Don't Go To Church....Be the Church

I recently bought a Christian shirt that has a simlple message written on the front and the back. It says Don't Go to Church.....Be the Church. I really thought this was a powerful message to Christians everywhere. We think of the church as a place where we go to a worship God and receive from God's word the spiritual nourishment to strenghten our soul and spirit. However the church is not the building where we gather for worship, it is you and I, the people who make up the church. Paul wrote to the Romans these words in Romans 12:4-5-"Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." Paul later writes in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20-"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." We are the temple of the Holy Spirit and we are the habitation of God and a body of believers. God longs to dwell in our hearts and lives and we are the church, or the dwelling place of God. Remember that some people just "go to church" while others realize that they "are the church." So "Don't Go to Church....Be the Church."