Zeal

"And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves,
and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords,
He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!" Then His disciples remembered that it was written, 'Zeal for Your house has consumed Me.'" (John 2:14-17)
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Zeal for God's house had eaten Him up.
And His zeal for God's house remains to this day.

What kind of tables is He about to overturn in
our temples?

To whom will He be directing the words,
"Take these things away!
Do not make My Father's house
a house of ________!

For that matter,
what will He say to me personally,
for I, too, am a temple of God.

What kind of chaos will He create
in order to rid my life
of the things I have allowed in
my body, soul, and spirit?

It's scary to think about.
Jesus.
Sweet Jesus?
With a whip in His hand
overturning our own way of
doing things
and demanding that we rid
our temple of that which
does not honor Him?!

Will we recognize Him?
Or will we think the upheaval
is caused by the devil
or by a fellow believer?

We must not lose sight
of His zeal
when we hear the crack of His whip
and the roaring of His voice.

We must remember that He chastens
those He loves
when we experience
the turning of tables in our midst.

But we don't have to wait until He shows
up with a whip to straighten some things
out in our lives.
We know what to do
and what not to do.
We know what's right and wrong.

So we should do what we know to do
ahead of time
because there will be plenty of blind spots
that show up when He comes in His zeal
and we'll be busy enough
humbling ourselves and cleaning up the mess
after the tables are turned
and the whip has done its work.

I'm a little bit scared, to be honest.

But since He is coming back
for a glorious church,
without spot or wrinkle,
then He must do
what He must do.