Psalm 119:89-96; Acts 5:1-11

Psalm 119:89-96
We find little in this world that doesn't change. In fact, I can't really think of anything! We all change as we should. At least I hope I'm not as immature as I once was. Everything around us changes too. It's interesting that the psalmist begins this section by emphasizing that God's word is eternal, and it stands firm in heaven. It does NOT change! It may be new to us, and the Holy Spirit seems to teach us something new each time we read even a very familiar passage, but the truth of God's Word is settled in heaven. And so we can trust it.

v. 90 tells us that God's faithfulness extends to every generation. Even our own. That means that His faithfulness to us is as real as it was to Moses or Daniel or Joseph or Mary or Paul. Does it seem to you sometimes that the characters in the Bible have an unreal quality--sort of like some ancient historical characters?  It's hard to think of them as living, breathing human beings. And yet they were, and God's faithfulness is as real to us as it was to them. What a thought!

Acts 5:1-11
Here we find one of the most familiar stories of the New Testament--Ananias and Sapphira. Remember at the end of chapter 4, we saw that Barnabas, whose name by the way means "encourager," sold a piece of property and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.

In this section, Ananias and his wife Sapphira also sold some property. He brought a portion of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. Sapphira knew this and agreed to the plan.  The passage says that they lied to the Holy Spirit and paid for it with their lives. The passage ends like this, "Great fear gripped the entire church and everyone else who heard what had happened." This is a pretty dramatic object lesson. It's important to remember that they were punished, not because they didn't give the whole amount because v. 4 tells us that they weren't required to give any of it. Their sin was one of pretending to be something they were not. And they wanted praise and recognition for it.

This is a pretty sobering lesson. I think nearly everyone wants recognition for what we do for the Lord and for others. It's a temptation to seek the praise of other people. The Bible tells us in other places that if we do this, we have our reward. See Matt. 6. God rewards what we do and what we are for Him alone. It's a very good discipline for us to serve with no hope of public recognition, to give of our time and resources to people who can do nothing for us in return, and to give anonymously.