0:00:00 - 0:00:23 I'm in a hurry this morning, but I wanted to share a quick thought this morning. Um The Lord took me to one chapter in each of two Old Testament books to pick up some scriptural support for some things. He's taught me about sealing and miracles and a host of other topics that would take way too long 0:00:22 - 0:00:49 to try to lay out right now. Um Anyway, but in, in each of these chapters, one was about Elijah and one was about Elisha. I couldn't help but notice that in either case, these profits were supported completely by uh a woman. Uh Elijah had the widow of Sarepta, and Elisha had the shun woman who was married 0:00:48 - 0:00:00 , but it seems like her husband wasn't much on board with the whole thing. And when those men dwelt with these ladies, um all of their housing and food was taken care of by their host, Des Hostess. I'm a said host, um their benefactor. And it's so interesting to me that this is just two very simple, 0:00:00 - 0:01:44 very well known, supposedly examples of uh holy men from the scriptures. And um there's such a strong tradition that money and ministry never ever go together. And that whenever there's a person who um has something to offer from their relationship with God, that that person should carve out the necessary 0:01:44 - 0:02:08 time to provide for their own subsistence uh through temporal work. And that's very interesting. These men, in both cases, every moment of their lives was jam packed with uh performing the work of the Lord in ways that no other living person could because of their relationship with God. And so it seems 0:02:08 - 0:02:28 very silly to me that uh so many people would dismiss out of hand this possibility that there could be situations where that would lead to the greatest good rather than Elijah pausing his work of doing what he was doing or Elisha and saying, you know, instead of making iron float and miraculously feeding 0:02:28 - 0:02:45 people who are suffering under a famine or raising people from the dead in the name of the Lord. I'm gonna go ahead and just do the work that every single other person in the world could do and leave all the people who would benefit from me doing something more exactly where they are suffering and not 0:02:45 - 0:03:01 knowing the Lord more, not being taught more about him through the demonstration of his character, the living demonstration of his character. So anybody that holds that belief, I'd encourage you to go and read those chapters and those around them, you'll have to find them. I don't know the reference 0:03:00 - 0:03:22 off the top of my head. Although for some reason, I think Second Kings four is one of them. I can't remember. So don't quote me on that, but whoa, being dive bombed by birds. Um but read about these ladies and read about the blessings that they received because of these relationships. And then imagine 0:03:21 - 0:03:44 being in their shoes and then not having those things, which would be the case if they had this prior belief to dismiss out of hand, any possibility of using their financial means to uh support a person that was doing the works of the Lord. So now in both cases, OK, in both cases, these people saw those 0:03:43 - 0:04:02 works and it wasn't the case that they were just sort of gritting and bearing it. They, they actually had the desire in their heart to participate in the work of the Lord. But anyway, I just wanted to share that because I think this is just one example of a bajillion of a greater principle, which is 0:04:02 - 0:04:26 much more important than Ministry of Money. And that is that we really like reducing complicated ideas down to very simple ideas. And that's appropriate for little kids. It's not appropriate for adults because when you do that, you lose something like I said, with the widow and the, the wife, the widow 0:04:26 - 0:04:46 and the wife, both those ladies would have lost tremendous blessings from the Lord that they received because they weren't so simple. They weren't so simple. They did not insist that every single thing in the world is either always good or always bad. They were able to adopt and investigate the subtleties 0:00:00 - 0:00:23 I'm in a hurry this morning, but I wanted to share a quick thought this morning. Um The Lord took me to one chapter in each of two Old Testament books to pick up some scriptural support for some things. He's taught me about sealing and miracles and a host of other topics that would take way too long 0:00:22 - 0:00:49 to try to lay out right now. Um Anyway, but in, in each of these chapters, one was about Elijah and one was about Elisha. I couldn't help but notice that in either case, these profits were supported completely by uh a woman. Uh Elijah had the widow of Sarepta, and Elisha had the shun woman who was married 0:00:48 - 0:00:00 , but it seems like her husband wasn't much on board with the whole thing. And when those men dwelt with these ladies, um all of their housing and food was taken care of by their host, Des Hostess. I'm a said host, um their benefactor. And it's so interesting to me that this is just two very simple, 0:00:00 - 0:01:44 very well known, supposedly examples of uh holy men from the scriptures. And um there's such a strong tradition that money and ministry never ever go together. And that whenever there's a person who um has something to offer from their relationship with God, that that person should carve out the necessary 0:01:44 - 0:02:08 time to provide for their own subsistence uh through temporal work. And that's very interesting. These men, in both cases, every moment of their lives was jam packed with uh performing the work of the Lord in ways that no other living person could because of their relationship with God. And so it seems 0:02:08 - 0:02:28 very silly to me that uh so many people would dismiss out of hand this possibility that there could be situations where that would lead to the greatest good rather than Elijah pausing his work of doing what he was doing or Elisha and saying, you know, instead of making iron float and miraculously feeding 0:02:28 - 0:02:45 people who are suffering under a famine or raising people from the dead in the name of the Lord. I'm gonna go ahead and just do the work that every single other person in the world could do and leave all the people who would benefit from me doing something more exactly where they are suffering and not 0:02:45 - 0:03:01 knowing the Lord more, not being taught more about him through the demonstration of his character, the living demonstration of his character. So anybody that holds that belief, I'd encourage you to go and read those chapters and those around them, you'll have to find them. I don't know the reference 0:03:00 - 0:03:22 off the top of my head. Although for some reason, I think Second Kings four is one of them. I can't remember. So don't quote me on that, but whoa, being dive bombed by birds. Um but read about these ladies and read about the blessings that they received because of these relationships. And then imagine 0:03:21 - 0:03:44 being in their shoes and then not having those things, which would be the case if they had this prior belief to dismiss out of hand, any possibility of using their financial means to uh support a person that was doing the works of the Lord. So now in both cases, OK, in both cases, these people saw those 0:03:43 - 0:04:02 works and it wasn't the case that they were just sort of gritting and bearing it. They, they actually had the desire in their heart to participate in the work of the Lord. But anyway, I just wanted to share that because I think this is just one example of a bajillion of a greater principle, which is 0:04:02 - 0:04:26 much more important than Ministry of Money. And that is that we really like reducing complicated ideas down to very simple ideas. And that's appropriate for little kids. It's not appropriate for adults because when you do that, you lose something like I said, with the widow and the, the wife, the widow 0:04:26 - 0:04:46 and the wife, both those ladies would have lost tremendous blessings from the Lord that they received because they weren't so simple. They weren't so simple. They did not insist that every single thing in the world is either always good or always bad. They were able to adopt and investigate the subtleties 0:04:45 - 0:04:52 which actually are not all that subtle. They're pretty, pretty obvious. So take care.