Surely The Lord Is In This Place!

The first - and chief - glory of any local church is the manifest presence of God. It is the LORD's presence that transforms it into:

• a “dreadful” place;
• “the house of God, and ... the gate of heaven”;
• a Bethel on earth!

This is what we must always aspire to – and should be pleading for in 2006: 'Make this house a Bethel!'

What heavenly spot is this?
How glorious is the place!
Sure here Jehovah is
In majesty and grace:
Here let our souls devoutly wait,
‘Tis God's own house, ‘tis heaven's gate.

‘Tis here the saints abide,
On richest dainties fed,
And Christ doth here reside,
Their Master and their Head:
His life and love He here conveys,
And owns their prayers and hears their praise.