Ananias & Sapphira

This morning in the wee hours, before I climbed out of the warm & cozy bed, I was surprised to have this little song play in my mind! I discovered that I remembered the entire song & tune, even though I learned it about 30 years ago, when I only had a few small children. I was learning little Sunday school songs & Bible stories right along with them, as my Catholic background had provided a minimal Bible education. I wonder if my children still remember this too? It goes like this...."Ananias & Sapphira, got together to conspire a, plot. to cheat. the church & get ahead. They knew God's power but did not fear, they tried to cheat the Holy Spirit, Peter prophesied it & they both. dropped dead! God loves a cheerful giver. Give it all you've got! He loves to hear you laughing when you're in an awful spot. Now when the odds are all against you & you cannot do a thing. Praise God! To serve Him is a joyous thing!" I looked it up in Acts 5:1-11. The story is still a bit mystifying to me because it doesn't seem like what they did is worthy of such a dramatic judgement, but I only offer my first reaction as an example of how woefully lower than God's thoughts, my thoughts can be. (And God says these thoughts of our are "unrighteous" in Isaiah 55). While there are many lessons from this short little drama filled story, I believe the main one is hypocrisy. I think all of us are guilty at times, simply because we don't want people to think badly of us, so we might try to present ourselves in a positive light. That doesn't sound so bad....does it?  Or is it??? I just have this little feeling...that if it weren't for God's HUGE & WONDERFUL MERCIES, I wouldn't be writing this....& I wouldn't have any readers either...we would all drop dead!!!        Love & prayers, in Jesus, Cynthia