Lord 👑 ⚜️🙏⚜️⚜️🙏⚜️

Zeal – Fervor for a person, cause, or object; eager desire or endeavour; enthusiastic diligence; ardour. The psalmist is in trouble. He is suffering from exhaustion, alienation and persecution because of false accusations. There are those of us today who become alienated from our families or friends because of trying to live out our faith as Jesus wants us to. In John’s Gospel, Jesus is so incensed by the money changers in the temple that he overturns their tables and kicks them out of the temple area. He quotes this psalm as the reason for his behaviour. We are being asked to examine where our enthusiasm, ardour, and diligence are found. As baptised Christians, we are called to be the apostles of our world now. Does our zeal lead us to carry the good news of Christ into our homes, our workplaces, and our neighbourhoods? Does our enthusiasm flow over into working to end injustice? I am appalled at those who claim to be Christian and then choose to quote, out of context, verses from Scripture that justify their behaviour. The money changers used the need for the people to offer sacrifice for their business of selling the animals, but the Bible did not say that they could cheat the people by overcharging them! If we suffer for our zeal for the Gospel, we are suffering just as the psalmist did and as Jesus did. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us this will happen. We are carrying in our hearts the good news of the Gospel. Do we understand this privilege? This responsibility? May our love for Christ and his church inflame us with a burning zeal to make God’s kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Zeal – Fervor for a person, cause, or object; eager desire or endeavour; enthusiastic diligence; ardour. The psalmist is in trouble. He is suffering from exhaustion, alienation and persecution because of false accusations. There are those of us today who become alienated from our families or friends because of trying to live out our faith as Jesus wants us to. In John’s Gospel, Jesus is so incensed by the money changers in the temple that he overturns their tables and kicks them out of the temple area. He quotes this psalm as the reason for his behaviour. We are being asked to examine where our enthusiasm, ardour, and diligence are found. As baptised Christians, we are called to be the apostles of our world now. Does our zeal lead us to carry the good news of Christ into our homes, our workplaces, and our neighbourhoods? Does our enthusiasm flow over into working to end injustice? I am appalled at those who claim to be Christian and then choose to quote, out of context, verses from Scripture that justify their behaviour. The money changers used the need for the people to offer sacrifice for their business of selling the animals, but the Bible did not say that they could cheat the people by overcharging them! If we suffer for our zeal for the Gospel, we are suffering just as the psalmist did and as Jesus did. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us this will happen. We are carrying in our hearts the good news of the Gospel. Do we understand this privilege? This responsibility? May our love for Christ and his church inflame us with a burning zeal to make God’s kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.