Lack of money in the church?

In my Bible Reading I came to First Chronicles 12:40. The second part of the verse reads: “There were plentiful supplies of flour, fig cakes, raisin cakes, wine, oil, cattle and sheep, for there was JOY in ISRAEL.”

Can we say:

The members of the church – local congregation – gave more than enough money, because they were rejoicing. (There was JOY!)?

Can we say:

The members of the church – local congregation – gave not enough money, because they were not rejoicing. (There was no JOY!)?

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN A MEETING LIKE THAT?

The Power of Joy!

I read this story in one of my German Books: W. Busch: Magier, Zoellner, Juenger (Page 165)

A pastor was asked to conduct the funeral service for a high ranking army officer. As you can imagine there were many in  uniform present at the service.

When the pastor drove home from the service using public transport, he met up with quite a good number of the people, who were also present at the funeral. They did not recognise him, because he did not wear his special robe.

They talked about the service quite freely and in a critical manner. Especially one high ranking officer yelled again and again, “That was not a funeral service, that was not a funeral service, that was ‘propaganda’ for JESUS!”

The pastor was sitting somewhere on one of the back seats – rejoicing. He was thinking, “Man, you got the point I was trying to get across to all of you at the funeral service:  ‘Propaganda’ for the Lord Jesus Christ.”

“How do you know, when you find gold?” somebody asked. He was told,” You just know!”

I read in a travel magazine that you can still strike gold along the Buller River. One day I want to go there myself to find out, if the statement above is correct. It must be true , because also the article in the magazine says, “Even tiny flakes sparkle with LIFE.”

I am looking now at the CHECKLIST in the magazine, where it tells me how to get there – to the Buller River to strike gold – and how to get around and where to stay.

There are up to nine flights a day from Auckland to Nelson. The cheapest is $95 per person one way. Finding accommodation in Nelson is no problem. But from Nelson to Murchison it is still 88 km. And that’s about , where the gold is to be found.

In the article it also says that the gold – diggers must follow this advice in order to be successful: “Remember, gold sinks. What you have to do is  find a crevice full of gravel and mud that has been there for a long time and scrape it all out right to the bottom. It’s in the stuff down there you’ll find the gold.”

Gold has always been very precious. But it is  especially precious at the present time where we have  a global economic crisis.

*****

Psalm 19:9-10 / Psalm 119:72 / Psalm 119:127

The laws of the Lord are/The law from your mouth is

–true;

–each one is fair.

–They are more desirable than GOLD, even the finest GOLD.

— more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and GOLD.

Because I love your commands more than GOLD, more than pure GOLD,

Hit Golden Nuggets and read: ………….

The tool to find GOLDEN NUGGETS is PRAYER!

HAVE YOU EVER HEARD THAT SAYING?

I THINK I HAVE EVEN SEEN IT WRITTEN DOWN!

DO YOU AGREE WITH THAT?

“Mothers hold their children’s hands for a short while, but their hearts forever.”