5 Minutes with Jesus is a daily devotional series for people in the midst of real life, whether facing anxiety, grief, questions of purpose, or simply needing encouragement and connection. Hosted by Sheila Walsh, each five-minute episode offers Biblical truth, honest reflections on faith and emotions, and closes with a moment of prayer.
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| Sheila Walsh: Simplify Your Life | 5 Minutes with Jesus | March 31, 2026
- As you and i walk through this holy week,
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- What are the areas where we need to clean house?
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- What boundaries do we need in our lives to preserve
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- The purity of simply loving and serving god?
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- What distractions can we eliminate
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- So that our focus remains on keeping jesus
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- At the center of our hearts and minds?
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- Now, this is not about judgment or condemnation.
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- Far from it.
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- The whole point of the death and resurrection of jesus
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- Was to set us free, to love him and to worship our father.
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- As we move toward good friday.
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- Let our focus be on jesus.
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- I grew up with a mum who believed in a thorough
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- Spring cleaning.
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- I mean, everything was cleaned,
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- Drapes were cleaned and windows were washed.
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- The front doorstep was scrubbed, every baseboard
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- And every little nook and cranny was spotless.
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- By the time we'd finished.
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- Well, i must admit, i'm not quite as fastidious as my mum.
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- I mean, i do a form of spring cleaning,
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- But probably not the roll up
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- Your sleeves, put on the yellow gloves,
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- Get a big bucket of soapy water
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- And get down on your knees kind.
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- What i am more into is simplifying our lives.
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- I love to go through my closet and collect things
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- I haven't worn in over a year,
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- And then i'll take them to our churches.
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- Crisis pregnancy resale shop.
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- I'm always shocked by the amount of stuff that i accumulate
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- In just one year.
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- I think that's one of the dangers of our world in general,
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- That we accumulate or assimilate things into our lives.
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- The honestly just become.
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- Distractions or clutter as we move through holy week,
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- That was very much on the mind and heart of jesus.
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- After the palm sunday ride into jerusalem.
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- It was getting late,
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- So christ and his friends spent the night in bethany.
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- But on monday morning they headed back into jerusalem.
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- In mark's gospel chapter 11, we read
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- When they arrived back in jerusalem.
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- Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out
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- The people, buying and selling animals for sacrifices.
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- He knocked over the tables of the money changers
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- And the chairs of those selling doves,
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- And he stopped everyone from using the temple
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- As a marketplace.
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- He said to them, the scriptures declare, my temple
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- Will be called a house of prayer for all nations.
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- But you've turned it into a den of thieves.
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- This wasn't the first time jesus did this.
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- If you read in john's gospel, chapter two,
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- This is what you'll read.
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- It was nearly time for the jewish passover celebration.
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- So jesus went to jerusalem.
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- In the temple area, he saw merchants selling
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- Cattle, sheep and doves for sacrifices.
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- He also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money.
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- Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them
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- All out of the temple.
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- He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money
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- Changers, coins over the floor, and turned over their tables.
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- Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them,
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- Get these things out of here.
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- Stop turning my father's house into a marketplace.
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- Then his disciples remembered the prophecy
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- From the scriptures.
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- Passion for god's house will be
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- Now, as the days until his betrayal
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- And crucifixion
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- Were ticking down once more as he visited the temple,
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- The place that housed the glory of god,
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- And seeing what it become, he cleaned house.
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- Jesus said that this house was to be a place of prayer
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- For all nations, not a marketplace.
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- He quoted passages from the prophets isaiah and jeremiah
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- Who wrote about the corruption of god's house.
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- It grieved the lord
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- To see what this house of worship had become.
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- You know, somehow we've always had a way of getting distracted
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- And adding on the things our culture supports.
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- You know, when i think about my own life,
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- You know, i wonder what tables jesus would turn over.
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- I spent so much of my life trying to be good enough
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- For god,
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- As if my performing with please him or make him love me more.
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- So often in the church, out
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- Of, i think, a genuine desire to attract people.
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- We add distractions and sideshows, forgetting that
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- It's the holy spirit alone who draws people to jesus.
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- So as you and i walk through this holy week,
- 00:04:40.470 --> 00:04:43.473
- What are the areas where we need to clean house?
- 00:04:43.473 --> 00:04:47.243
- What boundaries do we need in our lives to preserve
- 00:04:47.243 --> 00:04:50.480
- The purity of simply loving and serving god?
- 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:55.084
- What distractions can we eliminate
- 00:04:55.084 --> 00:04:57.520
- So that our focus remains on keeping jesus
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- At the center of our hearts and minds?
- 00:05:00.423 --> 00:05:03.126
- Now, this is not about judgment or condemnation.
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- Far from it.
- 00:05:05.795 --> 00:05:07.263
- The whole point of the death and resurrection of jesus
- 00:05:07.263 --> 00:05:10.366
- Was to set us free, to love him and to worship our father.
- 00:05:10.366 --> 00:05:14.971
- As we move toward good friday.
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- Let our focus be on jesus.
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- Let's pray.
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- Holy spirit, i would ask you this day
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- If you would help us to see what are the things
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- That have just become a distraction in our life.
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- The things that we think matter, that really don't matter.
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- At all.
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- Help us to clear out the clutter
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- So we can concentrate and prepare our hearts
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- For the greatest sacrifice that has ever been made.
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- And we ask it in the powerful name of jesus.
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- Amen.
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