Stewardship

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Turning on the Tears

Certain preachers have played people’s sympathies like a fiddle to get them to open their hearts and wallets, not to Jesus, but to themselves. They turn on the tears like a water spigot. The Scripture speaks of phony religious people as clouds without rain. Their timely tears flow copiously. Ironically, all those stage performers do is promise their hearers the Water of Life and give them a good soaking instead.

One man I recall listening to insisted he wasn’t a con, but managed to butter up his audience enough to collect an extra offering from them, by saying his mother had just died. There were very few objections when the big buckets went around again, after being heaped high the first time. My, how that “evangelist” was comforted after his purported tragedy. A starving fox in a henhouse has more integrity than a money-hungry fox in a pulpit pretending to be an innocent lamb. Not many years later this "evangelist" was involved in a three-way liaison with a woman he and another religious leader took advantage of for their own pleasure.

The lowest of the lot make appeals for starving children who never see a penny of the donations. Or, the bare minimum is distributed to them as a PR photo op while the charlatan lives in unimaginable luxury. What a despicable thing to do in the name of the Lord! Be very discerning about what ministry of mercy you support. As God enables you, give generously to genuine Christian relief organizations and He’ll bless you for it. But always act on the basis of His leading, and don’t ever be manipulated by theatrics.

Beware of those who cry and plead for money because “the devil is attacking their ministry” and they are in danger of folding. Jesus had no place to lay His head, but His life was exceedingly fruitful. If those people truly had an anointing of faith, they would rest in the certainty of God’s daily provision. That’s real living by faith.

Charlatans will cry very real tears when they stand before God in the Judgment. If any of them think they will escape divine justice by resorting to phony tears, then they’re in for a big shock.

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