TUESDAY 22nd
Psalm 119:72 ‘The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.’
I wonder, how many of those who promote the health, wealth, prosperity gospel (which of course is not the gospel) have actually stopped and considered this verse, as the one thing that is for sure, dollars or pounds are what matters most to them, they do everything they can to distort the Word of God to get those who are gullible enough to follow them to send them dollar after dollar to seek to get / or to buy a supposed blessing or a healing from God, while at the same time, they themselves amass there fortune. There is no doubt that the emphasis they place on wealth supersedes any emphasis they would put on the Word of God, especially in their correct handling of it and in their delivering of sound truth.
But beside those who promote this false gospel, there are still many who would put wealth and seeking to gain a fortune before the importance of the Word of God, and even as more important than their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Think of Judas, he had been with Jesus for three years, and yet he counted 30 pieces of silver as being more important than keeping a relationship with Jesus, and Jesus himself told a parable of a rich man who planned for the future and his emphasis was on building bigger barns and amassing more to his personal wealth, but Jesus said, ‘You fool, your soul is going to be required of you tonight’. (Luke 12:13-21) There is nothing wrong with money, nor wealth, but what matters is how we acquire it and the emphasis we place upon it in relationship to our walk with God. In that same parable about the rich man, Jesus ended it by saying, ‘so is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God’.
This is a good time to also talk about our giving, not as it is presented in the prosperity gospel, to get back, such as plant a seed and believe for a payback tenfold, or a hundredfold etc. but our giving because God has already blessed us, we give to honour the goodness of God, we give to further the promoting of the gospel, we give out of a willing heart, and we give as we bring what the Scripture calls the ‘tithe’ into the storehouse. Today I say thank you to all who give to support the work and the ministry of Emmanuel Pentecostal Church.