Clearing the Temple

Two additional thoughts about Jesus clearing out the temple as recorded in Matthew 21:12-13.
1. Jesus was expected by his followers to assume the kingship of Israel and then through the Romans out of Israel and usher in the Messianic Kingdom. Instead, he goes to the Temple and drives out those who were using God’s Temple for their own gain. He attacked the system that was truly keeping people in bondage. That was the Pharisees whose rules and regulations made it impossible to become a follower of God. Jesus took what they had put in place which didn’t lead them into God’s Kingdom and threw it out. He made a way for each of us to come into God’s Kingdom.
2. God gives us chances to clear the clutter out of our lives. There does seem to come a time when he takes it upon himself to forcefully remove the things that separate us from him. Which is better? Too drive the things are wrong in our lives out like Jesus drove out the money changers? Or to have God come in and force them out.

What do we believe about the Bible?

"The Old and New Testaments, inerrant as originally given, were verbally inspired by God and are a complete revelation of His will for the salvation of men. They constitute the divine and only rule of Christian faith and practice." This is taken directly from our Statement of Beliefs on our website. It sounds good, but what does it mean and why is it important. Let's start by talking about what inerrant means. Inerrancy is the view that when all the facts become known, they will demonstrate that the Bible in its original autographs and correctly interpreted is entirely true and never false in all it affirms, whether that relates to doctrine or ethics or to the social, physical, or life sciences.

This means that there are no contradictions in the Bible. Anything that we think is a contradiction show us that we do not have enough information about the passage to understand it completely. It also speaks to the original autographs as being inerrant. Not to the many copies and translations. We know that some of the translations of the Bible seem to change what is being said when compared to other translations. The Bible is trustworthy in all that it contains.

This is important because there is also a belief about the Bible that is infallible. This is the belief that what the Bible says regarding matters of faith and Christian practice are wholly useful and true. Some denominations that teach infallibility hold that the historical or scientific details, which may be irrelevant to matters of faith and Christian practice, may contain errors. This becomes a slippery slope where the judgment of where the Bible is fallible or infallible falls to very fallible men. We start to believe that the Bible is wrong on one area and then that leads us to believe that it is wrong in many areas. If it is wrong then we don’t have a basis to stand on as believers in Jesus Christ. We have seen over the last few years in many church denominations that hold to Bible to be infallible but not inerrant a change in direction away from what the Bible teaches and they have allowed and condoned things that the Bible specifically speaks against. This is because they have made judgments on God's Word that are incorrect and are teaching false ideas.

Let’s hold fast to the Word of God as it is the complete revelation of His will for the salvation of men and the only rule of Christian faith and practice.

What does it mean to be a servant?

As I was studying in Matthew 20, I came across Jesus talking about what greatness looks like in God's kingdom. To be great, you must be the servant of all. We don't have servants around today as they have in the past. It isn't something most of us have come across or are familiar with. What does a servant do? A servant does whatever his master requires. He does small jobs that seem menial and below him as well as large, complicated jobs that stretch his talents to the limit. A servants primary responsibility is to complete the work given by the master. In our case, as followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to love God and to love others and also to go into the world to make disciples or fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. For us to become great in God's eyes, we need to be about his business and his business comes before ours in order or priority. What changes would God want in your life for you to be about his business?