Today's Passage - Matthew 21:12-17

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Matthew 21:12-17   Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.  "It is written," he said to them, "'My house will be called a house of prayer,'but you are making it 'a den of robbers.'" The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them.  But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they were indignant. "Do you hear what these children are saying?" they asked him. "Yes," replied Jesus, "have you never read, 'From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise'?"...   When we praise Jesus as the King of the Highest, we may overlook the fact that He's also the Holy Savior. When Jesus entered into the temple, He saw the temple filled with traders. There services of exchanging money and buying and selling livestock and pigeons are actually valuable to people, but the Jews thought those businesses were more important than God. The focus of their faith shifted from God to people, so Jesus had to cleanse the temple, since Holy God cannot tolerate the presence of sin. When light is shined into a dark room, darkness will be cast out; in the same way, the coming of Jesus Christ will bring upon blessings, and darkness must be cast out before the blessings come.   A speaker in a conference once said: "The weakness of Christian is not the result of the evilness of this generation, but rather the result of sin inside them." So many Christian think they are always good and always right, they cannot see their darkness inside. May God have mercy on us, because our faith is not supposed to lead to self-righteousness, self-centeredness or our own ambitions. We are supposed to focus on God's way, God's will and God's plan. May God enter into our hearts, remove all the self-centeredness and disobedience. If our personality needs to be dealt with, the may the Lord come and deal with us! If our lifestyle needs to be changed, then let the Lord come and change us! If we are bound by hatred and need to be released, then let the Lord release us! If our hearts do not eager for God and we need to be revived, let the Lord revive us!   Our Lord can drive out and overturn what is undesirable. Even though a holy life requires discipline, but it will bring us joy, peace and love. Even though the Lord can drive out bad things, He will still accept out; even though the Lord will overturn the undesirable, He will also build us up. Our Lord is filled with grace and mercy, so let us turn back to the Lord again and come before Him without any fear.     Pray with Pastor Tong      Lord, I thank you, because not only you are God who can overturn, you are also Lord who can rebuild. May you tear down and overturn the undesirable things in our lives, so that we may be released from all the authority of darkness and bondage of sin. Let us experience the rebuilding by the Holy Spirit, and help us to live our daily life according to your will. I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!