Clearing the Temple

I realize that I actually need to post one extra post about what happened to us in the last two months and how God led us to be where we are now.It is a rather long and remarkable story. Let me just however say at the moment that my wife got the Job as Youth Pastor( Does that make me Mev jeug pastoor now?) and that we are settled in in Uitenhage,.

Last night( as every Sunday night) we had a youth evening service. At this service we have about 100 young people between 13 and 25 who come to worship. Well that is the problem . About 50 of them are there to worship. The other 50 sit around, listen (or try to because the music is loud) to their Ipods , or talk (scream) to each other while the worship team is trying to lead the rest in worship.

And I for one find it extremely annoying and distracting. Last night , as with the previous Sunday, I had to really bite my tongue and stop myself from not chasing and dragging those kids out of the church.

This morning in my quiet time I read amongst other things , how Jesus cleared them temple and said :"It is written in the Scriptures that God said, 'My Temple will be called a house of prayer.' But you are making it a hideout for thieves!" (Matt 21:13 GNB)

And this is essentially what these kids are doing. They are robbing other people , and themselves, of an opportunity to draw near to God. They are acting like they are more important than the other people who want to worship. They are acting like they are more important than God.

And so , maybe I should chase them out next Sunday. Problem is , it is not my job to do so . And making a scene would probably not help either.

But , this needs to stop. They are spoiling what could be a very meaningful experience for a lot of people by their arrogant and selfish behavior.