An International House of Prayer

In any organization or situation you usually get your authority either through your position or through the influence you have in people, sometimes referred to as personal authority. You could start with positional authority and if you do not develop personal authority, you will not go far in that organization or situation. Jesus on the other hand started with personal authority and threatened the positional authority of the Jewish leaders.

Mark 11:9-10

Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Blessed is the kingdom of our father David That comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

In this chapter, Jesus made multi day visits (starting with His triumphal entry) to Jerusalem and the temple and spoke with authority about the conduct of people in the temple. Jesus intended for the temple to be an international house of prayer, a house of prayer for all nations. The United Nations has in the past made resolutions to condemn the Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories. The international community has a strong interest in Israel and its territories. However, this strong interest needs to convert into what Jesus said, an international house of prayer. There are groups that want to secure the territories to ensure only a single interest group can ever come there. Let it not be so. We want all to come seek the Lord in the Holy Land.

Mark 11:17-18

Then He taught, saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ” And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His teaching.

Father, let the developments in the Holy Land draw the masses to read and understand the history of Jerusalem and the soon coming of the Messiah a second time.

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