What's In Your Wallet?

I was sitting back with a friend, when he made a 
very interesting statement. He said, "You know the
church is very big business". Honestly, when he
said it, I didn't know how to feel. I was stunned,
grieved and disgusted because I knew it was true. 
There is a cancer in the church today and it is 
quickly spreading. The church is becoming more 
a financial institution than anything else.

When you think of this cancer you normally think
about the mega faith churches who teach a lot of 
name it and claim it and not much of anything else,
but now it seems a lot of the smaller to mid-size 
churches are being infected as well.

We are suffering from the keeping up with the Jones'
syndrome. We are concentrating more on making
money and appearances than anything else.

The Bible talks about tithes and free-will love offerings 
and that's the way it is suppose to be. But lets talk about
free will love offerings. These offerings are supposed to 
come from the heart and not the wallet.

You cannot browbeat and force people to give. It is the
equivalent of having a worship leader pushing and 
forcing people to open their mouth's to worship and 
praise God. The people will eventually do it, but they 
will do it with a wrong attitude and this will not please
God.

What happened to trusting in God? It seems like instead
of being God-sufficient, we are becoming more and more
self-sufficient.

If we look at the example of the physical body, we will see
that it is recommended that when we workout we do it one 
day and skip the next, because if we don't we will eventually 
hurt ourselves and our bodies will shut down. This is the 
same with God's people. You need to give them time to 
recoup before you keep asking them for more, more and more.

If you keep doing this, they will eventually shut down and 
cease to work.

We need to stop, prioritize and focus on whats important. If
we don't, then maybe we should change the motto of the church
from "Come as you are" to "What's in your wallet" and this 
would be a shame.

Something to ponder on... (WWJD) What Would Jesus Do?
What would Jesus Do if He walked into your church right now?
Would He kick over the pews? Overturn the selling tables?, 
make the statement, You have turned my Father's house into a den of thieves!", or would He rejoice in the fact that He has entered into a TRUE HOUSE OF WORSHIP.