Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Friday April 14, 2006

I read again an old story of Satan’s attack upon a Christian. First, Satan shot a poisonous dart at his heel; but the Christian was unharmed, because he had his feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Satan next shot an arrow at his loins but the Christian repelled this easily because his loins were girt about with truth. Unsuccessfully, the Devil tried a shot at the breast; but there was the breastplate of righteousness. The Christian knocked away another dart with his shield, and the helmet of salvation repelled another arrow, but the Devil was not discouraged. He slipped around behind the Christian and shot him in the pocketbook and killed him dead!

This story has whiskers, but it is still truth presented in a humorous package. Ananias and Sapphira were not the last Christians to get into trouble with the Lord over faking the Spiritual fruit of giving. I often think that at offering time many should sing, "Oh, yes I’m the great pretender.."

That the principle, the place and the practice of giving from the heart is taught throughout the Bible is without controversy. Even the greedy pretentious Ananias and his dear wife learned early that they should get involved in giving of their material possession to the cause of Christ. Tragically they pretended to have grown in this area of their Christian life, and they forgot that God does accept pretended love! He is interested in the real thing, no matter the amount of the gift as witnessed by the widow's mite.

Men and women who fail to develop in this area of new life seem to always be up against it in some way. It is like a farmer planting seed and come harvest time, finding the stalks empty of grain, or fruit trees barren.

I heard an old mountain preacher say one time as he preached to the congregation which I pastored then, "Bless, God, if God laid out every pretender like He did old Ananias and Sapphira, the undertaker would be the busiest man in town!"

I am using the principle of giving today to point out the folly of faking any of the Lord's graces in our life. We do not have a mandate from the Lord to please men, but rather to honor the Lord through faith in Christ and growth in grace, evidenced through a desire to practice our faith in each area that impacts us and the world around us.

When a Christian gets any of the fruits of the spirit operating in his life he receives at least two very important benefits. One is the loosing of any hold him by the sin that the fruit of spirit replaces such as love for hate, peace in exchange for bitterness; well you get the idea from Galatians 5:16-25. The other benefit is the benefit to Christ's kingdom and to others.

Learning to give in harmony with instructions from the Lord, and to do it out of a heart full of love, is one of the very simplest ways to overcome greed.

So now you know. One secret to happy living is to keep the pocketbook, a mirror of the heart, right with the Lord. You never know when one of Satan's arrows will hit it.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2006 Use with credit.

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