To Seek a Place Instead of a Person

But don't be fooled by those who promise you safety simply because the Lord's Temple is here.  They chant, "The Lord's Temple is here!  The Lord's Temple is here!"  But I will be merciful only if you stop your evil thoughts and start treating each other with justice... Jeremiah 7:3-5

To seek a place instead of a Person is the first peril in the spiritual life.

• To sentimentalize over places where God has met you is the beginning of spiritual twist. 
• Beware of relying on a principle saving you from moral wrong, for it never can. 

Remember, the temple of God to-day is the human body, 

• and unless its health is based on the worship of God, 
• its very health will prove its ruin.
• A bad man goes on living long after God has departed from him.

A personal relationship to a personal Savior 

• is the only power that can shield the soul from moral peril. 
• The golden rule is, my personal Savior in every place, 
• not that in certain places I meet my Savior.

The governing idea of what the Bible says is that 

• reality must be at the back of every religious observance or practice, 
• or else that observance will land the soul in destruction.

Don't be fooled into thinking that you will never suffer because the Temple is here.  It's a lie!  Do you really think you can steal, murder, commit adultery, lie, and burn incense to Baal and all those gods of yours, and then come here and stand before Me in my Temple and chant, "We are safe!" only to go right back to all those evils again?  Don't you yourselves admit that this Temple which bears my name, has become a den of thieves?  Surely I see all the evil going on there.  I, the Lord, have spoken.  Jeremiah 7:8-11

Self-deception always arises by ignoring the personal relationship to God, 

• a relationship based on the forgiveness of sin 
• and nothing else.

The pure in heart are the only ones who see God, 

• and no one is pure in heart who has not received absolution from sin through the Atonement. 
• If we are spiritual, God will dry up the fountains of illumination from other sources, 
• and if we seek for illumination elsewhere, we shall be led astray. 

Who among you fears the Lord and obeys his servant?  If you are walking in darkness without a ray of light, trust in the Lord and rely on your God.  But watch out, you who live in your own light and warm yourselves by your own fires.  This is the reward you will receive from me: You will soon fall down in great torment.  Isaiah 50:10-11

It is quite easy to get insight and illumination and direction elsewhere, 

• there are other forces eager to direct us and to direct us more cheaply, 
• but God’s direction can never be bought. 
• When you come up against a spiritual wall, thank God (Isaiah 50:10–11).

Adapted Excerpt From

Notes on Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel

Oswald Chambers