{"id":395,"date":"2012-04-14T13:49:21","date_gmt":"2012-04-14T13:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/robstarner.com\/?p=395"},"modified":"2012-04-14T13:49:21","modified_gmt":"2012-04-14T13:49:21","slug":"gold-or-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/?p=395","title":{"rendered":"“Gold or God”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Would you do gladly for GOLD what you do grudgingly for GOD? [pause for reflection]<\/p>\n

Here’s a test! Everybody’s looking for a good offer, right? Well now suppose you heard that the ol’ First Church of the Righteous Reverse<\/em> on the corner of Pious Avenue and Penniless Lane actually offered<\/em> offerings instead of receiving them.<\/p>\n

Think of it, you’re worried about paying the phone bill. So you hop in your car held together by a wire and you head on off to the church. When you walk in the door, you fall on the floor when they hand you . . . a thousand dollar bill!<\/p>\n

That’s right! Ever’ Sunday you’re welcomed to church by a side profile of Grover Cleveland\u2014and you’d almost swear that that ol’ buzzard is jest a-settin’ there a-winkin’ at ya\u2014ever’ Sunday! Now wouldn’t that be just GRAND? Precisely!<\/p>\n

Well I’m not a prophet or the son of a prophet, but of this I can be sure: at the end of the year, you’d receive with cheer . . . your perfect attendance pin\u2014a whopping $52,000 richer.<\/p>\n

Just how valuable is our relationship with God? Do we long to spend time alone with Him in prayer? Do we long to fellowship with His family? Do we look forward to reading His Word?<\/p>\n

When we love someone, we naturally desire to please him or her. The same is true in our relationship with God. If our acts of service and piety are done grudgingly\u2014or only with thought of some “kickback,” we need a spiritual “tune up.” Just as the apostle Paul urged the believers at Thessalonika (1 Thessalonians 4:1), so also the Holy Spirit encourages us to live a life pleasing to the Lord. May we be filled with every desire to please our Heavenly Father!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Would you do gladly for GOLD what you do grudgingly for GOD? [pause for reflection] Here’s a test! Everybody’s looking for a good offer, right? Well now suppose you heard that the ol’ First Church of the Righteous Reverse on the corner of Pious Avenue and Penniless Lane actually offered offerings instead of receiving them….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biblical-themes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}