The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"A Place of Grace"
God made the human heart to be a place of grace, as illustrated by the Apostle John in his account of the Lord Jesus Christ purging the temple of moneychangers.
"And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting. And when He had made a scourge of small cords, He drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables, and said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not My Father's house a house of merchandise" (John 2:13-16).
God allows no buying and selling in His temple, that is, in the hearts of born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
"Ye are the temple of God… For by grace are ye saved by faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, and not of works, lest any man should boast" (I Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 2:8-9).
We forever exist as recipients of God's giving, which transcends all understanding. He loves to provide, supply, and bestow, as the Lord Jesus assured His disciples, "It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32). We cannot buy such favor and provision by bartering with our Heavenly Father. His gifts are too expensive. Our means are too meager. Thus, we must seek the Lord's aggressive cleansing of our heart's inner temple regarding any notion of relating to God by any way other than the grace and truth of the Lord Jesus. We proceed as we began: "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him" (Colossians 2:6).
Grace received becomes grace assimilated in our hearts, and then grace disseminated through us to others. "Freely ye have received, freely give" (Matthew 10:8). The Holy Spirit inhabits the inner temple of our spirits to make us like the Lord Jesus. His unselfish disposition increasingly shines within and through us as we "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (II Peter 3:18). Ongoing reception of freely given favor results in a love for God and humanity that can only occur in hearts so filled that they overflow back to our Father and outward to others. "We love Him because He first loved us… And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men" (I John 2:6; I Thessalonians 3:12).
A place of grace. Our hearts became such a blessed temple when we believed as our Savior purged our hearts from any notion of buying from God or bartering with Him. Let us continue as we began, realizing and affirming God's perpetual provision and our persistent need. Thereby the Holy Spirit empowers a life of devotion to God and others made possible when we allow no moneychangers in the innermost temple of our being…
"He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely given us all things?"
(Romans 8:32)
"But by the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me."
(I Corinthians 15:10)
Weekly Memory Verse
My times are in Thy hand.
(Psalm 31:15)
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