{"id":12168,"date":"2020-04-06T05:38:33","date_gmt":"2020-04-06T10:38:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=12168"},"modified":"2020-04-06T05:38:40","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T10:38:40","slug":"the-twilight-zone-on-the-monday-of-holy-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=12168","title":{"rendered":"The Twilight Zone on the Monday of Holy Week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yesterday was a most unusual Palm Sunday and 25th birthday celebration with my grandson. I wasn\u2019t at church and I wasn\u2019t in Austin celebrating with my family. But, I was still present for both. I watched four beautiful church and mass celebrations via livestream and I was on FaceTime with my family. The day before, my Canadian cousin FaceTimed me so I could meet her two-year-old foster child. Tonight, and tomorrow night I will be on Zoom calls which provides for many of us to see each other, be together \u2013 while apart. Isn\u2019t this something?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is amazing to be in tumultuous yet tremendous times and be provided with far greater innovations than what any other generation has ever experienced when they encountered plagues, epidemics and pandemics. I\u2019m providing a little motivation for us, lest we forget to be grateful for the blessings we have been afforded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 60s there was a TV series called \u201cThe Twilight Zone\u201d.Rod Serling welcomed us on a journey into the Twilight Zone. Each episode presented different stories where characters found themselves dealing with disturbing or unusual events, an experience described as “entering the Twilight Zone”. It often had a surprise ending and a moral. Now, the phrase \u201ctwilight zone is used to describe surreal experiences — like these surreal times we are in today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of surreal, I think about Monday of this most blessed Holy Week of our Lord\u2019s passion. The predominate happening on this day was Jesus chasing out the money changers from the temple. He was on purpose with every act, healing, and teaching. If we knew it was our final week of life, wouldn\u2019t we be taking care of \u201cloose ends\u201d, like getting some things right that were very wrong? Wouldn\u2019t we be giving family and friends some of our wisdom from life, encouraging and giving clear thought-out messages to help them carry on? If He knew He would soon lay down His life for us, then wouldn\u2019t He make sure that everything He did was for our good to be used as visual references for us to follow?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On this day of Holy Week, Jesus returned to Jerusalem and came upon the shameful, greedy practices at the Temple. He was so passionate about His Father\u2019s House of Prayer being abused. Formerly, it had been where the blind and lame came when they heard Jesus was in the Temple. As the children saw Jesus standing there and teaching, they began to shout again, \u201cHosanna, to the Son of David.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this Holy Monday, He cleansed the temple. Back to the \u201csurreal\u201d time we are in right now. The churches, temples, and synagogues have been cleansed, so to speak. Not only are the stores inside many of the mega churches closed, but so are the places of worship \u2013 everywhere. My take on this season that we\u2019re in \u2013 is God is setting things straight \u2013 setting His people straight \u2013 getting His house in order. That the principal thing isn\u2019t really about the church building. It is about His Body \u2013 THE CHURCH \u2013 being set right. Getting down to the nitty gritty of what really is most important to Him. Jesus will soon come back for His bride without a spot or wrinkle or blemish. He cares more about us than He does brick and mortar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today He desires to cleanse us and purify our hearts and minds so that we are more like Him \u2013 in our thoughts, our words and our actions. Maybe, this surreal time is about our Sovereign Lord getting His Body in shape for bringing the family home \u2013 sooner than later. Today I take this message personally. It is taking this cleansing of the temple as cleansing of my temple. \u201cDo you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.\u201d (1 Corinthians 10:19) The Lord cares more about the \u201cstuff\u201d that has cluttered up Who we are and Whose we are. It\u2019s time to get the temple squeaky clean! This Monday of Holy Week is a really good day for cleaning house!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday was a most unusual Palm Sunday and 25th birthday celebration with my grandson. I wasn\u2019t at church and I wasn\u2019t in Austin celebrating with my family. But, I was still present for both. I watched four beautiful church and mass celebrations via livestream and I was on FaceTime with my family. The day before,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16997,16998,16996,16995],"tags":[1210,1769,16993,4367,3335,3361,40,16991,12842,3365,203,16990,16994,3347,16992],"class_list":["post-12168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cleanse-temple","category-monday-of-holy-week","category-rod-serling","category-twilight-zone","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-cleansed-the-temple","tag-grateful","tag-holy-week","tag-hosanna","tag-inspiration","tag-monday-of-holy-week","tag-money-changers","tag-palm-sunday","tag-passion","tag-rod-serling","tag-surreal","tag-temple","tag-twilight-zone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12168"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12173,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12168\/revisions\/12173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}