Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Numbers 9-12
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Mark 11:17
Jesus (to those who were listening): Didn’t the prophets write, “My house will be called a house of prayer, for all the people”? But you have made it into a “haven for thieves.”
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
We talked some about this when we talked about Matthew 21:13, but I think these words are worth mentioning again. It seems in many instances the institutions we attend every Sunday have become much more social club than places of worship. Because of my military travels, I’ve been to a lot of churches around the world. More than I can count. Big ones and little ones. Churches with some pretty elaborate facilities and spectacular features and some one room structures that were about to collapse. I’ve been to home churches and outdoor arbors. I’ve meet in tents and under the stars. I’ve been in just about any and every kind of structure you can think of over the last 60 years attending all kinds of church meetings.
Unfortunately, most denominations are suffering the same fate. And most churches within those denominations are suffering the same fate. Churches are becoming places where people gather to talk about what happened to them last week instead of worshiping God. We catch up on the latest politics and school news and work gossip instead of lifting our eyes toward heaven or praying for the lost souls around us.
I’m afraid Jesus could walk into almost any of our churches today and make the same pronouncement He made in the temple court that day and be just as accurate. Our churches are not places or prayers, but we are making them into dens of thieves.
So let’s concentrate on that last part first. Why would I think we are turning our churches into dens of thieves? Most churches don’t have money changers in them. We don’t sell goats and sheep at exorbitant prices for the morning sacrifice. So why would I think we turn our churches into dens of thieves?
I don’t think we do it purposefully any more than those in the court thought they were doing anything wrong purposefully. They were doing business in the courtyard. It had been going on for centuries. The merchants in the court were doing the pilgrims a favor by enabling them to travel without dragging their sacrifice along with them. Probably most of those merchants were honest people. They didn’t think of themselves as thieves. They wanted to make a small profit and this was their livelihood. There was nothing wrong with making a living, right?
So what’s the equivalent in our churches? We don’t have money changers or sheep sellers. But what do we do with all that money that comes into the offering plates? Don’t get me wrong, we should pay our pastors and staff. Paul talks about that in his letters to the various churches, and growing up as a preacher’s kid and serving as a minister, I know the work they do. They earn their salaries. Follow a few good pastors around and you’ll figure that out pretty quickly.
But usually the salaries of the staff are only a small part of the income of the average church. What happens to the rest? Does it stay in the church or does it help others? Do we use it to help ourselves or do we give it to the cause of God? Do we continue to build structures and make things look pretty or do we feed the hungry, visit the prisoners, help the sick and orphaned and widows? What do we do with the income of the church? Does your church tithe? Now that’s an interesting question, isn’t it? Does it give at least 10% of its income back to God by spending its money on others that have no connection to your church?
Are we creating dens of thieves without even thinking about it?
Let’s go back to that first part. How about that house of prayer business? How much time does your church spend in prayer? Most churches I’ve attended lately have a thirty to maybe sixty second opening prayer and a pastoral prayer that lasts about two or three minutes and a closing prayer that will last another thirty seconds to a minute. If the leaders are long winded, you might hear a whole five minutes of prayer in a two hour service. Wow! So much for being a house of prayer.
We live in a pretty sad world. So most of our churches stay locked most of the time because of the fear of burglary. My denomination used to have a Prayer and Fasting meeting every Wednesday night for missions. That prayer and fasting changed to a bible study many years ago because people just couldn’t pray that long and now not very many churches meet at all on Wednesday night. Schedules are just too busy with work, the kids sports practices, homework, pick any distraction you want, it doesn’t matter. Any distraction that keeps you from praying will work. Just don’t pray. That’s the important thing for Satan.
If you go back and look at the habits of the founding fathers of most of the fundamental denominations in existence today, you’ll find they spent several hours a day in prayer. Not bedtime or dinner time prayers, but hours before the day began. Hours during the day. Hours before they went to sleep. They spent a large percentage of their day in prayer. Yet they still found the time to preach, write books, visit their congregation, travel around the world in ships and on horseback. They labored every day in an environment that required hard labor to survive. And still they prayed.
So what’s our excuse? Too busy? With what? What’s more important than talking with the creator of the universe?
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