to a place of fellowship and worship and when we are in the presence of the Lord, there is peace, joy, strength and beauty.