Spiritual Ponderings

King Jehoshaphat was alarmed. Well, you can't blame him. Three countries had banded together and were marching against him. God's people were completely overpowered. What would Jehoshaphat do? Send his mightiest fighting men? Send soldiers and swords and spears? No. He sent a little choir. Pardon? And some songs. Excuse me? “Give thanks to the Lord!” they sang. “His love never ends!” It so confused the other army that they started fighting each other, and by the time the choir reached the battlefield they found no more enemies left. When God's children sing to him, it moves the heart of God and invited Him into what's happening – and chases the enemy away. Is anything overpowering you today? You know what to do! “Sing to Him.” (Psalm 105:2 NIV) (Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing by Sally Lloyd-Jones p. 167) This wonderful children's book that I am reading as a devotional this y...

What and where is the kingdom of heaven? Where is the house of God? Is the local homeless shelter more the house of God than any of the churches in the community all around it? Jesus walked into the temple two different times and upset everything that was assumed to be normal, declaring that things were in fact not normal at all according to God's design for a place called His house. He in effect said that a building controlled and manipulated by religious experts with a view to exploiting the public for their own benefit in the name of God was in reality blasphemy against the God who had entrusted them with so much information about Himself. Clearing out everything that interfered with the true purpose of the temple, everything that would intimidate anyone no matter how weak, timid or even sinful from coming to Him, Jesus then sat down and began doing God's work in God's house for a few brief hours. Is this what the kingdom of heaven looks like...