Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - Good News, Bad News, Money News - #8229

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

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The pastor got up to the pulpit one Sunday and made an unusual announcement: “I’ve got some bad news, some good news and some bad news for you.” He had everybody’s attention. He said, “The bad news is the roof on the church is shot; it’s got to be replaced. The good news is we have the money. The bad news is it’s in your wallets!”

I’m Ron Hutchcraft, and when I first heard that I laughed. Then I said, “Hmmm.” Imagine Jesus saying to us, “I’ve got some bad news, good news, bad news for you. We’ve got a lot you and I need to change in this world, and we have the money. The bad news is it’s in your wallets.”

Here’s one of the most disturbing questions I’ve ever read in the Bible: “Will a man rob God?” I want to say, “Rob God? Crazy!” “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob Me?’ (God says) But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ ‘In tithes and offerings…you are robbing Me” (Malachi 3:8 , 9). Through another prophet, God revealed the price we pay for hijacking what God has given us, “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why? Because of My house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house” (Haggai 1:9 ).

God’s got a lot of work He’s doing in this world, a lot of desperate needs He’s ready to meet, a lot of hell bound lives He wants to rescue, but He’s entrusted His resources into our hands. And we tend to hijack it to do things we want to do, buy things we want to have, go places we want to go, and we rob God.

There’s enough money in our hands to meet the needs of millions of people God weeps for. It’s time to get it out of our hands and back into the hands of the God who gave it to us in the first place.

This radio program references: Malachi 3:8-9 ; Haggai 1:9