Today, I was looking at my e-mail when a banner ad came up for a certain website dealing with forgiveness. Curious, I clicked on it, wondering what it was all about. I found that you can e-mail anonymous forgiveness, which I guess some people might want to do, but I would outright tell the person I forgive them. Anyway, I saw a section appealing to those who desperately need to have God's work in their lives. It promised to print your prayers out and take them to the Holy Land, to the Western Wall - "the closest place on Earth to God" ! (For $6.99) What trickery! The Bible teaches us that God hears our prayers! Jesus said that even the unjust judge will hear the widow's case because she knocks so persistently! The Bible also teaches that Jesus is in your heart if you believe in Him, and that the Holy Spirit is in you as well. How can a wall of stone, significant as it may be in history and in the religious scheme of things, be closer to God than the heart of a believer, wherein is Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit?
Many of you may know that such schemes are pulled every day on "Christian TV". People ask for money to "spread the gospel" i.e. Gold studios, expensive furniture, breast implants, cosmetic surgery, Rolls Royces, $700,000 houses, and the list goes on! They plead, sometimes in tears, they say, for the lost, send money, please, they say, that people can hear the name of Christ. Some more sneaky preachers, such as a famous man from Ohio, promises that your teen will stop doing drugs, your husband will stop cheating on you, everything will come together in your life, if you would just give him some money. Shameless! Even Paul the Apostle worked, earning money to live and travel to spread the gospel. Preachers claim it is their right as ministers to be wealthy. If the apostles were not even wealthy, how great are these ministers who think they deserve better?
I am not saying Christians ought to be poverty stricken. Maybe some will be, and are called of God to be. They will have their reward. But the rich already have their reward. Some true believers may be called of to be wealthy - Abraham was, Job was - but that does not mean wealth is for every Christian. These preachers are preaching an extreme which may or may not be in God's plan for a given person. There needs to be a middle ground, people wisely managing their own money and living as good stewards over whatever God has given them. (I'll admit, and probably a lot of readers will, too, that I have not been the wisest of stewards with my money. I am beginning to work on changing that.) Often times, our own lack is because we do not manage money well. I say often times, not ALL of the time.
I know that an individual makes a choice whether to give the money or not, but preachers are fooling people who have little enough money as it is into supplying their own wealth. I once heard Bono say that these preachers are stealing money from the sick and the old, and that the God he believes in isn't short of cash.
Then, you might have congregations where the people are not being taught to give at all. Giving to the church's fund is a New Testament principle, that people should come and bring money for the good of one another and the whole church. The Bible mentions that believers would sell their possessions and lay the money at the apostles feet. They must have believed in what they were giving that much money to! Giving is a biblical principle. I think there are just two extremes holding today's believers - giving nothing or giving everything to make rich men richer.
I am glad to see these super wealthy preachers under investigation. I pray that this would be an awakening for them and they would turn to the biblical Way, and walk in the plan God has for their lives. Also, that it would be an awakening for those who have been giving the money, to see how they were duped, and to begin to give their money more wisely.
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