Cleaning out the temple

First of all, how do you like the new blog design? I'm not sure I'm 100% crazy about it yet, but my old blog design was not being offered anymore so I had to come up with a new one. I'll keep tweaking it, but for now it is what it is.

It's confession time again. Man I hate doing these!

I have been eating pretty well this past week. I've been reading my insulin resistance book and I'm starting to make some changes and grow in my understanding, though I have not finished the book yet. But I'm taking steps and implementing the things I have learned as I read. Which probably makes what happened last night all the worse because I had actually been doing good.

First you must understand that last night, I was alone. Alone in the house. Steve was at a conference. Nate was spending the night with his grandparents. And I, for the first time in a very long time, had some "just me" time at home. I had bought Season 1 of The Office on sale at Walmart with some birthday money, and I had gotten some chips and french onion dip to snack on while I watched. (This is a treat for me, and one I almost never get!)

If I had just had a helping of chips and french onion dip the story would have ended here.

But, that isn't what happened.

I not only ate W-A-Y too much chips and french onion dip, but I also drove through McDonald's for dinner. And even though I thought about getting a salad... I got a Big Mac and fries.

You know where this is going, don't you? You can tell it isn't going to end well. And deep down, I think I knew that too... but the instant gratification of eating something "forbidden" to me won out.

It all came back early this morning. Literally.

Now I don't throw up all that often. But I did this morning. And afterward, as I stumbled back to bed, I started praying.

I told God that I knew I had brought this on myself. I asked Him to forgive me and to help me remember this next time I'm tempted. (Because I know there will be a next time, and a time after that, and a time after that!)

And then this crazy thought popped into my head and out of my mouth before I'd even had time to fully formulate it.

I thanked God for cleaning out the temple.

Do you remember the story in the Bible where Jesus goes to the temple and sees the people abusing God's house? There are money changers who are doing business and cheating people right there in the temple! And Jesus fills up with this righteous anger and starts overturning tables and using whips to get the moneychangers out of His Father's house!

And we may wonder, what happened to the meek and mild Jesus who loves us all?

But I realized last night after I had thrown up that Jesus cleared out the temple because of love. Love for His Father. Love for the church. Love for the people who wanted to worship there. And even love for the moneychangers, who were sinning and needed to be corrected.

And Jesus cleaned me out because of love too. Love for His Father, who gave us every good gift and doesn't want us to abuse them. Love for my body, the temple of the Holy Spirit, which was being polluted and mired by sin. Love for the people who needed to see Jesus in me clearly, but couldn't.

And love for me, the glutton, who was sinning and needed to be corrected.

How deep the Father's love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He would give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure.