Devotion - Tueday, February 24

The story of Jesus driving the money changers out of the Temple is too often misapplied in contemporary Church talk.  We read the story and we insert the conclusion that God/Jesus does not want us to bring money into our worship life or our worship space.

From there, it is a really small step to insist that we never talk about money and God in the same conversation.

This is not what the story of Jesus and the cleansing of the Temple (today I read it from John 2, if you need to familiarize yourself with it) is all about.

You need to start now, developing a godly understanding of how you will make use of the resources you have.  Many of you will be thinking, "I don't have any money." and you may be correct in that all that you are not earning an income.  But  you do have money.  And you use it at your discretion.  

This is not a plug for supporting LCM-C (that plug will come when you graduate ;).  It is an invitation to realize that the patterns you set now will carry into your adult life.  If you find reasons for not sharing what you have in your wallet now, you will have even more reasons when you are earning a salary.

Read John 2.  See what you think.  Is it not those who were using money for their own gain who angered Jesus?  And join me in overcoming the reluctance to talk about money and God in the same conversation.