He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the stools of those who sold pigeons, and said to them "It is written in the Scriptures that God said, 'My Temple will be called a house of prayer'. But you are making it a hideout for thieves!"

The blind and the crippled came to Him in the Temple, and He healed them.

The chief priests and the teachers of the Law became angry when they saw the wonderful things he was doing and the children shouting in the Temple, 'Praise to David's Son!"

So they asked Jesus, 'Do you hear what they are saying?'

"Indeed I do," answered Jesus.

Haven't you ever read this scripture?

'You have trained children and babies to offer perfect praise'.

Jesus was initially given a kingly welcome. In the people's minds He had to be their new King, chosen by God, by their witnessing His supernatural power and authorities.

'You trained children and babies to offer perfect praise'. From the son of a carpenter, they recognized Him as Son of David. What a tremendous change! They once crush Him, through being obedient to the Temple's Authorities, now they glorify Him. They were convinced that He must be the Messiah and Savior, ironically, political rather than spiritual.

The chief priest, Pharisees and Scribes, taught 'little children and babies', to give perfect praise. Those people who came to honor and praise Jesus were in fact taught by them. They were speedy to recognize this humble man, Jesus as their Lord and Savior, but their leaders and teachers were suspicious and doubtful.

'The blind and the crippled came to Him in the Temple, and He healed them'

Who were the blind and the crippled?

These can be defined into basically two categories, those that are spiritual and physical.

Firstly those physically sick were considered outcast, which had connection with their sins.

Welcoming or accepting them as their equal, would amount to defiling their hypocritical and self-proclaimed holiness.

Their ancestors might had misinterpreted the Words of the Patriarch, when through them God warned the Chosen People, not to marry or mingle, with the pagans and those who adhered to the traditional ways of worshipping god or gods. God said to Moses, "Do not make an alliance with them or show them any mercy. Do not marry any of them, and do not let your children marry any of them, because then they would lead your children away from the Lord to worship other gods". (Deuteronomy 7:2-4)

When a child is young, he could be easily influenced and confused, not when he had matured.

A Christian is still considered young, if he is afraid to mingle or has fellowship, with those of other denominations or those of other faiths.

Not when he had matured. By then even strong wind, would not blow his faith away.

These teachings needed to be brought into the 'Light', as we are also living among pagans, people of other faiths and different Christian denominations.

We must not let the Light of Christ get dimmer, but instead, through our experiences with God, we need to enkindle the darkness, coldness and indifferent of the world.

Majority of the people in this world, had not lived their lives pleasing to God, but yes, mostly lived to be part of the sinful world and by this give great satisfaction to the Devil.

Man refused to prepare, before hand, for their imminent stay in heaven, but to be too pre-occupied with the world and its events around them, without seeing God and His actions, in Man.

Should we forbid inter-marriage between different denominations and of other faiths?

Should we only interact and mingle in fellowship only among Christians and regarded the others as sinners, which would defile us.

Yet that was not the way Jesus taught us. He mingled and had very close fellowship with those whom the Jewish authorities, would considered a disgrace, outcast and sinners.

All those who came to Jesus with a sincere and obedience hearts were later great witnesses of Christ.

Yet Jesus taught us being holy is not about confining ourselves in seclusion, from people of this world. It is so much about going into the dark world and spread the Light of Christ. Fear to tread the coldness of the world, would amount to our own coldness too. God's Light is meant to burn out with heat to warm the world, so to serve its purpose. To enlighten people of their sins and ourselves being enlightened, hurt us very deeply. But to those whom God had chosen as His own and had awaited the Light of Christ to come and transform them, would be willing to pay the price of change and discipleship.

Then Jesus went to the place where people gave their highest reverence, the House of worship the Temple dedicated to God. Now, this Jesus who claimed to be the Holy One of God went into the Temple and began to cause havoc, instead of peacefully ascend into His throne, in the Temple. If He had decided to take His place as the sole authority, replacing the old Jewish authority, He could, by the support He gained from the chosen people of God. The Priests and those in authority, would had to descend from the 'Chair' of authority and humbly offered to Jesus, but that was not so!

To the Chosen People of God, that would be a great relieve, after all the chaos and confusion, in their hearts and minds. In solidarity they would marched on to their next and greatest task, that is to salvage, their lost pride and bring glory to the Jewish People, by claiming back their territory.

Jesus did not fulfil this, but instead crush their hope and plans, to the anger of the desperate Jews and therefore they were furious and changed their support to Him, into opposing Him. This was the main reason, why the once the force on His side was turned against His side. With this scenario of dissatisfaction and fury, they could be easily bought over by the Jewish authorities, whose image had been great tarnished by the existence of Jesus. The Roman then showed less respect to the authorities of the Temple, because of Jesus, who caused division. After what had happened, Jesus knew His fate, and was in fact working towards this, in order to fulfill God's will for Him. He had freely given Himself over to Man, as their representative, to become the pure and untarnished 'Lamb of God', to atone for the sins of the whole world. During those moments, when He journeyed towards the Temple, His Heart was in great tears, knowing what would behold Him later. How Blind were the Jewish People, of not knowing the will of God! Their expectation of Him spiritually absurd.

Jesus' Kingdom was not of this world, but of the Spirit and the hearts of Man. He came to conquer and claimed back our hearts that were once free and completely His. Satan had enslaved and condemned Man to nothingness. Man had became their slave, laboring to accomplish their mission of destruction, in the world and especially the hearts of Man. Just like the Temple's Authorities invited the moneychangers and businessmen into the House of God, we too as individual, whereby our bodies are Temple of God, had invited sinful and even evil spirits, to take various sits in our hearts and lives. When we invited Jesus into our hearts and lives, He would have to drive them all out with fury and anger, sparing no one. For in these human bodies of ours are Temple of God. They shall be filled with pray, reverence and praise for God. Therefore, when we invited Jesus, He came in the form of His Spirit, powerfully united with the Father, called the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit, moves into our hearts, if allowed He would be enthroned and stationed there, as Lamp that shall light up the darkness and coldness of the hearts of Man. When He enters as king, all evil spirits would have to pack up and go. For Jesus shall use His whips and swings them in all direction, causing great fear to unclean spirits. They would flee in humiliation and fear, without any words of retaliation. Most Christians had not fully enthroned God, in the center of our hearts, but limit His power and authority.

He claimed authority and rights to the Temple as His Father's House. From this claim He was indirectly saying God was His Father, He was therefore the Son of God. It was blasphemy to the people. The Son of God with the power and authority of God? The 'God of Mt. Sinai', whom they would trembled with fear and dared not come close to Him? It is impossible! He cannot be God incarnate! Prophet incarnate was acceptable, but not God. This is a great sin and blasphemy. His image in the eyes of the Pharisees, Scribes and as a whole the Jewish people were greatly tarnished, after all the havoc, He caused in the Temple. The Jewish people who had just then, hailed Him as Messiah and King, was dumb-founded, to witness a completely different Jesus, who seemed not to appreciate, complacent and grateful with the honors given to Him. By this the Jewish was greatly humiliated, let-down and their hope was destroyed. He seemed so inconsistent in His temperaments and ways. But they did not understand the two natures of Jesus, who spoke as Man and as God. He addressed people, in His Divine Nature, as God, would be, 'My daughter/son, My Children, My People, Woman, etc', as Man, He is our Brother, and one of us.

The cleansing of the Temple has great spiritual significance. It is a sign for the cleansing of our hearts for the resurrected Christ to enter.

Before, Jesus was used to the way the temple people conducted their business. It was nothing new whether they were doing business, legally or illegally.

By now Jesus was entering into His final preparation for His life on earth. He was making it very clearly that His earthly institution of the laws of the prophets and patriarchs were being tainted, twisted, profaned and made evil. Jesus came to clear the Temple of God, the dwelling place of God. Indirectly He was trying to clear the hearts of Man for His coming. The coming of the resurrected Christ into their lives by the indwelling of Christ's Spirit in our hearts.

Therefore to receive God through Christ Jesus into our hearts need the working of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit needs to find in us a clear entrance, an empty room for His dwelling.

Many people will ask how come I did not experience the presence of the Holy Spirit in me? This is quite a difficult question to answer as it depends on the will of God. Yet the spiritual truth is that God meant His Spirit, for all His "Image and Likeness', yet most of Man's heart were too tough, like stones for God to enter. Man had enjoyed being imprisoned by the Devil, in iron cells

A father has ten children. Among them only a few would experience the great love of their father. Some take the father's love for granted, some think his love is his responsibility. The few who dynamically experience the father's love stay very close to the father. Listen to his visions and plans, looked deeply into his ever loving compassionate eyes, look at the movements of his mouth, cry or laugh with him. They show a very intimate communion at the eating table. After the meal, the rest would wander away to play but these few would not leave the father but stay with him every minute. Now from here, who would experience the dynamic presence of God in their lives? Of course the few who stay very close to the father.

So this is true with Mary and Martha. Mary, from the human and logical aspects was quite irresponsible, leaving her sister to do all the cooking and preparations.

Jesus approved of Mary for staying close to God, in His Divine Nature, but He did not condemn Martha for her concerns but because Martha complained, Jesus had to say that 'between the two, Mary had chosen the best part'.

Just like the few children who could experience the father's love, they had allowed themselves to become the favorites of the father. The rest were much loved too but they would not have the chance to experience the overwhelming presence of God and His love, because they had not trusted in God enough to fully obey Him.

Then there are those who say I never obstruct the power of God from coming, how is it that I do not experience His power moving into my life. I open up the front door of my heart for Jesus to enter but how is it that I never experience His presence or hear Him talk to me? Well, this is a difficult one. I leave it to the mind of God to explain this.

'The front door may be widely open but the next door is found to be closed.

Or the front door is open but the rooms are all closed.

Or that some other spirits have taken supreme hold of the house. You ask Jesus to enter but you are unwilling to release or cast out the other spirits that are dwelling inside of you'.

There are so many different kinds of spirits in the world, that hungered to enter and destroy the hearts of Man. When we invited Jesus in, He builds up our lives and fortifies our defense systems, against evil and its venom.

Basically there are three different groups of spirits:

Firstly, the Almighty Supreme Spirit of God.

Secondly, the spirit of sinful human flesh

Thirdly, the spirit of the Devil or evil spirits.

They later sprout into stems and branches, then fruits.

The Almighty Holy Spirit first grew as a seed in every human being. It branches out and bears fruits. Fruits of love, peace and joy and all the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

The spirit of the flesh came to us at our conception, then birth into the world. Sin passed from parents to children through all generations after the fall of mankind. It branches out and bears fruits of the sinful self. The selfishness and self-centerness in us are the fruits of the spirit of the flesh.

The spirit of the sinful flesh, is the poison that Adam and Eve swallowed and passed from generation to generation until today. Even though the whole world was cleansed but it depends on us personally, because Christ dwells in the Heart of Man. Spirit of the sinful flesh, consisted of the fruits of the evil spirits, which had found a very conducive ground to grow. Likened to a field planted with wheat, sprouted plenty of weeds and thorn bushes.

The fruits in the 'middle of the garden' are very much alive and the Devil is still trying to draw us to this tree. The temptations are still put forth by the Devil, to deceive Man, once again, after the whole world was cleansed and God reclaimed His territory of Paradise. It would not be desirous if the Hearts of Man had completely rejected the Devil. 'In the middle of the garden', obviously meant that it is within our sight and grip. It is indeed very delicious and tempting, even in comparison to the others fruits, all over the garden of paradise. It is directed specifically to the flesh, not the souls.

Jesus, after baptism fasted in the wilderness, where the Devil came to Him, as the human flesh's hero. They tried to offer the human flesh; initially basic and immediate needs or 'food', but later turned tragic, when they could not hide their horns anymore. The Devil after failing in his bargaining with Jesus, decided to offer the kingdom and power that was his, to Jesus. That was all he and his spirits had, yet was brushed aside to the anger and disappointment of the Devil. We too must follow Jesus and not give him any face, but humiliation and disappointment.

Food - Essential to men. Men become greedy, glutton and selfish. Man made themselves into a slave of 'food'.

Food here is not only about the things that go into the mouth, but it includes all essential and necessary items, which obviously include the basic food, shelter, clothing, etc.

Jesus' respond was, "Man cannot live on food or bread alone, but on every Words that come out from the Mouth of God!"

Testing God - They deceive us to doubt the ever loving and merciful God. To God everything is possible when it is in accordance to His will.

The Devil said, 'God will give orders to His angels about you;

They will hold you up with their hands, so that not even your feet will be hurt on the stones'.

What were the Devil's intentions and deceits?

He deceived Man, even today, by whispering into the ears of Man, strong and weak alike, that physical and material blessing, are directly connected with the spiritual. If men of great wisdom, honor, blessed with earthly titles, material aplenty and still flourishing, great health and physical beauty, are signs of God's approval and blessing, whereas those exhausted or deprived of these earthly treasures were regarded as insignificant in God's sight.

Was that so?

The Words of the 'Teaching on the Mount' had all the answers. (Luke 6:20-26)

Jesus said, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."

We must not test God by selfishly demanding His Fatherly Providence and love. He gives generously, with great responsibility on His shoulders. He emphasized on the salvation of the souls. If the material would cripple, hurt, enslave or kill the souls, He would detract these, from us, so that we can see the treasure of heaven and desire for them. He trained us to rely on faith rather than the things that we can see in order to believe.

In times, when the things that we treasured so much, were always or often taken away from us; we must be very grateful indeed to be blessed, because these are lessons, God personally taught us. By these Divine interventions, He wanted to teach us heavenly virtues of detachment from the physical things of this world, so that when both our hands are free, we can cling, tightly to God and heaven.

Worship - They want us to replace God with the other things that are pleasing to the flesh. Since God cannot be seen with our naked eyes, they give us things that we can easily see, like beautiful material things, pleasure in life, power and authority. They want our children to occupy themselves with TV, video games, CD, radio and places of entertainment, and derive pleasure from them so that we have no time for God or prayer. We satisfied the sinful flesh and deprived the souls of care and love.

They love to see man become a slave to work, play, rest, pleasure and all forms of indulgences to satisfy the sinful desires of the flesh.

They want to blind us from seeing God and only enjoy what they can offer. The evils of the world belong to them and caused by them. The Devil has supreme authority over the world of evil and darkness, unless God changes it. So we cannot see God if we allow them to cover us with a dark blanket of sin.

Only when we allow God to enter into our hearts, through Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit and let Him freely, control our lives, we will not be able to see God. Faith allows us to see God but how deep and true is our faith? Will persecutions and trials weaken or strengthen our faith? Faith is tested with trials in our lives. Especially in times of poverty, persecution, calamities, suffering, pain, havoc, loneliness, etc. Outstanding Children of God's; faith is tested with fire.

God tests us in many ways and our free response is what God wants. We have to response saying ' Yes Lord, I want to do your will, please give me the ability to do them.' We have to say 'yes!' freely, from our hearts, minds and souls and not out of some obligations or lessons we learnt.

Jesus said, "Destroy the Temple and in three days I will build it up again!"

The resurrected Body of Christ, had replaced the physical Temple of Jerusalem.

All of us are His 'tiny temples', of which the whole Church, made up His Body. Jesus is the Head, Lord, Master, God of all the 'Tiny Temples' of God. God dwells in the hearts of His Children. If we had became the Temple of God, rightly God had been given the honor to sit on the Throne of our lives, centered in the hearts.

Enthroned in our lives, He would be freely given the fullness of authority and trust to govern our lives. As Lord and God, He is the Providence. He would never want to see His Children starve in hunger and be humiliated by the Devils. He wanted to be allowed the power to command the evil spirits to leave.

God sent Jesus into all the 'tiny temples', in order to sanctify, purify, redeem and save them.

As Jesus was on His way into the Temple of Jerusalem, the crowd shouted with joy and praise God, for sending a hero and Savior, for the oppressed and defeated Jewish people.

This is what happens in the real world today. Many people embraced Christianity, with shout of joy and celebration. After being baptized, they joined their family to celebrate the joy of entry into the family of God. But when the real thing comes along, that is sacrifices needed, in order to be witnesses of Christ, they fall apart and left Jesus, with His salvation plan, unaccomplished, in us.

Jesus went into the Temple and overturned the money-changers' table and free the animals and birds, by accusing them of tainting the Holy Temple of His Father, which must be used for God's purposes only.

How does this apply to our lives?

Our lives were meant for God and His purposes. We are to give God our whole-hearted praise and worship. God did not blame the Temple, but He accused the authorities of the Temple for profaning the use of the Temple. He was angry with them and those who manipulated them for their selfish benefit, of obtaining material gain. After His resurrection, ascension, descend of the Holy Spirit, to establish His reign on earth, the Apostles started the Church, for all people of different nations. Truly as Jesus said, "Destroy the Temple, and in three days, I will build it up again", so it did happen; the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed and sacrifices could no longer be offered in that Temple again. For Jesus is the New Temple of Jerusalem. He is the High Priest, who offers Himself as 'Lamb of God', every time, when forgiveness of sin is needed.

We may began to ponder, 'Isn't all the businesses connected, with the sacrifices in the Temple? Why was Jesus actually so angry about?' It was partly, a matter of convenience for those who went to the Temple to offer sacrifices.

Our human bodies, together with its spirit is supposed to give God the highest place, and not other spirits that comes from the world of darkness or Devil. We cannot worship God out of our convenience or spare time, wealth or strength, but to offer Him the first and best of what we physically and spiritually have. The sacrifices and offering of Cain were rejected. He had not lived an honest and just life was the first. Secondly his offering was not from the best of what he owned, 'after sometime Cain brought some of his harvest and gave it as offering to the Lord'. This displeases God, as he delayed giving his offering of the crops he had harvested. Cain gave only some, but Abel gave all! What does this mean?

If we offered God the best time of our days and lives to Him, we indeed, had given all.

When we prayed, had we prepared the best time to be with him, when every other people are still enjoying their sleep? Had we made an effort to response to God's call to pray, at the dawning of mornings or before dawn, when the world is asleep?

But Abel was doing the opposite, of Cain. He offered God the first lamb born to one of his sheep. (Genesis 4:3-4)

We might have unknowingly invited other spirits together with its value and worldly wisdom into our lives as check and balance, which to the world is wisdom, but to God foolishness and a great deficit to our souls. Faith in God is Divine and eternal virtue, likened our hearts to be a plot of idle land, filled with mixture of peddles, stones, rocks, thorns bushes and all materials that would otherwise made the lands conducive for crops to grow. Are we supposed to be complacence with all those garbage to stay? If the seeds of wheat are scattered, they would be starved of food, moisture, sunlight, space, etc. This would retard or even killed the plants, even before they start sprouting, what more to bear fruits.

God, through the Holy Spirit, might have found our hearts full of those elements. Are we willing to yield to God, by exposing the whole plot of land for Him to work upon? We are all like these plots of lands, which need God to work upon, in order for the seeds of the Holy Spirit, to sprout and be fruitful later. God Himself is going to care for the plants and the lands. All He needed was a submission and obedience hearts.

We are supposed to learn to be completely obedience and dependent on God, like 'little children', so that we can truly experience His warm and intimate love and care.

Earthly parents taught their children to be independent from them, rightly wise indeed! Because we train them one day to be detached from us, in order to be self-reliance and later set up their own family. In marriage husband and wife, trained and learned to depend and fully trust in each others. For they would share their lives, till the end of time on earth, as the covenant of marriage applied.

So this is true with God. Jesus is the Groom and we, mankind the Bride of Christ. God train and teach us to fully trust and depend on Jesus, as we shall be sharing our lives, on earth and fully experience them after our earthly journeys ended, together.

As Jesus journeyed into the Temple, He too journeys into each one of our lives and transforms them into His own holiness and perfection, which might be gradual or tremendous and obvious.

Are we blessed to be qualified as one of His Temple? If so, how grateful we must be.

Had these temples of ours, found pleasing by Him, as He enters? Or had we invited money changers and other businesses into our lives, which displeased or even angered Him. If that was so, then the transformation and modification would be similar to what happened as Jesus entered into His Father's House.

Would we allow Him to change our lives, which might be painful, like the confusion He caused at the Temple. After all the storming and spring washing, the Temple would once again be clean and pure, to serve its purposes as before.

In this serenity, tranquility and peace, God shall dwell and teach His Children love and compassion. These Temple, would surely be filled with prayer, as Jesus unites Himself with His Bride. Prayer is spending time with God, who had 'thirst and hunger' to share His generous time and love with us. Which might be just contemplative prayers, without words, meditations of various mysteries of God's love and salvation. Powerful prayers come from the hearts of submissive hearts of 'little children'. Submission brings about the generous out-pouring of the Holy Spirit. He might manifest Himself, through us, by 'prayers in tongues', 'spiritual songs', 'beautiful consoling rhyme', which was a secret language of the Holy Spirit, to the confusion of the Devil and his spirits. Prayers would later expressed or blossom, which later harvest fruits, manifesting the presence of Christ in us, through our words and actions. According to the needs of those presence, He might manifest His Authority and Power, by performing miracles and healing of various physical or spiritual sicknesses,

Praise the Lord. Amen.

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