Dwelling of God

In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Ephesians 2:22 (ESV) Sometimes I think today we really don't get how amazing the church is. We find many people, so called Evangelicals, saying we should get rid of the church. Oh, there intentions are good--they see a generation of people who are against organizations like churches, and figure by doing away with the institutional church they will appeal to these people. But if they really want to do that, if they really think the church has not place today, what do we do with scriptures like the above. It is from a section of Ephesians that speaks of how Christ takes people who are separated from God and from one another and brings them together into a new people. That sections ends with the words above, that we who believe are not only brought together, having the separation between one another and God removed, but we are also built "together" into a place for God to live. That is, the church, the gathered believers in Jesus Christ, are where God dwells. I can hardly comprehend that truth. As we are brought together as believers, we are where God lives. How could we ever think that the very dwelling of God that Christ suffered, died and rose to establish, is of no importance merely because the culture around us doesn't like institutions. Perhaps the problem is that we don't really understand who we are as the people of God in Christ. If we really started to understand that, and live that perhaps we would not be so quick to downplay it.