Today’s Reading 2 Chronicles 21-24
Focal Scripture: 2 Chronicles 23:19 “He stationed gatekeepers at the gates of the Lord’s temple so that nothing unclean could enter for any reason.”
The place that worship happens should be a holy place. It doesn’t matter if it is at home, your truck, outside, or at church. The desire should be to get rid of anything that would keep us from being clean before we enter God’s presence. Unfortunately, most people do not have that conviction.
Here we see Jehoiada commission gatekeepers to the temple. He understood that the place of worship was holy. He witnessed many people go through the motions. The lack of respect for God and his statutes had to amaze him. So to counteract that he made sure people knew to examine themselves or they would be examined by the gatekeepers.
This shows us an important lesson that must be applied today. Which is the manner in how we approach the Lord matters. Not only physically but spiritually as well. In this account they were looking for physical items that would make the temple unclean. They knew that worship was sacred.
Let me say that today sinners are invited to church and to be in God’s presence. The unclean shouldn’t be shunned. However, what should happen is for the religious to examine how they approach worship. A church or a person cannot be true worshippers if they allow open sin to take place in its midst. It doesn’t matter if it occurs with the beggar or the leader.
I challenge you today to examine yourself as you come to worship. Is your heart pure and have you prepared yourself for worship? It will change how you approach God.
Tomorrow I plan on reading 2 Chronicles 25-27
