King in the Temple of our Hearts

Over the past year I’ve been on a journey with our youth group through the life of Jesus, this past sunday night was another step in that journey.  We looked at two different encounters with Jesus and tried to figure out how they might apply to our lives today. In the first encounter we found Jesus riding a donkey into Jerusalem, up through the desert road from Jericho, a climatic 3,000 ft climb up the mountain to where men, women, and children celebrated his coming, celebrating as if he were king, they threw down their cloaks, waved palm branches and sang Hosannah. We learned that throwing down your cloak wasn’t something you did unless you were showing loyalty to them like a king. Even then very few would have considered throwing their cloak down on a dusty dirt road but in that moment those people saw Jesus as their king. They sang Hosannah which means “God will save us, right now!” They were soon to find out that Jesus wasn’t going to be the earthly king that they had planned on, he wasn’t going to overthrow the Romans, he was going to be a greater king than that. He came to be King in man’s hearts, King in our hearts.

From there we find Jesus comes to the Temple the next day. The Temple would have been an exciting place, crowded with people, a buzz of business as people prepared for the passover sacrifices. People packing in to buy their unblemished lamb or dove. Jews from all over came. The priest would have been busy from sun up to sundown offering sacrifices for the people. There would have been a constant line of those waiting their turn for their sins to be forgiven by the blood of a lamb or calf or dove. But that was all interrupted when Jesus came in and started flipping over the tables and driving out the sheep and cattle. He let the birds from their cages and disrupted the flow of exchange and sacrifices. He was angry at what he saw and burned with a jealous passion for his fathers house. 

Jesus had a right to be angry in that moment, the venders had taken up nearly all of the court of the Gentiles and the court of Women which were places meant for prayer not for selling of animals. They had turned that area of the temple court into a den of robbers and not into a place of worship. Somewhere over the years the religious leaders had stopped carrying about the court of the Gentiles and Women. They thought it was more important that people have easy access to animals for sacrifices then it was for people to be allowed to worship God in those places. We know Jesus cared for all people, and he cared about everyone’s relationship with the Father. He would die so that we might be in relationship with him so it’s no wonder that we would fight for the Gentiles and Women to have a place to worship. Jesus had to clear that space and stop everything for that to happen. 

That brings it back to us. There are times in our lives where we need Jesus to be jealously angry for us, for our time, and we need him to flips some tables over in the temple of our hearts. We need him to remind us it’s not about going to church or doing the right things or sacrifices its about a relationship with Him and his Father. Sometimes we need him to clear room so that HE can be King of our hearts again. When he is King of our hearts and our lives it’s much easier for us to throw down our cloaks and worship him with everything we got.

 

-Caleb Ross Hunter

Day 44 “A Year of Thoughts”: Angry? Joy is Also There

The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters,

he refreshes my soul.

He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley,

I will fear no evil,for you are with me;

your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Psalms 23 (NIV)

Every time I read this each line speaks to me. The picture that David has painted here is beautiful and refreshing but often times I forget that God has restored my soul. I use to be an angry kid and found myself battling depression from time to time. Sometimes when I didn’t know how to communicate my feelings as a kid I would just cry, I’d cry myself to sleep, I’d cry when I was angry or sad. But as I’ve slowly learned to allow God to lead me to the place where I am not in want, the place where I can lie down and find rest in him, there he has restored my joy, my soul, my life.

Angry? There is still Joy.

Joy is always there, we have to receive it, allow God to lead us, let go of our anger and lie down in green pastures. God pursues us because he loves us, he can breathe life back into your soul.

Love will follow you.

Each day we have a choice to dwell in the presence of the Lord our God. To accept his love and forgiveness. To live a life full of him. Full of the joy only he can give. There is also JOY…

-Caleb Ross Hunter

Day 29 “A Year of Thoughts”: Tell Me a Story

When I search back to the earliest memory in my life, the one thing that really stands out to me is the stories. Stories I would listen to and stories I would tell. As soon as I was able to talk I told stories. I’ve always had a wild imagination and that often flowed through when I told stories.

I remember as a kid going on long car rides with my family and my sisters asking me to tell stories. Perhaps at the age of four or so I had discovered who I was and then spent eighteen years trying to forget. My creativity and passion would show through my stories. Perhaps my purpose is to tell stories or more rather to live a story. Our lives are stories, an oral tradition of new experiences that are marked by our days. Each day, each moment is a part of our story.

The world around us often tries to read our story but for them to assume they know the characters and the plot is useless unless they honestly and intentionally get to know the characters. For the world to even understand your story you have to tell the truth. You have to be honest with yourself and stop trying to be someone you are not. We have to discover who God made us to be. We have to learn to tell our story by the way we live our lives.

Today in church, the sermon was over the story of Cain and Able. The bible is full of stories and it seems as God is screaming the fact to us on each page that your life is a story. A story worth telling, worth living. One of the things mentioned in the sermon this morning was that Abel’s life still spoke after Cain killed him (Hebrews 11:4). We don’t know much about Abel’s life other than the short story about his offering and his death. But that story still speaks.

The point of Cain and Abel is one of faith and unbelief. In faith Abel offered his sacrifice to the Lord. Cain’s attitude and offering was poor and he allowed his anger to push him to unbelief. He had a choice how the story was to go. God asked Cain, “why are you angry?” Yet Cain would not listen, he killed Abel out of unbelief that his life could be more, That God is outside of time and there is more potential in Cain to turn his life story into one of worship like his brother.

We face this same choice in our story. Our lives are a story told by non other that you. Yes guided hopefully by the grace and love of God, yet we still have the choice. To live by faith, faith that moves mountains, faith that says tomorrow can be better than today, faith that says God has so much more for my life than the sin within me. Faith that transforms our lives, heals our wounds, redeems our past and leads us to move through our discontent to live an even more unbelievable story.

For much of my life I was like Cain. God kept asking me why I was angry? Why I didn’t want to believe there was more? I allowed the people that were trying to read my story assume everything was fine, I allowed them to put assumptions and expectations on me based off of what little they knew. I was angry because didn’t want to be honest I didn’t want them to know me. To know that I had unbelief, to know that I doubted my dreams just because of things people said.

I hid behind my stories because it was safe. Now I want people to know the true story. I want to be honest and real. Even if that shaders the world’s simple understanding of who I am. Even if that means it hurts. I’m not angry because my story makes me who I am and my tomorrow is shaped by the way I live.

 

What is your story?

 

Does the world really honestly know your story?

 

What dreams have you given up on?

 

How can we tell our stories?

 

When my children someday say “tell me a story”, I will. The Good the bad and the ugly.

 

Tell A Story, Live your story.

 

-Caleb Ross Hunter