Temple Cleansers
Then he entered the temple area and began driving out those who were selling. 'As it is written,' he said to them, 'My house will be a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of robbers.' (Luke 19:45-46 NIV)
The critical need in this hour of the churchís history is not what it is so often said to be: soul-winning, foreign missions, miracles. These are effects, not causes. The most pressing need just now is that we who call ourselves Christians should frankly acknowledge to each other and to God that we are astray; that we should confess that we are worldly, that our moral standards are low and we are spiritually cold. We need to cease our multitude of unscriptural activities, stop running when and where we have not been sent, and cease trying to sanctify carnal projects by professing that we are promoting them ìin the name of the Lordî and ìfor the glory of God.î We need to return to the message, methods and objectives of the New Testament. We need boldly and indignantly to cleanse the temple of all that sell cattle in the holy place, and overthrow the tables of the money-changers. And this must be done in our own lives first and then in the churches of which we are a part.
Prayer
O Lord, our churches need to be cleansed, our methods and programs rooted in Your Word, our message Spirit-inspired. Renew us, Lord!
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Thought
A prophet must first clean up his own life and, by means of the Spirit, grow in Christlikeness before his message can claim the authority of Christ.
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