Righteous Indignation

John 2:13-17
When the Passover Feast, celebrated each spring by the Jews, was about to take place, Jesus traveled up to Jerusalem. He found the Temple teeming with people selling cattle and sheep and doves. The loan sharks were also there in full strength.
Jesus put together a whip out of strips of leather and chased them out of the Temple, stampeding the sheep and cattle, upending the tables of the loan sharks, spilling coins left and right. He told the dove merchants. "Get your things out of here! Stop turning my Father's house into a shopping mall!" That's when his disciples remembered the Scripture, "Zeal for your house consumes me."

I know this isn't very nice, but I wish Jesus would visit some churches today with his whip. I don't think there are loan sharks in the churches today, but I do think that some people have turned the church into something it was never meant to be. I don't think church is a country club; it is not a fortress to keep sinners out; it is not meant to be a place that judges the world, it is not a political forum, but if you go into some churches today, that is what you experience.
Church should be the most welcoming, friendly place we go each week. It should be inclusive--not divisive.
We should go there to honor God, worship Him, help others. We should learn when we go to church. If we aren't taught why we believe as we do, we are just blindly following. I don't ever want to do that. I want to know how to apply the teachings of Jesus to my life. If we can do that, we can influence the world positively.