Little Messes
Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, "It is written, 'My house is a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.' "
- Luke 19:45-46
My wife Cathe and I are polar opposites when it comes to cleaning. My approach could be summed up by the procrastinator's motto: Never do today what you could put off until tomorrow. Cathe's approach is to constantly clean and organize so that over time, little messes don't become big ones. Obviously, her approach is the better one.
In Luke 19, we find the story of Jesus' cleaning the house of God as He went into the temple and drove out the moneychangers. They were taking advantage of people and keeping them from God, and this angered Jesus.
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This is the second time in Scripture where Jesus cleansed the temple. In the Gospel of John, we read that He used a whip to drive out the moneychangers. Little messes turn into big messes, so Jesus arrived to clean house again.
I believe there is a parallel to our own lives. When we come to Christ initially, we ask for His forgiveness, and He pardons us of all our iniquities. In fact, we are told in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." What a wonderful thing it is to realize that God has forgiven us of all our sin.
But as a little time passes, sometimes some of those old sins can find their way back into our lives. And that so-called "little" sin begins to grow and becomes a problem.
Does your temple need cleansing? Are there some things in your life that shouldn't be there right now? Are there some vices, some bad habits that have found their way back into your life? If so, deal with them now. Don't let little messes turn into big ones.
