1 Kings 18:36-38 (NIV)
36 At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: "O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and have done all these things at Your command. 37 Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that You, O Lord, are God, and that You are turning their hearts back again." 38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.

The church building is the altar. We are the priests and we come to church to have a worship service where we offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. See, it's not God's responsibility to build the building. It's our responsibility to redeem it and to claim it and to build it.

Everywhere that Israel bought land and built an altar it was their effort then God answered on that holy ground, that holy place, that place of respect. So even though the church building is at the church it's the altar where we come to offer our tithe. It's holy ground. It's a piece of land that we have separated and come into common agreement that this is where we will go to offer our sacrifices. This is where we'll bring our children to dedicate them to the Lord. This is where we'll come to lift up holy hands and worship. This is where we'll come to shed our tears in prayer unto the heavenly Father.

Once God received a piece of land and received an altar as it being unto Himself, anyone who desecrated that altar bought judgement on themselves because He received it. It was His personal place of meeting. It was the tent of meeting with a congregation of Israel. It was the place that He had agreed to meet.
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