There were people who gave everything to the poor and they looked after many. Ananias had said that he would give all of the proceeds of the sale of his house to the Church. He was not required to do that; he could have sold it and given half the proceeds, but he wished to appear great in the eyes of the Church, and then he lied to the Holy Spirit. He and his wife withheld half of the proceeds. Consequently, Ananias was struck dead and his wife shortly thereafter, and they were carried out. The Ananias mentioned in Acts chapter 9 was located in Damascus. He had been an elder of the Church, and he was the one whom God chose to lay hands on Paul for receipt of the Holy Spirit. The sequence appears to indicate that the Ananias in Jerusalem was killed prior to the baptism of Saul, but we have no actual proof of that sequence of events, or of the positive identification of Ananias. The point was that he blasphemed the Holy Spirit and he lied to the Holy Spirit, therefore, as an example to the elect God chose to kill Ananias and his wife in front of the congregation. Many of us do not really understand that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. Because some of our people have not been killed in the eyes of the congregation they think God is blind, or a respecter of persons. In the twentieth century God endured a condition in the Church of self-interest, and self-righteousness and accusation only so long as it was necessary; then He allowed a large part of the Church to be destroyed. That was a very traumatic and serious event for all the people involved. They allowed the Church to fall into a situation of self-righteousness and accusation wherein there was no love. We bore the brunt of that because of respect of persons, and a failure to extend our responsibilities in love to our fellow-man. 4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 12:36:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015