Begging For God

 

It disturbs me that when churches need money they so quickly turn to non-Christians to get it.

 

Stereotypically, the roof needs fixing, so we have a church fair, or something like that where we flog off all our unwanted second hand goods, and bake cakes, and sell sausages, or whatever our particular ethnic equivalent is.

And we ask everyone who passes by to give us a few dollars so we can fix our roof.

 

Of course sometimes the cause is more noble than fixing a roof. But the principle is the same.

We say that we worship the one and only God. Creator of the universe. Saviour of people's souls. The God of all power.

But our actions show that we do not believe that this all powerful God is able to get us the money to fix our roof, so we are coming to you non-Christians to try to get it.

 

Can you imagine Jesus doing that?

 

Or the apostle Paul? Peter? Anyone from the Bible?

 

In Acts we read that there was a famine in Jerusalem. And the Corinthians collected money to send to the Christians there who were suffering.

Do you think they had a church fair? Do you think they sold souvlaki or second hand urns?

Do you think they asked the non-Christians in Corinth for donations?

 

That's not how it reads in the Bible is it. They had a collection. In the church. From Christians.

If you wanted to give, you put money in the box. Then they collected the money and delivered it to the Christians in Jerusalem.

 

And on a practical level these kind of church fairs don't usually raise much money anyway. They take a LOT of work. Usually for a few hundred dollars. For sure some of the wealthier Christians in the church could donate that much with no problem.

 

Of course it's good that everyone wants to pitch in and help and do their bit. But if you really want to do something like that, then do it in the church. Don't go begging from non-Christians. We represent God. Are we saying that God is a bit short this week, so could you give us a few bucks?

 

You should read the biographies of people like George Mueller, Hudson Taylor, Francis Schaeffer... These guys lived their lives with the principle that if God wants something done, HE will fund it. If he doesn't fund it, he doesn't want it done.

These three in particular never asked non-Christians for money, and I even seem to remember one case where they specifically refused money from a non-Christian. In fact, these three guys in particular never even asked Christians for money. If they believed that they needed money they prayed for it.

 

And it always came.