Acts Chapter 5.
It Was Meant For God But I Decided To Keep It For Myself.
Ananias and Sapphira sold a piece of property with the full intent of giving it completely to the Lord for the ministry of the church. But once they sold it and saw all the money, greed settled in and they kept some for themselves. They then gave a portion to the church, thus making it look like they gave it all to the church. They lied to the church and to God and both dropped dead before the people for lying to the Lord.
When I was in second grade, our Sunday school class was to collect money in a can designated to help a missionary feed the hungry in Africa. I collected some money in my can but the day it was due we didn’t go to church. We didn’t go the following Sunday as well. After that I decided to keep the money for myself.
It would be easy to ask why did God take Ananias and Sapphira’s lives and not take mine? Perhaps God didn’t show Mercy on them because he wanted to set a precedence within the new church the great importance of maintaining holiness within the church. And it worked because the people were filled with fear and were very conscious of how they responded within the church. Perhaps our church needs a wake-up call today since so many are compromising God’s truth and allowing the church to compromise to the pattern of this world rather than God’s word (Romans 12:1-2).
Is God wanting to give you a wakeup call like he did me?
