Pushing Through

I'm going to be a little out of the ordinary this time and most a lot of scripture. All of these verses tell the same story, but I want to make sure to catch every angle, so I'm just going to type in an excert of each gospel. Now I know there are a whole lot of other things that can be taught with these scriptures, but this is just what is on my heart today.

Luke 19:45-46 And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves.

Matthew 21:12-14 And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.

Mark 11:15-16 And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.

John 2:14-16 And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.

Back in the days of Jesus, Jews traveled from far and wide to give their best sacrifice to God in Jeruselam. They considered it a joy to give to God. But now you find in these scriptures a crowd blocking the way to the inner temple (The moneychangers were in the outer temple) with all their propoganda and clutter. The honest Jews who brought their very best on their long journey has to push and fight to get through, and maybe couldn't break through the crowd of desecrators. The moneychangers were being a hinderance to the Jews reaching God. Jesus saw this, and cleared it out.

Think about our own lives for a minute.

Before we became Christians, we had to take that long spiritual journey searching for Jesus. We may have not known we were searching for Him, but that's what everyone in the world is searching for. The journey is wearisome and hard, but we finally made it to the cross. What happened when we got there? The entrance was crowded with doubt, fear, and hurt. We were reminded of the wrongs we had done. We felt we weren't worthy. But Jesus came into the temple (for we are the temple of God) and He threw the tables over. He chased all the fears and doubts away with a whip. He made the way for us to reach the cross.

Now that we have reached the cross, we became vessels of praise fod God. We are still his temple, and we have to come before Him with a thankful heart. But now, we have pride and new fears cluttering the entrance into the holy of holies again. When we begin to worship with all our hearts, thoughts begin to put it to a halt. "People will stare." "i don't want to make myself look stupid." People, it is time to let Jesus through the doors again and clear the path to true worship. He can take away even those doubts and fears just as He took away the ones before.

For those of you who do not know Jesus as your Lord and savior, believe it or not, He is what you are searching for on your life's journey. He is the only thing that can fill that bottomless void because He is eternal. And He can come in to clear the path to the cross if you'll just let Him.

I'll be praying for you.