Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... Please take the time to take in song, images, and lyrics from Steve Green singing Find Us Faithful … poignantly singing of how we, as followers of Christ, must stay the course of faithful worship on the road of life.
Faithful in Worship
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Highlight Verse[s]: Mark 11:17 [ESV] ... 17 And He was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’?
… Jesus’ anger was not that the priests dishonored Him; … but rather that they were dishonoring His Father’s House of worship.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Mark 11:15-18 [ESV] ... USE THIS LINK ...
… Jesus cleanses God’s Temple of the unfaithful who were dishonoring God’s House of Worship.
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Reference Passage : … Isaiah 56:6-7 [ESV] … USE THIS LINK …
… God, thru Isaiah pronounces His covenant promise for God’s people to hold His temple as a house of worship and prayer.
Reference Passage : … Jeremiah 7 [ESV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus, in cleansing God’s temple (see highlight passage), was reflecting God’s promised anger from Jeremiah 7 upon those who would profane the Lord’s place of worship.
Reference Passage : … 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 [ESV] … 16 Do you not know that you [God’s chosen people] are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.
… God’s chosen people are His “temple;” and as such we are to be faithful in our worship to Him.
Reference Passage : … 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 [ESV] … 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
… Each of us, in our own bodies, represent God’s temple and we are to keep it pure for the worship of our Lord daily.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Mike Wittmer, relates the story of a Pastor’s desire to keep his church as a house of prayer and worship, honoring God with all the church did to faithfully worship the Lord. … The ODB author wrote: Jose pastored a church known for its programs and theatrical productions. They were well done, yet he worried the church’s busyness had slipped into a business. Was the church growing for the right reasons or because of its activities? Jose wanted to find out, so he canceled all extra church events for one year. His congregation would focus on being a living temple where people worshiped God.
Jose’s decision seems extreme, until you notice what Jesus did when He entered the temple’s outer courts. The holy space that should have been full of simple prayers had become a flurry of worship business.
I, for one, applaud Pastor Jose’s faithfulness to keep His church as a faithful temple of worship for the Lord. These days, God’s houses of worship, i.e., churches which are built to worship Christ, have become houses of entertainment more than houses which honor the Lord with collective/community worship and prayer.
And unfortunately, we are seeing many churches and denominations fall apart, which is not surprising because, as Jesus did to the jewish temple in the Mark 11 passage, and the Lord has promised in both Isaiah 56 and Jeremiah 7, ... that God will cleanse those who don’t faithfully keep His Temple (see both 1Cor. 3 and 6 passages) clean and pure for worshipping our Lord.
So, what must we do - even today - to cleanse our individual “temples” [i.e., our bodies] and to collectively do all we can to make His houses (i.e., His Church) to be “temples” of worship and prayer? Let’s do a spring cleaning and carry out what Steve Green sings about in his linked song.
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My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, … for giving us the task of faithfully cleaning out Your “temples” to become “houses” of prayer … for Your glory.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... I pray, Lord, that all reading here will join me today, to do all we can to cleanse God’s “temple” so that we, individually and as His Church, become “houses of prayer” to honor and worship our Lord. Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled “Our Daily Bread,” distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.</ span>
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