Paul wrote passionately about Jesus and His work of salvation.
Jesus drove money changers from the temple because of his love and zeal for his father's house.
John, the author of the revelation of Christ, had such a zeal and love for Jesus that he is the only disciple mentioned at his crucifixion. Jesus entrusted him to take in his mother and care for her for the remainder of her life.
Today, our zeal causes us to set up weeks of vacation to pursue a deer.
We will paint ourselves in different colors and stand in the cold for hours to follow our favorite team.
People will camp out for days before the release of the newest gadget, or waiting for a sale to begin.
Oh, let our favorite entertainer come to town and we are in line to buy their tickets.
These things, and people, have never done a thing for you, and yet we will chase after them like rabid little sheep.
My friend, we need to re-examine our priorities. Our zeal, our desire, our passion, should not be necessarily geared at a church, but geared toward God. He is the only one that loved us enough to give his only son that we might have eternal life. Jesus chose to die on our behalf, so great was his love.
We cannot attend church, pray, read our Bibles, or even reach out to someone because our own passion is not geared toward the father.
We as people need a passion injection to be able to complete the works the father has called and is calling us to do.
Jesus stated that his father's house was designed to be a house of prayer, and yet it was turned into a den of thieves.
The Bible teaches us that we are a temple. Should we not be a habitation of prayer and praise? Or have we robbed God of the honor of being the object of our passion and turned ourselves into a den of thieves!
Get your priorities right, develop that zeal and passion once again for the one that created you. Be blessed.
The Rev. Richard Helms serves at Miracle Acres Ministries, 3187 E. James Lee Blvd., in Crestview.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: HELMS: Gear your passion toward God