Today's Passage - Luke 19:45-48

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Luke 19:45-48   Then he entered the temple area and began driving out those who were selling.  'It is written,' he said to them, 'My house will be a house of prayer; but you have made it 'a den of robbers.'  Every day he was teaching at the temple.  But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him.  Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.   Why did the Lord do that?  From human perspective, the Lord didn't seem to have done a sensible thing.  In fact, when we are praising and worshipping the Lord as the King and the Most High, we neglect that He is also the Holy Savior.  When Lord Jesus entered the temple, He saw how the temple was filled with sounds of trading, because the Jews of the time valued trading more than they valued God, and valued money more than they valued the blessings of God.  The focus of their faith has shifted from God to people, so Jesus had to clean up the temple, because God is holy and He could not tolerate the presence of sin.  When light shines into a dark room, it will cast out darkness.  When Jesus comes to the world, He will bring forth blessings; however, before the blessings come, He must first cast out and push out the undesirable things.   I have attended a conference where something a speaker said really helped me.  He said that the weakness of a Christian is never caused by the wickedness of the world, but it's because his own sin.  Too many Christians think they are doing well and doing the right things, and they cannot see their own inner darkness.  Our faith is always the path, way and wish of God, and we cannot praise God and walk on our own path at the same time.  May God enter our hearts, remove our self-centeredness and remove all the disobedience.  If in our life our personality needs to be dealt with, then we should let the Lord come and deal with it!  If our lifestyle needs to be changed, then we should let the Lord come and change it!  If we don't have any hunger for God, and we need to experience revival, then let the Lord bring forth revival!   Our Lord is out master who can cast out and push out things.  Not only can He cast out and push out, He can also accept new things after old things are cast out; after old things are pushed out, He can put up new things.  Let us come before God and plead with Him, and let God accomplish His work of casting out and pushing out in our midst!     Pray with Pastor Tong           Lord, I thank you, because not only are you the God who can cast out and push out, you can only accept and rebuild.  May the Spirit of the Lord shine on us, remove the darkness in our life, so that we will experience the rebuilding by the Holy Spirit in our daily life.  I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!