What about the Tithe

What about the Tithe

Please understand that I do not tell anyone that they have to tithe. BUT - - - - - - - - - -

Whether you tithe or not is strictly between you and God.

I will tell you that the giving of a tithe started long before Moses came along, and long before the Mosaic Law was given.

When Moses brought the people out of Egypt, it was not until the Tabernacle was built that the Lord commanded the people to bring in a tithe INTO the Tabernacle for the support of the Priest, and out of that tithe, the Priest were commanded to give a tithe of whatever they received.

In the New Testament, Jesus has something to say about the giving of a tithe.

I see nothing in the New Testament to put an end to the giving of a tithe, for as I show above, the tithe was instituted long before the Mosaic Law. And Was reinforced within the Mosaic Law, and by Jesus, in the New Testament, showed that the tithe should continue. It is to be continued for the support of the House of God.

The following, In the Book of Malachi, shows what God has directly said about the giving of a tithe.

Now I will repeat that I will not tell anyone that they Must give a tithe. For that is directly between you and God.

What I will do is to tell you a little true story of what happened to me when I started paying a tithe to the Lord's Church.

I had just retired in the middle of Feb of 1989 from a job that was paying me about $880 a week, on 40 hours plus $175 double time for working on Sundays (required), for a total of close to $1100 a week before taxes. I went from that $1100 a week to a pension of $100 a week. No other income, no savings. Of course we had many bills for I was forced out at age 55 by a company that went into bankruptcy. I got out 3 days before my union went on strike, and 9 days before my company went into bankruptcy. I was fortunate in that I received any pension at all. I was fortunate that my house was paid off, free and clear. But even so, I had to take another job at minimum wage, and my wife had to take a job at minimum wage just to pay the bills and to eat. And coming up on us was tax time where I had to pay taxes on what I had made the year before, taxes on that high pay that I had received.

It was then that I told my wife in March that we had to start giving a tithe to the church. As I let her keep the books, she instantly went ballistic. She showed me the books that even with everything we had in the bank, and with all of my pension, and with every cent that both she, and I, could make between then and tax time, that we would not be able to pay our taxes that year.

Well it ended up that we did start giving a tithe to the church early that March of 1989, 10% of all that we had coming in. And you know what? On the day that we filed out taxes, we not only had enough to pay the taxes, but we had money left over. Neither of us knew where it came from, but it was there.

Since that time, there has never been a time when we did not have what we needed. The money we needed always showed up at the last minutes to pay for whatever it was that we had to pay for, like a repair on the car, a trip out of state for a funeral, or some such thing. I do not say that the money was all free, although on rare occasion there just appeared in our checking account the extra money we needed. There were times when I suddenly has a whole lot of overtime pay, or credit which had been denied was suddenly approved. Or a few times I would receive a check in the mail for My Ministry from someone.

When you hold back your tithe, you are relying on yourself. When you give of your tithe even when you are sure that you just cannot afford to pay it, then you are trusting and relying on God to take care of you. And God Will take care of you.

I am not saying that God will give you every desire of your heart, but He will provide what you need. And that need may not be in the lavish style that you have been living, and desire, but will be in a style by which you can live. Believe me when I tell you that I and my wife came down a very long way from the living style that we had been living. But we are comfortable, and neither of us has any worry of what tomorrow will bring, for we know that the Lord God is taking care of us.

We watched a man in our church who had been paying a tithe of $125 a month, tell us that he just could not afford to pay it that month. Within a week his truck broke down and it cost him exactly $125 to have it fixed. The Lord would not let him keep that money, but took it from him one way or another. And I only point out what happened in this one case, I do not mean to imply that it will happen to you that way. For the Lord treats each of us differently, fairly, but differently.

I did note in the bible that if a man was not able to pay his tithe when it was due, that the Lord would allow him to pay it later, but at an increase, instead of the 10% tithe, the man was then required to pay double that or 20% when he did pay it.

I hope that this will clear the air about the tithe business.

I must also make note here of the difference of the giving of the tithe and the giving of a donation. All donations are in addition to the tithe, and not a replacement for the tithe. The tithe must be brought into the House of the Lord for the support of the House of the Lord, but a donation can be spent for the work of the Lord in any way that you choose to spend it. Example: you cannot go out and buy supplies for the Sunday school, or flowers for the church, and then call it part of your tithe, for it is not, it would be a donation, for you did not bring it into the House of the Lord for the upkeep of the House of the Lord.

I ask myself, when the Lord pulls me out of the organized churches as He has told me He will, where will my tithe go them?? I will have to wait for the Lord to tell me at that time, For I will continue giving a tithe on my increase for as long as I live on this earth.

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With the Love of Jesus