Are You Short Changing God?
Good Morning Friends,
Are you giving God all that is due to him? Not just your finances but your heart, your life, your talents and skills and your time. Do people see the reality of salvation in you? Do they see Jesus in you, or do they see the same attitudes and actions that Jesus saw that day when he cleansed the Temple? Maybe it is time for us to cleanse our Temple before God cleanses it for us! Surely God will not allow us to continue in disobedience. Are You Short Changing God?
Scripture: Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, ‘It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer”; but you are making it a den of robbers.’
Matthew 21:12-13
Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him. “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you this authority?”
Matthew 21:23 (NIV)
The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money-changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, ‘Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a market-place!’ His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’
John 2:13-17 (NRSV)
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 (NRSV)
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.
1 Timothy 6:10 (NRSV)
For the time has come for judgement to begin with the household of God; if it begins with us, what will be the end for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
1 Peter 4:17 (NRSV)
Message: John puts the cleansing of the Temple at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, and the other three evangelists place it right at the end, just before Jesus was killed. It is quite possible that Jesus cleansed the Temple twice. We know he went there a number of times. Several years may separate the two cleansings. To judge by Jesus’ anger in Matthew, the first incident had not been effective, which would account for why Jesus was so angry. But we also know John tried to supplement the other gospels, and this may account for the differences. John may have deliberately used a different narrative structure, one that did not rely on historical sequence but imbed a spiritual message about how Jesus heals us. The message may have been more important to him than the order in which events happened. Regardless, the message is clear that if Jesus took such zeal to cleanse a temporary earthly temple imagine the zeal He experiences in giving God a proper place of worship in your life. He has a passion that your heart not be clutter with the world but be set aside as a place of prayer and worship.
Pray we not dishonor the body of believers. Pray we get our house in order. Pray we do not succumb to the temptations of the world. Pray we not seek comfort from power and riches. Pray we realize that true joy only comes from faith in the promises of God. Pray we worship, serve and give in a way that fulfills God’s will in our collective lives even though we might feel like the world has become corrupt. Pray we realize that the real temple, the real place God wants to live, the real place of worship and prayer is the human heart. Pray we realize that the only way to keep the world out of our hearts is to have Christ filling them.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 