Does The Inside Match the Outside?

“That thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there: that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place.” (1Ki 8:29 AV)

This is a portion of the prayer Solomon made at the dedication of the temple.  His is seeking the eyes of the LORD to be towards the house of God day and might without ceasing.  The place that His name is.  Today, that place is in the heart of the believer.   The phrase upon which we wish to dwell this morning is, ‘…My name shall be there…’

Year ago, my job was to care for one of the original buildings of downtown Rochester, NY.  It was an old office building.  It had six floors.  Five of the six floors were occupied by law firms.  This build sat next to the county office building and an atrium connected the two buildings.  Across the street from the county office building was the courthouse.  Anybody who was anybody wanted to locate their offices in this building of which I tended.  This building was so old it had a bell tower in it with a functioning bell.  Marble floors adorned this building which were gorgeous floors upon which once gazed.  The doors were fourteen-foot-high made of solid wood.  Even the doors into each office suite were that large.  The building still has upon its cornerstone the year in which it was laid – 1875.  Yet, it has something else etched in its façade that is not technically true.  It was true at one time.  But not true since 1975.  The building in now known as Irving Place.  But for one hundred years the name appearing on the face of the building declared its purpose.  City Hall.  It was the original city hall of Rochester, NY for one hundred years.  Even though the name still stands, the purpose has changed quite a bit.

I began to wonder how we might appear to others, yet what we were truly in the depths of our hearts.  Even though the name of Christ appears on the outside, has the purpose, desires, priorities, beliefs, etc. changed to reflect something different?  As long as t Solomon’s temple stood, the people of the world assumed Israel’s faith was still sincere and genuine.  What was on the outside may not have been what was true on the inside.  The same is true of the saint today.  We may be wearing the name of Christ on the outside, but what it the insider really like?