Christmas Joy?

As most of you know, our church has been going through the book of Acts. Sunday was the dreaded Ananias and Sapphira passage. I was not looking forward to this talk because I didn't know how to explain why God killed those two people. It didn't make any sense to me. Did it really matter that they didn't give ALL their money? How is that a picture of a merciful God? Thousands of questions raced through my heaad.

Then something clicked as I was studying the passage. It wasn't about the money at all. Contrary to popular belief this story is about covenant relationship within the church. Ananias and Sapphira broke that trust and paid dearly for their deceit.

I did not try to explain why God killed this couple. I only mentioned that God is in the habit of keeping what is His holy, and sometimes does things unexplainable to the human mind in order to do that. I also told them that I do not believe God killing them is in anyway a judgment on their eternal destination (i.e. heaven or hell), nor do I believe that God ALWAYS does this. This is a story of what happened (description) not a story of what happens if we bring something unholy into the church (prescription).

This was not a sermon about stewardship, rather it is a story about covenant, and I tied in what I thought biblical fellowship had to have in order to be healthy. NO MEMBERSHIP INCREASING WAS NOT A CRITERIA!

Anyway, all that tbeing said, I did read A LOT of articles that made this a stewardship and money issue, though in my study the money issue and holding it back was a symptom of the deeper problem going on.

Though I believed those articles to be in error on the central point of the passage, what they said about money wasn't "unbiblical" and made me think about how we use our money as Christians today.

I saw this video from an organization called Advent Conspiracy and it got me to thinking. Here is the video.

The amount of money we spend on Christmas baffled me. Now I realize that most Americans are not Christians (thouh 70% still claim Christ as their Lord and Savior) and I know that money is not the ONLY solution. However, I do believe that we have some serious misconceptions when it comes to Kingdom citizens and the use of money.

The top 2 being:
1) the issue of money is in no way connected to spiritual well being
2) 10% being mentioned anywhere in the New Testament ( I honestly think these two are tied together. Most Christians think that if they give their 10% to the church then they are being good stewards of their money and can spend the rest on whatever they please).

These are not biblical teachings at all. Jesus mentions money more times than he talks about heaven and hell combined.

As we enter into November, our church will be looking at 3 parables that Jesus uses to teach about money. We will also have a guest speaker coming to speak to us about a farm in Laos and opportunities to help with social justice issues in Laos as well as opportunities to GO and work alongside the farmers of Laos. That will take us right into advent season.

My prayer is that we learn to view money as Kingdom citizens. Also that we start thinking of our checkbook register/online bank statement,or whatever record you use to keep track of your money as a tell tale sign of your spiritual maturity.