What is the point of dwelling in God's house? [color=#0000FF]"To gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple."[/color] I find that in worship services at shul, I can gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and seek Him there. Beauty of the Lord? I would submit that the beauty of the Lord is manifest when we worship Him. When we get together to praise His Name, that is a beautiful thing. And when we thank God for all the miracles He has done for us and continues to do, that is a beautiful thing. And of course I'm biased, but I think I worship in a beautiful sanctuary. I'm sure your houses of worship are beautiful as well. And this is fitting. The very best is to be given for the service of God. While it would be perfectly acceptable to worship God in a hovel or a cave or in a place that was badly in need of repair-if circumstances so dictated, the Psalmist did say to [color=#0000FF]worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness[/color]. The first born, the first fruits, these belong to God. An animal that was going to be sacrificed had to be tamim (perfect,worthy, unblemished). Only the best for the very best. [color=#0000FF]"Seek Him in His temple"[/color] What does it mean to seek? I would say it means to search for, to inquire, to dig in the hopes of discovering something, to follow or pursue. Why seek? Service of God is to be active, not passive. You can seek by searching the Scriptures. You can seek by going to services. You can seek by performing acts of kindness. And all these can be done in God's house. If we are to love God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our might, we must show our love in these ways. Love is a verb. It's a choice. It's more than a feeling-if that. To love God, we must follow the commandments. [color=#0000FF]"Love is the fulfillment of the commandments." "Let no doubt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another."[/color] To be continued...