Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Take a tip from God

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Praise the Lord! I pray you are all enjoying Gods blessings. In my last post I mentioned that I and my wife had to postpone our weekend plans because of a family emergency, we want to thank you for your prayers and let you know God worked things out, praise God!

Malachi 3:7-9       
7Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?
8Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
9Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.


God has been dealing with me lately about tithing and how He feels about it. If you have been out to a restaurant lately and you have used a credit card to pay for your meal you probably have noticed that your bill has a line for tips where you can fill in what you want to give as a tip. Sometimes the amount is already filled in. A tip is supposed to be a small token of your appreciation for services rendered. For most of us the better the service the larger the tip and if we don't like the service we don't leave a tip. Ever since I've been going to church, a total of  30 years or so, I have noticed a similar attitude in the church, the plate comes around my mom would give me a dollar and I would throw mine in along with everyone else. As you got older that dollar became two or three dollars. For many their experience was similar to my own. It became a habit you go to church you enjoy the service and you put your dollar "tip" in the plate end of "show". There was no concern about how they kept the doors open, the lights on, the heat or the air conditioning on. When it came down to tithes there were all kind of excuses why you couldn't pay your tithes. I myself have been very inconsistent when it comes to paying my tithes often asking God "should I not pay my bills this month?" knowing I could not do both, tithing lately has lost out..
The other day while again agonizing over how I was going to squeeze out money to pay my tithes my wife reminded me of something I had forgotten, "the money is not yours." I immediately thought about the scripture we used to read in church before each offering, "will a man rob God?" in Malachi chapter three and here I was robing God.
I must admit I have stopped tipping God when it comes to my offering relying on whatever the the spirit leads me to put in the plate. I am still struggling with paying my tithes sometimes only paying half of what I'm really supposed to be paying. That is not tithing! That is just another offering. The funny thing is that when I think back to the times when my finances were under control and I always seemed to have enough money it was during a time when I was regularly paying my tithes. Now I'm overwhelmed by debt and guess what? I have not been paying my tithes! Imagine that. God's word tells us to try him out and see if He will not open the windows of heaven and pour us out a blessing so large we cannot contain it. See Malachi 3:10 
10Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
Looking back now I see that I have proved Him and when I was faithful He was faithfull.

A lot of people say "that's old testiment, we're under grace now." They beleive keeping the law of Moses is not for today they say we're now under grace but Jesus said in Matthew 5   
17Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
18For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
This tells me that God still expects us to adhere to his dictates even now. Everything written is still in play until it is all fulfilled. I implore you as I implore myself, stop robbing God and then leaving Him a tip.
                                      God bless you all,
                                                     Brother Darrell, A watchman

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