Welcome to Selah Sunday. The word Selah appears more than seventy times in scripture, mostly in the Psalms—yet scholars still debate its precise meaning. That said, it is widely agreed upon that Selah is an invitation to pause for reflection, a time to stop and listen.

As a church, we confess that one of the greatest dangers to our formation in Christ is the unrelenting busyness of the trivial, the tyranny of the urgent, and the unsustainable pace that we were never meant to live.

The prophet Isaiah speaks directly to this in Isaiah 30:15:

Therefore, we have chosen to carve out a holy pause in our weekly rhythms of meeting together— to give margin for rest, reflection, and attentive listening to the Father’s voice. Our hope is that this guided devotional, together with a companion worship experience prepared by our team, will restore your soul, deepen your intimacy with God, and enlarge your capacity to be Christ for others.

So find a comfortable place to sit, put away distractions, and drink from the well of His presence available to you in Jesus.

We begin by asking God to meet us here and now.

God’s story is the story of a Father who longs to dwell with His people. Creation itself overflows from the love shared within the Trinity. Though God needed nothing, He desired to share His life with image-bearers who could receive and return that love. In Eden, he walked among Adam and Eve in perfect communion.

After humanity’s fall, the Lord devised a way to live among us—first in tents and temples, later in flesh and blood. Words like house, altar, temple, and Zion trace a singular thread: the Almighty taking up residence with His children.

Jesus represents the climax of God’s desire to dwell with humanity. Through the Incarnation, God doesn’t merely visit His people but actually becomes one of them, embodying the divine presence in human form. Jesus is “Emmanuel” - God with us. John tells us that Jesus “tabernacled” among us (John 1:14) and Jesus explicitly identifies himself as the temple in John 2, proclaiming that he is the place where God meets with humanity.

At Pentecost wind and fire descended again (as it did on the Tabernacle and Temple), this time resting and remaining on all who believe, declaring that God’s Spirit now dwells within the Church. The Spirit is a deposit and guarantee until the day He will ultimately restore all things to Himself in the new creation, where He will once again dwell among us. (Rev 21:3)

Yes, God is present everywhere, yet His glory—His felt weight—manifests uniquely where His people hunger for Him. Each Sunday, when we gather to serve and worship, we experience that glory together. Likewise, serving in God’s house is not mere duty; it is a priestly vocation where we offer our sacrifices of gifts and talents to the one who desires to be close to us.

The psalmist’s declaration that “a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere” (Psalm 84:10) does not simply reflect a personal preference but a profound understanding of the significance of God’s dwelling place among us. As new testament believers in Jesus, We are living stones built upon Christ (1 Peter 2:4-10), a dwelling for the presence of God that the psalmist so passionately desired.

So the question in front of Auburn Community Church today is not will I show up to serve coffee, greet others, care for children, teach, sing, shoot video or pictures, or help navigate a busy parking lot…

The question is…

Does my soul truly long for the courts of the Lord?

Am I showing up to Church lethargic, unaware, and apathetic? Or am I stepping into my priestly role with holy expectancy?

Allow the Spirit to search your heart.

The Early 4th Century Church Father, Saint John Chrysostom, grasped the church as God’s living dwelling more vividly than most of his peers in the early days of the church. In fiery sermons he urged the wealthy to trade worldly pleasures and status symbols for sanctuaries that would stand as “fortresses against the devil,” asking, “Why not build churches to establish an eternal legacy?” His call to his congregation was a challenge to those around him to invest their resources where heaven meets earth and to let worship literally shape the city’s skyline.

For Chrysostom, every new church was a visible piece of the new creation to come that redirected hearts toward God’s glory. His words still press us to ask what kind of legacy we are choosing to build.For all of Chrysostom's commitment to the physical church building, he insisted that stone walls matter only because they gather living stones—God’s people—into one holy house. After each message he told believers to “turn your home into heaven,” carrying the presence they had encountered into kitchens, streets, and workplaces. These two spaces – the cathedral and household – became twin spheres of a single dwelling place for the Spirit. A call to “Go and Be the Church.”

We hope this devotional and worship experience blesses, encourages, and challenges our church family as we move forward into the fall. Our team prays that today you would live from a place of deep rest and confident trust in Christ’s love. We look forward to gathering again next Sunday, August 3.

Now Go—and be the church.