If Paul can rejoice about his contentment in God's presence while lacerated in a
jail cell, then we too can live with that
kind of perspective in both enjoyable and daunting situations.
God started with a small party in a garden, moved on toward some pow - wows at alters in the desert, then moved into a moveable tabernacle (
kind of like an Old Testament RV), then reigned in a temple (especially the God - cave
of the Holy
of Holies, then disappeared while giving the Jews the silent treatment for some 400 years, then came back to the temple, then traveled the highways and byways with anyone who wanted to join the fun and whooped it up with society's outcasts and wedding attenders, then moved on to some public forums, then into some clandestine home groups and a few
jail cells, and eventually made his way into traditional church as we now know it.