1 Corinthians 3:16 (NIV)
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?
You are a sanctuary for the Spirit. Take a long look at yourself.
Is your sanctuary dirty and cluttered? Covered with the gritty grime of our culture? With a few old grudges stashed away for safe keeping?
Is it time to dust the dark corners of your soul?
The Levites were housekeepers of God’s Sanctuary. The Sons of Korah left a record of their Levitical joy in sanctuary-keeping.
Psalm 84:10 (NIV)
Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
Better one day dusting God’s house than a thousand relaxing in the mansions of the wicked.
When did you last dust?
I dusted the sanctuary Saturday. The men have been fixing the water damage, patching the plaster, spackling and painting. A gritty haze of white rested on every horizontal surface.
It made me wonder about young Samuel, dedicated before his birth to service in God’s sanctuary.
1 Samuel 2:18 (MSG)
Samuel, a boy dressed in a priestly linen tunic, served God.
Did dusting the sacred furniture fall to him? A child with a dust rag?
I am good with words, mediocre with cooking and bad at rocket science. How about you?
There are some teachers who are not good at teaching. There are some police officers who shouldn’t be policing. There are some politicians who aren’t good leaders.
Maybe it is time to stop declaring, “You can be anything you want to be.” Maybe it’s time to ask, “Are you good at what you do?”
Are you putting the talent God has given you to good use?
I read that there are 2,000 gang-related homicides in our nation each year. In some large cities, almost half of the murders are gang-related.
Those lives matter. Shame on us for looking the other way.
Lord God, may our young people find their identity in you, not in gangs. Let your Spirit blow through the gang culture, turning even the hardest hearts toward you. Replace violence with love, death with abundant life. 
We face growing violence in our land, unnecessary and fatal violence. What can we do?
We discuss possible causes: breakdown of the family, violent video games, prejudice, poverty. Easy to talk about, hard to change. There’s not much we can do, right?
Wrong!
1 Timothy 2:1-3 (MSG)
The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation.
We need more
Justice
Mercy
Humility
Our courts are about winning, not justice. We want revenge, not mercy. And we look out for #1.
Micah 6:8 (NIV)
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
