Daily Devotional Luke 21:5-6 – What gifts can we give to God? – Online Bible Study – Commentary in easy English – Day 370
Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.” (Luke 21:5-6)
I look out my window at a waterfall flowing into a swimming pool with lush flowers and trees, and it soothes my soul. Our souls thrive on beauty, a touch of heaven.
The disciples admired the temple, originally built with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God. It was built with love but soon became a business. Jesus built a whip and drove the money exchangers and merchants from the temple. It was the only time Jesus was visibly angry. We pour money into our churches when some day one stone, wood plank, brick, or cinderblock won’t be left on another. Do we spend as much money and effort on what is permanent, the love and souls within the building? What about the love and souls outside the building? Do we put resources there?
God promises eternal life and love and beauty that never end. We should invest our time and resources into what God has built, not what people build.
Dearest Heavenly Father, thank you for eternal life and Your creation. Help me build relationships of love and mend souls, work that will continue into eternity. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.
I agree with you, Jody. However, I am not a huge church going fan. I believe that I can worship in my own home and not attend a church building. I have beautiful nature all around me and it seems so easy to pray here. We grew up in a large church, filled with stain glass windows , a huge organ with many pipes, a bell tower with many bells. Heaven only knows how much all of that cost. I loved Church of the Savior though. It is where I learned about God and Jesus. It was where I was baptized, took communion for the first time, I was married there and my child was baptized there too. So many special times in my life, it is a special place for me. I could never feel this way about another church. Now that I am older I realize this money could have been spent in much better ways to help people.
I miss not going to church, but I haven’t found one I like in Marianna. I enjoy sharing fellowship with other people. I’m surprised you don’t miss that aspect of the Church of the Savior enough to want to go to church again. When we go back to Ocala and there is a COVID vaccine, we’re going to go to a church we went to a while ago that is very big into missions. I’m excited to do that. There are a lot of negative aspects to churches, but in some churches the positive outweighs the negative.
I agree with you! Yes, I do miss the fellowship of a church. That is the one thing that I do miss. I also miss a traditional service and everyone tells me that is pretty hard to find in this area. I miss communion as well.
I like the idea of home churches but I want to get involved in the missions of a local church when we move back to Ocala.