Offered Grace
Shawn M. Ledig
Introduction
The early book of Acts delivers a message that blessings from the Lord are exceedingly abundant. We are shown that prosperity and blessings were bestowed upon believers that were eager to give unselfish sacrifice to God, but only when done so with an honest heart. When the offerings were tainted with deceit, the blessings turn to curses and the prosperity was vanquished by famine and death. An example of such a case is represented in the story of Ananias and Sapphira.
And Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles, translated means "Son of Encouragement", sold a field which belonged to him, and brought the sum of money and laid it at the feet of the apostles, (Acts 4:36-37) was a man filled with the Holy Spirit. For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith (Acts 11:24). Then there was Ananias, whose heart was filled with Satan. But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled you heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back some of the price of the land" (Acts 5:3). Here we have two sides of a spectrum. One was utterly truthful, while the other a liar. There offerings show us the differences in counter pointed faith and unbelief, selflessness and selfishness, goodness and deceitfulness, sacrifice and sacrilege, trust in God and the worship of self, total commitment and supported hypocrisy. Even when grace was offered the selfishness of man prevailed and the consequences were severe.
Discussion
However, there are major problems and concerns that we can question concerning the nature of Ananias' sin. Ask yourself wh ...