Readers' Responses

Does it Take Money to Spread the Gospel?

I run a ministry website at www.escapeminitries.net and if you go there you will see our vision statement on our home page. In the next day I will be adding your article " Does It Take Money to Spread the Gospel?" to our articles page and the link on our page will take the reader direct to ezine articles.

I want to say I loved your article and agree with two hands clapping. I also would like to say that I love to read articles that I want my readers to read, but instead of taking an hour to write, I simply have to spend ten minutes and create a link to the article. I find that the more good articles I find by other people that line up with our vision the more credibility it will give James and myself.

I met a modern apostle once and I saw him come to our country three times and never ask for money. He came to my families church and each visit spent a week there ministering. One of the people from our church sees him overseas very often in Indonesia, where he does most of his preaching and takes money from the people who love him and want to give him gifts each visit if there is any money.

One day this apostle had been ministering in Asia and was due to fly out the next day to the next country to minister to another church when the Lord Jesus put it on his heart to give $8500 Australian dollars worth of money to the the pastor of the church he had just been ministering in. The Lord said the pastor needed money for his church's needs, for some personal needs and needed money for a holiday to have a well earned rest with his wife's family that they hadn't seen in years on another Island. The apostle told his personal assistant and interpreter that the Lord had asked that he give all his money away that he needed for the next two weeks worth of ministry, and she cried and cried and begged him not to give it away. He told her, What can I do, the Lord has told me to give it to him, the Lord will have to provide for us. He gave the money to the pastor with the word of knowledge saying the pastor needed a holiday with his wife's family, and the pastor broke down in tears and had a hard time accepting that the Lord of the Harvest had answered all his prayers as he was very poor.

The friend from our church arrived to meet the apostle a couple of hours before he was due to fly out to the next country, and he pulled out an envelope with $10,000 worth of love gifts. One person that I know had felt led to clean out his bank account and give it to the apostle, and now works part time simply to fund the apostle. Another person that I know was all set to buy a trail bike ( motorbike) for $6500 and was ready to draw the money out of the bank to buy it for fun, and the Lord told her to not buy the bike but to send it to the apostle as he had a need for it.

The apostle smiled as he got the love gift and was very happy with his beloved friends in one small country city in Australia and happy with Jehovah Jireh his provider. The personal assistant/interpreter cried tears of repentance to her Lord and her maker for her lack of faith and was reported to be happy later on that God really is a great provider.

I just thought I would share that with you.

I love you dear brother and I will check out your other articles and post that article on my website in the next two days.

M

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I am confused; all these people seem to know is “wives be in subjection to your husbands” and don’t forget to tithe while you’re at it. Daystars group even suggested the sum of $5,000 a few weeks ago. There happens to be a few instructions for a christen life between these two passages. If you want to know what they are, you had better dig in and find out what they are for your selves. Find a good teacher or pastor you can trust of course, but God’s Word gives us “rest” not confusion.

How did they come up with the sum of $5,000.00? What’s up with that? Luke 9:1-6 says … Jesus sent his disciples out without money … nor two coats apiece.” Do you think these peacocks will read this passage?

No, I do not believe your pastor should walk around with holes in his/her shoes, nor should he/she be living in a box under a bridge somewhere; but why in a palace? Jesus lived well before He was crucified; but He did not live in a palace; He left that to Pilate and Herod.

S

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Thank you for shedding light on this subject matter. It is so helpful. I am a homemaker with limited family income but still try to give something from the heart. One of the ministries I went to overseas that I support has a minister that claims to be a Man of God and lately he has been asking for his members overseas to pledge a $1000.00 for a building fund in another country. He even said that "We are not asked to give so we can lose money but so that we will be blessed again and continue to live in an open heaven." This bothered me so I researched about preachers asking money and your article is the very first thing I saw. Thank you for writing this as it has enlightened and taught me some truths.

Thank you for sharing this and God bless you!