The gannet is a large bird of the family Sulidae, of northern coastal regions, having white plumage with black wing tips. They are frequently seen foraging for food around Scotland’s Shetland Islands. You won’t find them lounging by the pool in Barbados. They won’t be hitchhiking down the Appalachian Trail winding through the Smokey Mountains. Despite rumors, you won’t find them doubting down in the casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada.
They instinctively know their place, and that’s where you’ll find them living. They will be looking for food, raising their young, avoiding predators and living life as best they know how. Pretty much the same as most humans.
The Bible records a story about two people who were rather ordinary, but pretended to be something different. When they were asked a rather simple question, their stultifying answers brought the wrath of God upon them immediately. Before they could change their answer, judgment fell suddenly! The story transpires so fast with the direst of consequences that everyone gasps at the outcome. Be forewarned; this story is not for the squeamish.
A man named Ananias and his wife Sapphira owned a piece of property. They decided to sell the property and give the money to the church. Once the property sold, the husband and wife decided to keep part of the money. Peter confronted Ananias about his decision and before Ananias could offer an apology, he fell down dead! Several men came, wrapped up his body and buried him. Several hours later his wife Sapphira came back. Peter told her the men who carried her dead husband out were there to carry her out as well. Whoa! At that very moment, she fell down dead! The same men came and buried her beside her husband. The whole church was greatly afraid. Gives a whole new meaning to “dead on” and “drop dead” don't you think? God’s judgment on Ananias and Sapphira produced shock and terror among the believers, making them realize just how seriously God regards sin in the church. What really happened?
The sin of Ananias and Sapphira was not in selling all their property, or in keeping part of the proceeds of the sale, but in lying about how much money they had received. Lying to the Holy Spirit is lying to God. God often times takes drastic actions. Their act was judged harshly and ‘deadly’ because dishonesty, greed, and covetousness are destructive in a church, preventing the Holy Spirit from working effectively. All lying is bad, but when we lie to try and deceive God and his people about our relationship with him, we destroy our testimony about Christ. Read it all in Acts 4.
Ananias and Sapphira thought like hedonists which have an attitude “Who cares?” “So what?” “What I do is my own business?” They are more concerned about satisfying their own passions than in pleasing and obeying the Father. According to Romans 1:21-22 “Their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, but they became fools.” With this attitude and frame-of-mind, we lose more than the cross and stained-glass church windows; we lose our standard, our purpose and our worship. We are who we are. If we see only ourselves, our headstones will have the epitaph that Paul uses to describe enemies of Christ: “Their god is in their appetite, and their glory in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven”. Philippians 3:19-20 This world is the limit of their horizon.
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