My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples?
But you have made it a den of thieves."
Jesus wants to dwell in our hearts. We are meant to be the temples of the Holy Spirit.
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? (see First Corinthians 6:19).
We need our hearts to be fit places in which God can dwell. They can't be so full of selling and buying that there is no room for Jesus. We often try to justify those things which consume our thoughts. We sell doves for people that need them for sacrifice. But this is not true if those concerns intrude into the parts of the temple which are reserved to the worship of God. This was true in the physical temple and it is now true in our hearts. We need to invite Jesus to chase these false priorities from our hearts.
They came to Jerusalem,
and on entering the temple area
he began to drive out those selling and buying there.
He overturned the tables of the money changers
and the seats of those who were selling doves.
The money changers and merchants grow comfortable where they are. The sooner we can get rid of them the easier it will be.
Only when are hearts are not enslaved to worldly concerns do we bear fruit for the Kingdom. We still experience those concerns, but they no longer keep us from God.
When he reached it he found nothing but leaves;
it was not the time for figs.
And he said to it in reply, "May no one ever eat of your fruit again!"
And his disciples heard it.
We drink from living water and bear fruit every month. We are never out of season when God is our source. The living water has to be the priority because Jesus isn't asking for natural fruit. It is not the time for figs. But we bring them forth anyway when our roots drink from these streams.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month (see Revelation 22:1-2).
This concern begins with being sober-minded enough that we will be able to pray. It means not allowing worldly concerns to so consume us that we cannot go to God in the temples of our hearts. From those temples the fruits come. There is intense love. There is hospitality. All of the manifolds gifts of God are put to use. There is preaching. There is service. But it is all from the strength that God supplies, strength that flows from the altars of the temples of the Church and of the Spirit within us.
so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ,
to whom belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
He comes to rule the earth. May he first reign in our hearts.
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