March 28, 2024
Read Numbers 17, Psalm 87, Mark 11
What’s one of the benefits that you enjoy from the church that you are a part of? Churches today have a wide variety of ministries that they use to reach people in their community. Programs for children, students, or parents. They have all sorts of resources available for those in need and other resources that can be made available. I’ve seen churches with playgrounds inside, workout facilities, and many more things. They may use these to help connect people to their biggest need, their relationship with Christ. I’m not here to comment on these ministries one way or the other, but we should never lose sight of the primary purpose of the church. In the week before Jesus went to the cross, He came into the temple in his day formed a whip and then drove out the money changers who were buying and selling in the temple. “He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16 and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17 And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: “‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers’” vv. 15-17.
What does it mean to call the temple or our churches today, “a house of prayer?” Prayer is a spiritual discipline in which we communicate with God. The church should be a place where we go to worship, seek guidance, or confess our sin. I’m not saying that every church with a bookstore is evil, but we should keep the purpose of the church just as that, a house of prayer. Jesus went as far as to call the people’s actions as robbery. They may have been some cheating and stealing taking place.
What else do you see in these chapters? What stands out to you most as you read?
Add your thoughts below.
DId God Really Say... 