Someone has counted the verses in the Gospels that talk directly about prayer and discovered that Jesus said five times as much about the stewardship of money as He said about prayer. Certainly Jesus understood the temptations of the love of money and the need for a person to beware of the pitfalls of the love of money.
To put it into numbers, of the thirty-eight parables of Jesus, sixteen relate to the stewardship of money. One of every six verses in the four Gospels and one out of every ten verses in the New Testament talk about the same subject. About five hundred verses in the whole Bible are on prayer. Less than five hundred verses in the whole Bible are about faith. More than two thousand verses in the whole Bible talk about money. Maybe we should expect our pastor to preach three out of four Sundays about money.
The following passages are offered for your guidance.
“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free’” (John 8:31,32).
“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” (Psalm 24:1).
“A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord” (Leviticus 27:30).
“‘You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it’” (Malachi 3:9,10).
“. . . then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine” (Proverbs 3:10).
49 of 52 © Rev. Ronald A. Bogs
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.