Be Thou My Vision

September 9, 2015

Be Thou My Vision

Great fear gripped the entire church and everyone else who heard what had happened.

Acts 5:11

The sin of attachments: how much stuff do you need? In 2014, the average size of a new home in the USA was 2,600 square feet. That is more, way more than twice the average size of a home in Europe. Over and against the growing size of homes in the USA is a growing fascination with Tiny Houses. Tiny Houses generally have less than 400 square feet, and their cousins, ‘small houses’ have between 400 and 1,000 square feet. The HGTV network even has a series on Tiny Houses. The people moving into these small and tiny homes have discovered the glory of detachment from material goods.

The story of Ananias and Sapphira is recorded in Acts 5. It is not popular with the church today, and as far as I know it has never made the cut to be included in any listing of lectionary texts. We are more comfortable with texts that make us feel good, not texts that describe the time when great fear gripped the entire church. From what little we know of Ananias and Sapphira, I think it is safe to assume they wouldn’t have opted for a tiny house. While they were blessed to be a part of the new Christian church that was flowing in the power of the Holy Spirit, with many signs and wonders, they could not escape their attachment to stuff. Their need to hold onto their stuff caused them to lie to God, and to their brothers and sisters in Christ.

The message of their story to the church today is a call to take time to consider how much stuff we have, and how much stuff do we need. After all, we don’t own our stuff; it owns us. It takes our time and our resources. Never do we want our attachment to stuff to be more than our attachment to our Savior!

Riches I heed not, nor vain, empty praise;

thou mine inheritance, now and always;

thou and thou only first in my heart,

high King of heaven, my treasure thou art.

Be Thou My Vision

Verse 3

Translator: Mary E. Byrne

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.