SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/19/2023 11:45 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Answer and the Aftermath”
Bible Reading & Meditation
Reference: Matt. 22:21b-22
Message of the verses: “Then He said to them, “Ten render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.” And hearing this, they marveled, and leaving Him, they went away.”
It is not only the duty to pay taxes, but there is
more that a believer must do, and when I write these things I believe that
there is only one way that a believer can go against these things and that is
if they do not go along with the Word of God. “By God’s own sovereign decree, presidents,
kings, prime ministers, governors, mayors, police, and all other governmental authorities
stand in His place, as it were for the preservation of society. To resist government is therefore to resist
God. To refuse to pay taxes is to
disobey God’s command. By God’s own
declaration, to pay taxes to Caesar honors God” (MacArthur’s commentary).
The things in the days when the Lord
walked the earth were very difficult times, especially for believers, and it
was at that time that Jesus had this conversation with the Herodians, and so if
they should pay taxes then, we should pay them now. Jesus tells us the things that are God’s do
not belong to Caesar and should never be offered to him, but only to God.
I mentioned that it is my belief
that many believers do not give enough of their money for the Lord’s work in
our society today. I believe that the
first check that is written after the paycheck comes in should be to the Lord,
and I think that a tithe (10%) is the minimum amount to be given to the
Lord. After I retired I made a bad
investment, and even though my funds were mostly depleted we never stopped
tithing, and I believe that God honored that decision that we made. My investment was wrong, and I felt very
badly because of it, but our commitment to the Lord and in trusting Him, and
continuing to give like we were before, the Lord brought us through this bad
decision that I made. God is good, all
the time!
Going back to what I said about obeying God rather than man when man wants us to do things that are against His Word there is a story in the 5th chapter of Acts that deals with this. It was when the Sanhedrin, which had political as well religious authority in Jerusalem, gave the apostles, “strict orders not to continue teaching in [Jesus’ name,]” Peter replied for all of them, saying “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:28-29).
John MacArthur writes the following, and it was when
the Soviet Union was in charge that he wrote “The church in the Soviet Union
and other communist countries is persecuted today because it refuses to give
total allegiance to the state. Although
the majority of Christians in those lands are good citizens in every way,
including in the payment of taxes, they will not surrender their souls or the
souls of their children to the government, because such homage is solely the prerogative
of God.
“Upon hearing Jesus’ response, the
disciples of the Pharisees were utterly astonished at His wisdom. They marveled, and leaving Him, they went
away. They had nothing to say, and had the presence of mind to leave before
exposing still more of their ignorance and wickedness.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I have been a believer for over 49 years and
paying my taxes has never been an issue to me.
However I believe if things continue to go as they are going in our
country that there will be other things that will cause great trouble for
believers as Satan is using many people in our government so that persecution
will come in a larger form that it is now.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Love the
Lord, stay close to Him, and trust Him each day to see me through in doing the
things that He has called me to do. I
desire to produce fruit for the Master.
8/19/2023
12:14 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment