9 November 2013 - zeal for his house

9 November 2013 - zeal for his house


“Take these out of here,
and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.”

We ourselves "are God's Building" and "the Spirit of God dwells in us."  We must allow use of this building only according to the purpose for which it is made. We must stay consistent which the foundation which is here, "namely, Jesus Christ."   We are the "temple of God" and therefore holy.  We must not "destroy God's temple" or allow the "money-changers" and those who sell "sheep, oxen, and doves" to have any place in our hearts. These sellers and money-changers put the religious at the service of the worldly.  Their priorities are backwards.  Jesus can't tolerate this in the physical temple.

He made a whip out of cords
and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen,
and spilled the coins of the money-changers
and overturned their tables,
If he cares this much for the physical temple which is but a sign of things to come how much more are the words of Scripture true about the temples of our hearts:

Zeal for your house will consume me.
We let him cleanse in his zeal or we put ourselves at great risk.

If anyone destroys God’s temple,
God will destroy that person;
for the temple of God, which you are, is holy.
He has big plans for us.  If we were destined to be normal buildings the stakes would not be so high.  But we are destined to be the dwelling places of God in the Spirit (cf. Eph 2:22).  Light has no fellowship with darkness (cf. 2 Cor. 6:14).  Without holiness no one may see God (cf. Heb 12:14) and his shekinah glory cloud will not rest upon us.

But streams of living water flow from deep within him who believes (cf. Joh 7:38).  Such a one is open to the zealous cleansing of the LORD, even if it takes a cord of whips to separate him from the things to which he should not cling.  Purified, he becomes the temple into which God always intends to transform him.  He then shares in the blessings of God's presence.

Every month they shall bear fresh fruit,
for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary.
Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine.”
This river gladdens to city of God.  It flows from the temple which God himself builds and in which to dwell.  If rely on him completely as "our refuge and our strength, an ever-present help in distress"  we not only rejoice to drink of this stream but we ourselves become its source.  This only works if God and not money-changers and sellers are at the center:

God is in its midst; it shall not be disturbed;
God will help it at the break of dawn.