Word for the day by Christian Education Forum
Resources – Whose is it, mine or God’s?
“Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”
Those that study the fundamentals of the stock market are taught that the stock market rallies upwards or downwards owing to one basic factor and that is “Perception” - It’s either owing to the Retained Earnings of a company or the Perception of what the retained earnings would do. Now why did I bring that up? Perception always plays a pivotal role to what we do as Christians; however, if we live in a world of perception we tend to still cling ourselves with the speculative world than the world than what God wants us to associate ourselves to. By this I do not subscribe that the wonderful efforts of our financial advisors should not be discounted in anyway, instead I want us to focus on what they can give and cannot opposed to what God says he can and will especially when it comes to what we call as resources.
Ananias and Sapphira were two individuals who had the right perspective to begin with, (That is sell our belongings and give it to the apostles) but would it not sound harsh when we focus on the fact that they did sell and had a change of Heart which being (“let us keep some of “OUR” wealth (possibly – In case of an emergency”). Well either way it was their wealth – they wanted to give it and they changed their mind – so what was wrong? Had it been a simple yeah we changed our mind – that would have been fine with God. But the Bible clearly states one important factor and that is they lied to the Holy Spirit and that means they lied to God. Nevertheless, the key word here is despite the fact that the land belonged to God his punishment was not for that the punishment was because a Holy God cannot tolerate Sin and the Lie that was said to the Holy Ghost was Sin and hence the consequence.
As simple as this seems the thought process that comes to my attention is only one thing – would it not be a bigger folly in our pursuit of riches for the “MINE ONLY “aspect, that in actuality God is really asking us are you say that because…? Take a look around at what you have – the Early church devoted in using the wealth to the benefit of those in need and not their individual needs – I do not think for a moment that this was out Of God’s equation as even Jesus watched what the Lady put into the offering box – the Lord commented “she put in everything. My dear brothers & Sisters its not the perception of What God is expecting – God is not speculative – it’s the knowledge that everything belongs to God and if we seek his kingdom all these this will be added to us that makes the 360 degree change in our lives. Let us pray that the Lord use us as we are to the extension of his Kingdom without piling upon ourselves what Ananias and Shappira did to them.
Thought for the Day: ‘What is mine is not mine; it is His’
Prakash Mathew Thomas, New Jersey MTC, Randolph