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eighty one~

Sunday morning, rain is falling...

Cold, wet and sleepy.... Not a good mix when you need to go out.. =[

But in the end, out I went and took on the wet weather like a baws.

But not really..

TIME TO CLEAN THE HOUSE - Luke 19:45-48; Mark 11:15-18

The story of Jesus storming into the temple, flipping over merchant's tables and driving livestock out for His Father's house had been turned into a 'den of robbers'.

Jesus wasn't playing Mr. Nice-gentle-guy in this story... Jesus acted in a holy fury - like in the OT where an angry God carried out holy judgments upon countless people. Jesus didn't go "Hey, can I ask you to leave please... you shouldn't be doing this...". He flipped tables. He even made a whip to drive out the livestock. He was angry.

3 reasons why Jesus was angry:

1) They were using God's provision to justify their further greed - they wanted to make more profits out of God's grace and monetary provision to feed their greed. Furthermore, they used the temple courts as the ground in which they acted out such greed. Instead of worshiping, they instead indulged in buying/selling of goods.

2) They were not letting others worship God - they were dealing in the Court of the Gentiles. Tables & livestock were laid out in this court instead of allowing the Gentiles to dwell to seek God.

3) It was his Father's holy house... and they didn't even want Jesus there. The very temple built to worship him wanted to drive him out and destroy him!

In today's age, these temples do not exist. We have churches, but churches are buildings used to house the congregation. Temples in the modern day are found in new-born Christians - your bodies.

Your heart/body is the temple of God... Are you opening your doors to Him?

Are you the "God, just be here on Sunday" Christian? Or the "God, don't interfere with my Friday/Saturday night drink-up session" Christian?

THERE ARE NO TEMPLES ANYMORE IN THIS AGE... YOUR BODY IS NOW THE TEMPLE.

How do you treat your body?

Does your body glorify God?

Very self-evaluative questions... Personally, most of the time I do not care about my body. I don't sleep enough, I put it through unhealthy eating habits, force it to act beyond what it should (energy drinks, coffee overdose) or even worse, indulge in degrading acts that should not be fitting with a Christian life - excess alcoholism, sexual immorality, verbal sin, violent outbursts...

Furthermore, within our temple(s), there still exists tables - obstacles of pure worship. Jesus hates these tables that are placed in his temple... Are you going to turn them over yourself? Or are you going to wait until Jesus does it for you? - The latter will definitely not be a pleasant experience.

When you go to church every Sunday... Or whenever you are worshiping God, are there things that stand in the way?

- "I wonder what's for dinner tonight"

- "I wonder how my boyfriend/girlfriend is right now"

- "I don't want to look/sound ridiculous during this worship (song) session... so I'll hold back my voice"

- Undeclared sin.

- Pride

- Other anxieties.

When you meet God, it is a one-on-one experience. Thank God for other times when you are worshiping Him alongside brothers and sisters in song, prayer or other acts... But most of the time, only you and God know what you are truly feeling inside.

Will you clean up the temple inside? Rid yourself of 'tables' that stand in the way of pure worship. When you allow God to dwell inside you, you must realise that you are submitting everything to Him. There should be no area where you say - "sorry God, you can't have this part..."

And in doing so, let your bodies faithfully serve as His temple. In all that you do, may He be glorified.

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After Church, I went to meet Jo + Jihyun noona [Jo's mentor] at Itaewon for a much owed dinner + catch-up.

Kebab shop!!! It was tiny though.... Gosh I miss the kebabs in Aussie.

We went to a Turkish restaurant for dinner. BEST.

Lamb shish and Beef kebab.

Lahmacun - Ground peppered lamb + chopped veggies on turkish bread.

All up... $15 each. Ate till full.

After dinner, we went to a Jazz bar... My first time... But I can finally 100% declare that I enjoy it more than going to a club/bar.
It's the interaction and atmosphere where you can talk to your friends that's awesome. I'm not a huge fan of talking in places where the music wants to burst your eardrum...
A nice, cold beer and talking in a table with your closest friends.... Yup. Best.