Apr. 24: Power House

Jesus is a power house; a force with which to be reckoned, and it’s always been that way. Upon Jesus’ “Triumphal Entry” into Jerusalem at the beginning of His final week on earth we find Him entering the Temple…and what He did there was astounding:

“Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 13 "It is written," he said to them, "'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers.' " 14 The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they were indignant. 16 "Do you hear what these children are saying?" they asked him. “Yes," replied Jesus, "have you never read, "'From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise’?" 17 And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.” (Matthew 21:12-17)

We find Jesus frustrated, driven by righteous indignation, because God’s house was being misused in a way that resembled nothing close to its original purpose.

God’s house is to be a place of purity. He emptied it of those who had profaned it and turned it into a place of personal profit.
God’s house is to be a place of power. Healing is to take place in God’s house. It’s where people come to be set free.
God’s house is to be a place of prayer… for ALL the nations; a place to converse with the Living God.
God’s house is to be a place of praise. God inhabits the praise of His people.

Then we find that we are “God’s House”; the place where He dwells.
Jesus told the Samaritan woman whom He met at the well, “a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” (John 4:23)

Paul told the people of Athens, Greece, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.” (Acts 17:24-25)

I hear people (usually muscular, well-toned “gym rats”) say, “My body is a temple.” They miss the main point. Paul instructed Christ-followers to “flee from sexual immorality… (because) your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)

~ Father may my body, Your Temple, be a place of purity, power, prayer and praise. Amen.