New Carpet...some new cleansing!

12 Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 13 And He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.' " 14 Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.

New carpet at the 1341 Palm Ct. address this morning. It made me think of this scripture and I found this devotion...thought you would enjoy it as well.

Jesus cleansing the temple, we all love this story, because it shows Jesus getting busy and getting those darn thieves out of God's house.

You see these guys (and women) were overcharging God's people to worship Him.
Say a turtledove was sold for $5.00, but they would jack up the price to $10.00 because they would say that the one you bought was not good enough. So they would over charge you, take what they said was not good enough, then turn around and sell it to the next person for $10.00.

Jesus couldn't stand this any more, and drove these robbers out of the temple.
Then the cool part comes in verse 14: Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.

These poor people could not afford to enter the temple, according to those who were robbing the people; therefore they were outcasts from the temple and being held back from God, in a sense.
Kind of makes you stop and wonder how we keep others out of the churches.

I remember a story of Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel, who when he started, him and his wife would go down to the beach and witness to the surfers. He was a pastor of a small church as well. Eventually they got new carpet and pews for this church; the surfers would come in from the beach all wet and full of sand. The people didn't want these surfers in the church messing up their new carpet and pews. Chuck's response was to tear out the pews and carpet, because these material things meant nothing and the souls of these men and women meant everything to God. If you have ever heard of Calvary Chapel, you will find that there are hundreds of churches now throughout the USA and around the world. All because one man had the heart of God to see the more important things, which were the people and not the material that we tend to find more precious then the souls of men.

God makes all things new...you know I love ya, Don