Flipping Tables

John 2:13-25:

Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money changers seated there. He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves he said, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” His disciples recalled the words of Scripture, Zeal for your house will consume me. At this the Jews answered and said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the Scripture and the word Jesus had spoken. While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, many began to believe in his name when they saw the signs he was doing. But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all, and did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well.

Blog:

We all have addictions and bad behaviors/habits in our lives.  There isn’t anyone on this side of Heaven who is Perfect like Jesus.  And, that’s OK.  God made us with one obvious design challenge; that, mainly due to the Original Sin of Adam and Eve, all of us in the flesh will fail God through sin again and again and again.  But the Good News is that there’s always Grace in this.  God simply commands us to be as obedient as we can and, when we do, from time-to-time, fail Him, we are simply to admit it and ask for His Forgiveness for it.  And this applies to anything – even murder, theft, adultery, and the whole mess of other horrible things that we all sometimes engage in.  God wants us to follow the example of His Son in all things – including overturning the tables of sin in our lives.  We all have momentary lapses in judgement; we all fall prey to satan at one time or another like Adam and Eve.  But to continue to let evil run amok in our lives is just plain wrong and its always a good time to turn the tables on satan.  So, if it’s greed, let’s flip that table!  If it’s envy, let’s flip that table!  If it’s pornography, let’s flip that table!  There isn’t a single table of sin that exists that is too heavy for the Holy Spirit to flip via our hands.  Let’s all do our best to get Right with God each and every day and let him grab the tables of sin in our own Temples (our Bodies) with us and send them upside down, too.  Then, we’ll be acting like Jesus (John 2:13-25) and His Apostles (Acts 17:6)!