How Many Simon's

Buying your Way In

Allow me to let you into a little secret. As I sat down to write a couple of blog posts, I actually asked God to let me be a little bit more encouraging, rather than my usual speaking against the unholiness of both people and the church. I asked if I could be a bit more like my friend Jim who is one of God’s great exhorters – he is so encouraging. But the lord just said, “You are a watchmen and I want you to stay that way.” Oh well . . . . .

Acts 8:9-25 tells the tale of Simon the Sorcerer who tried to buy the authority to baptise with the Holy Spirit. Some people reckon he may have a bad press here but the Bible says he did it with entirely wrong motives. What they were, we can only guess, but they were wrong – as revealed to Peter by the Holy Spirit.

So many people are still under the delusion that money can solve almost any problem. Certainly it carries with it a certain amount of control but it also carries with it all sorts of emotions and wrong motives – like greed and jealousy to name but two. There are many more names that can be applied. Now, by any yard-stick, my knowledge of the church outside my own back yard is limited. My knowledge of the church in other lands is either from hearsay or by reading or, sometimes, by Holy Spirit revelation. Yet I know of churches in the USA who are controlled by money. The governing board is controlled my money. The pastor is controlled by his big tithers.

On another front, jobs, degrees or other qualifications, and many other aspects in church life are controlled by money. As a church becomes bigger, it becomes richer. As the church becomes richer, it wants to expand into bigger and better premises, with ‘bigger and better’ pastoral teams all paid bigger and better salaries. The moment comes when the pastor and the board have to start listening to their big givers as they now rely on that money coming into the coffers in order to maintain the facade and illusion of size and wealth they have created for themselves.

Simon the Sorcerer was only one in a great long line of folk who, over the centuries, have shaped our thinking and traditions by their use or mis-use of money.

Is it time to reassess your own ways and motives with finances? As Simon discovered, we cannot buy our way into God’s good books. Jesus either died for us or He didn’t. We can’t buy our way to prosperity or happiness or health nor anything else really important in life.

Jesus came to give us life in all its’ abundance but not at the expense of giving in to all the wrong and selfish motives the enemy can throw at us. Certainly not at the expense of taking or offering  ‘bribes’ to achieve our own goals.