rising prices in church

[Jake]

Faith is something that defies what is natural.....it is actually the violating of physical and natural laws. So with true faith it does not matter what is happening around the individual if he or she has faith that God will provide He will. Jesus said when you pray believe that you will get it and you will.
Faith is the currency of the kingdom of Heaven......it is how things get done. It is what God used to create and it is what Jesus used to walk on water and all the miracles He did.

Amen!
You are exactly spot on!

 

[brionne]

The example of Christs apostles were as the following scriptures show:

Paul supported himself financially while being a minister of the good news:
Acts 18:2 So he (Paul) went to them 3 and on account of being of the same trade he stayed at their home, and they worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. 4 However, he would give a talk in the synagogue every sabbath and would persuade Jews and Greeks
Paul did not expect to be funded by the congregations:
1Thess 2:9 Certainly YOU bear in mind, brothers, our labor and toil. It was with working night and day, so as not to put an expensive burden upon any one of YOU, that we preached the good news of God to YOU.
2 Thessalonians 3:8 nor did we eat food from anyone free. To the contrary, by labor and toil night and day we were working so as not to impose an expensive burden upon any one of YOU.

Paul continued his ministry work even when he had very little by way of material provisions:
1Cor 4:11 Down to this very hour we continue to hunger and also to thirst and to be scantily clothed and to be knocked about and to be homeless 12 and to toil, working with our own hands

So a true minister of God is not one who expects to be paid for his work. A true minister is one who sacrifices much for the sake of the brotherhood and works for God without expecting a wage.

 

[us2are1]

if you know something is not quite right within your church, get out.

Good advise. I went and told them first and they became red faced angry. It happened again with the next Church i started attending. I have never had to forsake the assembly of believers because there are thousands of Churches in California. I have been to a bunch.

Read this last night and it made me think of this thread.

[sup]11[/sup] Her heads judge for a bribe,
Her priests teach for pay,
And her prophets divine for money.
Yet they lean on the LORD, and say,

“ Is not the LORD among us?
No harm can come upon us.”
[sup]12[/sup] Therefore because of you
Zion shall be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins,
And the mountain of the temple[sup][b][/sup]
Like the bare hills of the forest.

Freely, we have received, freely we are to give. The church makes itself a harlot when it works according to money.

That's Powerful stuff there Prentis. It is so sad that it is true. Most churches have become businesses.

 

[Prentis]

Yes. The only way to NOT become a business is do things like Jesus taught.

A little leaven leavens the whole batch, and so it is with the world's ways in the church. The world works according to money, we work by sharing with other and by faith when we are lacking. The world Lord's it over others, we submit to one another. The world seeks to be recognized, we seek no recognition of men, only to please God.

The contrast is stark. The church mostly ends up on the side of the world, sadly.