Everyone is supposed to get an ACCESS card! God came to remove ALL the barriers so that we would have complete ACCESS to a life-giving relationship with Him and with one another. As a child, growing up in small, segregated towns in Oklahoma, I realized that some people had 'ACCESS' cards and others didn't... and that was not God's heart.
I got UPSET this past week, the more I studied Mark 11:15-17. I had been taught all of my life that Jesus' primary emphasis in the passage was that the church was supposed to be a 'house of prayer." But as I dove into the background, I realized that the 'rumors I'd heard were true'- the primary point was that worship & prayer ACCESS to the Gentiles was being prevented by the Jews. That is why Jesus said: "...my house shall be called a house of prayer for ALL nations."
When the Jews flooded the one area of the temple, that the Gentiles were able to gather in (the Court of the Gentiles), with all of their religious merchandising, these practices prevented the Gentiles from ACCESSING their only place of worship.
Jesus cleansed the temple not just to get rid of corrupt financial practices BUT to open up the Father's house to ALL people. What initially seems so destructive on Jesus' part was actually a great act of love. We should have the SAME DESIRE that ALL people have ACCESS to HIm and His resources.
Ephesians 2:14-17 The Messiah has made things up between us so that we’re now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance…Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody. Christ brought us together through his death on the cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility
NO WALL is acceptable in the Kingdom of God...no racial wall; gender wall; religious wall; political wall. The enemy keeps trying to erect walls between us and God and with each other.
How can you live today... and help remove the walls... in the church... and in relationships... that prevent ACCESS for certain types of people? Start handing out "ACCESS cards.'
This past weekend, we looked @ Mark 11:17 "...my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations."
God's heart has always been to remove ALL barriers that prevent ACCESS to Him and HIs resources. In the Ma
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