CLEAN UP THE TEMPLE

Imagine yourself packing into a new house. As you walk into one of the rooms, you discover it is in a state of clutter, mess and filth. Dirty, ramshackle curtains are hanging at the windows. At one corner of the room, you could see spider webs coiled into a thick net, and then lacing across to the opposite corner. The floor is so dusty with clothes lying where they fell. Then, a stinky odour is piercing into your nostrils, making it difficult for you to breathe in. I am sure you will not begin to bring your luggage into that room without first doing some clean up. This analogy can fit into our relationship with Jesus. Sometimes, we find our lives being as dirty as this dirty room. Jesus cannot come into such environment. He can’t sleep there. He can’t dwell there. One day, Jesus walked into the temple and was aghast at the level of clutter and filthiness He found there.

 People were buying and selling. There were some who stood at the corner of the temple, giving change to those who were buying and selling. He must have shaken His head in disappointment and grinded His teeth in anger. It was so terrible that people could turn the temple into a business centre, a place for cheating people. His action demonstrated His words. He made a whip of cords and drove them all out of the temple courts, with the sheep and the oxen. He also scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He spoke sternly to them: “take these things away from here! Do not make My Father’s house a market place!”(JOHN 2:16). We need Jesus to do the same thing in our lives. We are the temples of the Holy Spirit. We need to devote and dedicate our entire lives to the authority of the Holy Spirit. We need to shun every act of uncleanliness, every atom of sin; every manifestation of filthiness. Today is a day to clean the temple of the lord, which is your life. Surrender your life to God and ask Jesus to deliver you.