The widow, Goldie Cash, was scared of God and
her pastor, the Rev. Peter Simons, of The Church of New Beginnings, in Masters S.C.
Both of them were responsible for taking
the life of her brother and sister-in-law, Andrew and Saffora Money. They were
the only family she had left in this world. Goldie had at a young age left her abusive
parents who had lived in the small town of Priceton, OK.
How could God be so unfair to the Moneys for changing
their minds? If the Almighty wanted obedient robots rather than humans that
tend to alter their actions often that’s what He should have created. Goldie missed Andrew and Saffora more than
words could express. They were among her closest friends.
It was just several days ago that Andrew
texted Goldie about the church’s building campaign, “Constructing the Dream.”
Their e-e-signatures on their private message accounts in Facebook were Money Man and Cash Lady.
MONEY
MAN:
“We are planning on making a large donation to our building campaign.”
CASH
LADY:
“Where’s the money coming from?”
MONEY
MAN:
“Is that any of your business? But if you must know, we are planning on selling
our vacation timeshare property. It could really make a huge difference in
building the new Sunday school wing for the children.”
CASH
LADY:
“That sounds great, but what if you ever have some kind of cash emergency
during your life? Where will you find the funds? I thought that timeshare was
your nest egg for retirement?”
MONEY
MAN:
“Little sister, don’t worry it’s not like God’s going to strike us dead if we
change our minds.”
The Friday after Andrew chose to make his revised
electronic financial contribution on their church’s website, he wondered if
he’d done the right thing. At the Sunday evening service of the building
campaign, it was just Andrew and Goldie in the pew.
Saffora was running errands. (One of those
chores was to pick up more of her favorite cherry-red lipstick.) Goldie
couldn’t help worrying about the couple’s sleep apnea and the extra weight both
of them were carrying. She’d told them repeatedly if they didn’t start
exercising, eating right, and getting enough sleep, they would regret those
choices one day.
That evening, the Rev. Simons seemed
irritated as he spoke and paced back and forth on the podium. “There are some
of you here tonight that have chosen to lie to the Holy Spirit by keeping back
money that was promised to God. The money once belonged to you before it was
committed to God’s work. You’ve wrongly changed your mind and heart on the
promise that was made to your heavenly Father.”
Andrew was beginning to squirm and turn bright
pink in the face as the pastor, he, and Goldie knew whom Rev. Simons was trying
poorly to discuss anonymously from the pulpit. The next thing anyone knew, Andrew
was slumped over in his pew seat. It appeared he was dead.
911 was quickly called, and an ambulance came
to take Andrew away as they pulled a white sheet over his face and body. Saffora
was texted by Goldie with simple altered details to come right away to the
church. Shortly, Saffora showed up at the church, and was addressed by Rev. Simons
as he wrote something on a piece of paper, and showed it to her.
“Is this the money amount you and Andrew made
by selling your timeshare? Didn’t you promise the entire amount to God for His
work?”
An indignant Saffora answered that this was
none of the pastor’s business. He disagreed, and told her that the two of them
were wrong to spend a large amount of that promised money on a pleasure boat.
The little amount they were giving was a dishonest gift in God’s eyes. He
promised that the same ambulance that had taken her husband to the hospital was
coming for her.
Saffora was speechless at the nerve of this supposed
man of God. She put her hand on her chest, and crumpled to the floor in front
of the congregation. She looked dead, too. The fate of Andrew also happened to Saffora.
The ambulance people had to wonder what was going on at this church. This event
was going to greatly affect the congregation of The Church of New Beginnings.
Church members (and visitors) would be scared
away, and leave because social media would make this place seem unlucky place
to on Sunday. These were good people who were stuck in a bad situation because
of a couple’s trickery. All Goldie knew was something had to change soon before
death visited this church again (in this manner).
“Sin is more dangerous than wild bears, more deadly
than blazing forest fires. Ask Nebuchadnezzar, who lost his mind because he
refused to deal with his pride. Ask Samson, who was reduced to a pathetic shred
of a man because he never got control over the lusts of his flesh. Ask Achan
and Ananias and Sapphira, who all lost their lives over small, secret sins.” (Nancy Leigh DeMoss)[i]
[i] This is my edited fictional modernization of Acts
5:1-11 (Ananias and Sapphira) from my 2011 America Star (PublishAmerica) book, All for One, the chapter entitled, “A
Broken Promise.”
No comments:
Post a Comment