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Jesus Passion Week - Monday


Jesus Passion Week – Monday
Matthew 21:12-16
            On Monday of His passion week Jesus entered the Temple in Jerusalem.  The Temple was very important to the Jewish believer.  It was the center of their worship.  They would travel to the Temple at least three times a year to worship, offer sacrifices, and to celebrate the different feasts that God had given to them in the Law of Moses. 
            This event is recorded in three of the four Gospels.  We learn that He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold doves.  The outer court of the Temple had become a place of merchandising.  The merchants were profiting off of God’s people at the expense of worship.
            Notice Jesus words, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’”  The reference to “den of thieves,” has to do with those who would hide themselves in caves and steal from innocent people as they passed through the mountainous areas around Jerusalem.
            What happens when Jesus enters the Temple?  He restores prayer to its rightful place.  In this week that remembers His sacrificial death and His victorious resurrection why not ask God to restore your personal temple.  The Apostle Paul teaches that our bodies are now the “temple of God.” 
            Let me challenge you to invite Christ to cleanse your temple today. What will He find?  What will He turn over?  Then ask Him to restore your prayer life.  He longs to communicate with us in prayer.  He longs to fellowship and commune with His children. 
            What happened when Jesus cleansed the Temple?  Prayer was restored to its rightful place and became a priority in God’s house.  The blind and the lame were healed, and the children began to cry out in praise to God. 
            The same will happen in our lives.  When Christ visits us individually and corporately prayer will become a priority, we will experience His healing power, and our children and those around us will cry out in praise to God.

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