5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go onto the road of the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6 Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. 7 As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.
9 Do not carry any gold or silver or copper in your belts.
10 Take no bag for the road, or second tunic, or sandals, or staff; for the worker is worthy of his provisions.
What do we do to GOD Almighty when we place a price, or some type of works upon what GOD Almighty gives for free,nothing, no cost to the one recieving what has been given to them.
We know that for some this has become a very lucrative business, you just have to look at some of these healing conventions that pop up. And there is no end of gullible people ready & willing to attend and part with their hard earned cash...:-)
Jay, you are on the right track, but must go a bit deeper into understanding from GOD Almighty's viewpoint.
In the last minutes of the movie Mr. Deeds, Deeds buys everyone in the town a red corvette, even crazy eyes.
Suppose crazy eyes says to Deeds, Deeds,thanks a lot for the car, here is ten dollars for the vette.
Then crazy eyes proceeds to crash the car.
That would be such an insult to Deeds, is not GOD Almighty insulted when we place a price upon all that He bestows to us freely.
How about salvation, christians' quote Ephesians 2 verses 5-10,but then they are told, they need to know that they are 'sinners', then need to confess their sins, they need to repent of their sins, THEN they need to trust Yashua to save them.
This is not the FREE Gospel,it is WORKS before faith, which is not FAITH at all.
Then the people that write books, they take 1 verse of Scripture then write a book.
They say the Holy Spirit showed them what the verse was about,yet they miss the real understanding 2 verses before, and after the verse they write about.
Do these people share any of the proceeds with the people.
There are people, schills, charlatans calling themselves pastors, most of these rob the people by taking large salaries, medical benefits, homes, cars, clothes,yet never tell the people that the ELDERS plural are to have the oversight of the body of believers.
These pastors and so called 'church leaders never teach the people how to read, study the Word, nor do they give the meat of the Word, but just enough pablam to keep the sheeple from starving.
The self proclaimed pastors use fear, guilt, intimidation, and the peoples ignorance of Scripture to keep them in their stupidity.
The self proclaimed pastors twist the Scriptures in order to justify their wealthy lifestyles, they say they make their living OFF the Gospel.
Actually, the way they live is to be FROM the Gospel.
As i have said before, the 'church' is not of GOD Almighty, it is a BUSINESS.
GOD Almighty takes no responsibility for the 'church'.