THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NESS some of the poor people. This man’s heart was full of love to Jesus and it made him very happy to give this money to God, and the people thanked God for such a man. There was another man and his wife who also owned some land and they sold it and brought part of the money they sold the land for-to the disciples, and that was all right for them to give just as much as they want ed to give for the Lord’s work, but they made the disciples believe they had brought all the money they got for the land. This man and his wife wanted to have the people praise them and say what wonderful people they were to give all the money they got for their land like the other man who gave all he sold his land for. The first man gave his money because his heart was filled with love for God and he was not trying to do things just to have the people say nice things about him. The second man talked over what he was going to do with his wife and they both agreed to say they brought all the money, so you see they both listened to Satan who is the wicked one who tries to get everybody to do wrong. When Ananais, which was the name of the man who listened to Satan, brought his money and gave it to the disciples, he told Peter this lie. Peter told Ananias that the land was his and the money he sold it for was also his, and there was no wrong in bringing only a part of the money, but he had committed a great sin in trying to deceive the dis ciples and make them believe they were giving all the money. Peter told him that he had not lied to them hut to God. You see Peter was true to Jesus and God had told Peter what Ananias had done. As soon as Peter had spoken these words Ananias fell down dead and they carried him out and buried him, so the Lord punished him for his sin. A little while afterward Ananias’ wife came in and she also
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told a lie about the money, and Peter told her about her sin also, and she too fell down dead and they carried her out and buried her beside her hus band. You see God punished this sin right away for the church was just beginning and He wanted to let the people know how He felt about tht* awful sin of lying and how much He hated it. He wanted to teach the peo ple that God sees right into our hearts and knows just what we are thinking, and we can not deceive Him. God put a number of verses in the Bible telling us what an awful sin lying is and how He felt about it, and we have one of those verses for our memory verse. (Only teach first part to Beginners.) That word abomination is a big word but it means that lying is a horror to God and that He hates it. Do you sup pose there are any people living today that tell lies? You say lots of people do. How sad that people will lie to each other and to God, but this only shows us that our hearts are wicked and sinful and we must have Jesus to help us to always speak the truth and give us clean, pure hearts, and then we will not listen to Satan when he wants us to lie or do anything else that is wrong. The next time any of you want to do something that is wrong, or tell an untruth, just remember it is Satan telling you to do it. Closing Prayer.— Dear Lord Jesus, fill our hearts with Thy love and help us to always 'be truthful and honest.
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