“And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers” (Mark 11:17). To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market! John 2:16 Christ was furious that His place of worship had been robbed of its original intent. The purpose of the Temple was prayer, worship and confession, but it had become commercialized for the sake of convenience and cash. Merchants muddled the grounds with their wares and currency exchanges, so the faithful could easily purchase their sacrifices to God. However, the holiness of the temple turned into the mayhem of a chaotic marketplace. Thus, Christ cleansed His temple. Have some of our churches gone too far by commercializing Christ in competition with worshipping Christ? Have we lost our central focus of prayer, worship, confession and Bible teaching for the sake of convenience and cash? Perhaps we invite Christ to cleanse our churches of any methods or programs that compete with His commission to make disciples. We make sure our mission is faith in Jesus. We worship God without the distraction of selling God’s resources. “For zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me” (Psalm 69:9). Furthermore, we have to ask ourselves, Am I intentionally leveraging my time with the Lord’s people for my own personal gain? Am I using Sundays to serve, only so it benefits my work the other six days of the week? A subtle solicitation of our services during the holy hour of worship can be as harmful as blatant selling. Men and women of integrity focus on who they need to be in God’s sight, rather than promoting what they do during the workweek to fellow parishioners. Lastly, the Holy Spirit desires to regularly cleanse the temple of our heart. He knows motives become mixed; money seeks too much attention and pride is ever persistent to influence. So, we ask the Spirit to flush out selfish desires and any attachments that distract our personal worship of our heavenly Father. The temple of our heart needs noisy voices to be escorted out and peaceful prayers to be invited in to stay. Christ cleanses our hearts in readiness to worship Him. Prayer: Heavenly Father, cleanse the temple of my heart, so I can worship You wholeheartedly with Your people. [AMEN]---Wisdom Hunters
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 12:17:53 +0000
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