DCLM Daily Manna 26 December 2020 – Contrasting Agendas
Text: Luke 19:41-48 (KJV)
41 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
42 Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
43 For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,
44 And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
45 And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought;
46 Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves.
47 And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him,
48 And could not find what they might do: for all the people were very attentive to hear him.
Key Verse: “And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it” (Luke 19:41).
MESSAGE:
In the jailhouse, all a depressed inmate could see were the bars that kept him in incarceration. He firmly held the strong iron rods and lamented his fate, hardly thinking about brighter days ahead. But another prisoner looked beyond the bars. He did not focus on his limiting confinement. Instead, he looked forward to a future of freedom, when he would live a new life of fulfilment and joy at home with his family, putting the past behind. His outlook contrasted with that of his fellow prisoner.
In the days of our Lord Jesus Christ also, there were sharp differences between Him and the priests and the scribes. Close to the time of His Crucifixion, the Lord wept over Jerusalem because He had foreseen the calamity that lay ahead of the city. This was hid from the inhabitants of Jerusalem, “because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.” It was going to be total destruction. It moved our Lord to mourn and to teach and cleanse the temple.
The Jews and their leaders for whom the Lord toiled and wept, however, had a different agenda from the Lord’s. They schemed to destroy Him. It was also business as usual for them; they sold and bought in the house of the Lord, oblivious of the danger knocking on their doorstep. Then the Lord gave them a hint of what was to come: He chased away those defiling the house of prayer, the same way the Roman soldiers would sack Jerusalem and disperse its citizens worldwide.
As believers, we must mourn for sinners and seek to draw them from the grip of the devil. The contrasting covert or overt agenda of the wicked to destroy us as we preach must not discourage us from maintaining our stand. We must ask God for a heart of steel to resist giving up when our good efforts are met with wickedness.
Thought For The Day: Grieving for sinners to win them for heaven pleases Jesus.
DCLM Daily Manna was written by Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi; is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church situated at KM 42 on the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Nigeria.
1. Admit that you are a sinner. "For all [humans] have sinned, and comes short of the glory of God....[and] the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 3:23)
2. Repent now. "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out ...[for] if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness " (Acts 3:19, 1 John 1:9)
3. Believe that God loves you and Jesus died for you. "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet Sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8)
4. Invite Jesus into your life through prayer of faith. Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20)
