Good morning! It's Tuesday, October 18, 2022. Have you ever tried to take a shortcut that cost you much more than you anticipated? A man named Simon tried that too. It didn't work. Read on …
Today's Reading:
Job 3,4; Acts 8,9
Scripture
“Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, ‘Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.’ But Peter said to him, ‘May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!’” (Acts 8:18-20)
Observation
Simon had become a Christian; you’d think he’d know better. But even Christians can bring worldly practices into the Kingdom of God — using money or other means to shortcut the ways of God. It may work in the corporate world, but not in the Kingdom. In this world, you can still gain a profit even if your heart is not right, but you can’t gain God’s favor. Likewise, you can take shortcuts in commerce or business and get ahead, but you won’t in the Kingdom.
I see this practice today. However, it is often not due to an insidious plot or someone’s malicious intent. Instead, it probably comes from an immature heart that has not been fully discipled or fully taught.
Application
I need to recognize young leaders that, if released too early, can cause damage to the Kingdom. The Word of God shows us examples of this danger: Diotrephes, who liked to be the first (3 John 1:9); Alexander the coppersmith who did much harm (2 Timothy 4:14), Euodia and Syntyche, who had a prolonged feud going on; or the immorality that Paul had to address among Christians in 1 Corinthians 5:1. And we also have to remember that it was the religious leaders who put Jesus on the cross, not the heathens.
I think some of the more dangerous people in the family of God are underdeveloped leaders, immature prophets, and “unsubmitted” novices. There is a spirit of independency that fears coming under the covering of another.
Simon was a Christian, but his heart was not right; therefore, he had “no portion” in certain things of the Lord, as we find in Acts 8:21. You can have a wrong heart and still be a Christian, but there will be huge swaths of the Kingdom in which you will have no portion.
I can’t afford that! My life here is too short to miss the Kingdom, even by an inch! So my heart has to be a heart of integrity, where my thoughts match my words, and my intent and motives match the light. I always want the Urim and the Thummim (Exodus 28:30) to be over my heart.
Prayer
I will pray as David did in Psalm 139:23-24: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts, and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.”
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