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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Knocked out by holy spirit | Matt 16:6 | EdB | 90842 | ||
Elijah_Jones I agree once again. The thing to remember is miracles do not really draw us to God. Faith does. We see a perfect example of this in the Exodus with children of Israel coming out of Egypt they saw God wrought 10 miracles of plagues, deliverance by the parting of the Red sea and pillar of fire. Yet within a short time they were worshipping a God of their creation. I have heard people say if I could just see the hand of God I would believe. Yes they would for a short period of time but soon all is forgotten. Jesus healed many but not one stood with Him was the crowd cried crucify Him. Healings do little to validate a ministry, proven by the fact Jesus healed many yet He was still opposed. There is nothing wrong with a ministry that prospers, there is when they stop being good stewards of God's money. When the money is used to provide the a man or two with a lavish lifestyle rather than being used to help others there is a problem. Billy Graham Ministry is a great example of proper stewardship. Dr. Graham himself takes no money from the ministry at all. He is paid a salary set by a board of responsible men from endowments of a few supporters. The money collected at a crusade is either used to pay expenses of that crusade or sent forward to assist with the next. The Graham people involved in a crusade are not paid nor are their expenses from the collected offering but rather again from endowments from supporters. Therefore the size of the crusade does not effect their salary in the least. Truly they are not doing it for the money yet the ministry is successful EdB |
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2 | Knocked out by holy spirit | Matt 16:6 | Elijah_Jones | 90886 | ||
I mostly agree with you on these points. I would say that the bible teaches that signs and wonders can and should accompany ministry. Demonstrations of the power of the Spirit of God can certainly be used to get peoples attention, and also to validate ministry. I feel that the Scripture illustrates both principles. ( I can provide the references if requested, just for the sake of time I'll not do it unless requested). On the matter of stewardship. I believe the same principles apply to all our finances, whether gained thru "secular" means or thru funding provided thru voluntary giving. I'd go so far as to say that there is a lot more concern regarding the commercialization of many Christian materials than voluntary offerings and such.. not that I am in a position to judge that, but rather it strikes me that often times the "big name" ministries that operate on voluntary contributions recieve a lot more criticism than many music artists, authors, etc making quite a bit of money through the actual selling of the material. However, since no one is FORCING anyone to buy them, well then.. I guess it is a bit of a grey area, if it is a concern at all. Anyways... back to my point and what I agree with. Those who are financially blessed have a huge responsibility in stewardship as the Bible states clearly in a number of places. This holds true no matter what the source of that revenue. I also know people who literally give 90 percent of all they recieve to the work of the Kingdom, and are still quite wealthy. That too seems like a spiritual principle. |
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3 | Knocked out by holy spirit | Matt 16:6 | EdB | 90995 | ||
Elijah_Jones The "Big Name" ministries as you call them often mnaipulate the people into giving into their ministries by telling the people they can expect a 100 fold return on their money. I once watched a man sit at the piano and tell the TV audience the if they sent 1000 dollars God would give them their greatest desire what it ever it was. He did this for over an hour and raised an unbelievable sum of money. That is where I have problems. I would have rather seen him charge 100 dollars for his records than to have done what he did. EdB |
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4 | Knocked out by holy spirit | Matt 16:6 | Elijah_Jones | 91016 | ||
That sounds like it was most likely an abuse of the principle. But if someone abuses a specific principle for personal gain, that does not render the basic principle void. We see in the new testament believers being asked to give to the needs of the body of Christ, but then we also see those asking people to give working hard to support themselves so that they might not give the appearance of "fleecing the sheep". That is also balanced by the "worker is worthy of his wages" principle. As with anything, when selfish motives and desires come into play, the pure and beautiful principles of God can become twisted and harmful. I am saddened that such a practice would be considered to be part of the various principles we have been discussing here. I would emphatically state that it is not, but rather appears to be a blatant abuse. God alone can judge this particular instance you mention, but I would not want to be in his shoes if he was acting on his own selfish reasons. I don't really see a precedant in scripture that giving a specific amount of money (apart from the tithe situation) was ever rewarded with "the desire of ones heart".. so if I were forced to judge this situation, I would judge it as false. |
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