{"id":6969,"date":"2015-09-14T04:01:39","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T04:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6969"},"modified":"2015-09-14T04:08:37","modified_gmt":"2015-09-14T04:08:37","slug":"tithing-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6969","title":{"rendered":"Tithing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cBring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,\u201d says the Lord of hosts, \u201cif I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,\u201d says the Lord of hosts.<\/em> Malachi 3:10-11<\/em><\/p>\n

Tithing\u2014giving 10 percent of every dime you earn or receive to the Lord\u2014is a discipline I put into practice not long after I was saved. Nobody pounded this doctrine into my head; my first \u201cchurch\u201d had been a dorm room Bible study where we never took up offerings, and none of the churches in the small town where I lived during my first year of teaching were a fit for me, so I didn’t stay long enough in one place to hear a message on the topic. I simply saw it in the Bible, so I did it.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m glad, because tithing is so simple and has borne such tremendous fruit in my life.<\/p>\n

I was convicted as a\u00a0young Christian\u00a0about the legitimacy of tithing when I first read the verses in Malachi. In obedience to what I saw, I\u00a0purposed to\u00a0tithe consistently\u2014a\u00a0personal practice that has now spanned over four decades. Those verses reveal that the God of all things will open for\u00a0you the windows of Heaven and pour out upon\u00a0you a blessing\u00a0that\u00a0you cannot\u00a0contain. On top of that,\u00a0the Lord\u00a0Himself<\/em> rebukes the devourer on your behalf simply\u00a0because you are consistent in giving Him ten percent of all\u00a0your income. I feel sorry for believers who don’t tithe on a regular basis\u2014they’re missing out on experiencing God’s regular intervention in their finances.<\/p>\n

My life has been blessed\u2014not in a flamboyant, ostentatious, in-your-face-I\u2019m-so-wealthy sort of way\u2014but all my needs have been met according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (see Philippians 4:19). I attribute this to\u00a0the habit of tithing which I took pains to develop very early in my walk. I can\u2019t imagine not<\/em> giving the Lord the first ten percent; it\u00a0has become\u00a0as ingrained in my life\u00a0as brushing my teeth or washing my hair.<\/p>\n

Notice I mentioned giving the Lord the first<\/em> ten percent.\u00a0Proverbs 3:9-10 describes not only what<\/em> you are to give, but also when<\/em> to give. It reads “Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first <\/strong>of all your produce; so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine<\/em>.” Although these verses do not specify the amount<\/em>, they do specify\u00a0the timing<\/em>\u00a0of your giving\u2014first<\/em>, before you spend a dime,\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0from the leftovers\u00a0of your paycheck after<\/em> you take care of everything else.<\/p>\n

Where<\/em> do you tithe? Malachi said, \u201cBring the whole tithe into the <\/em>storehouse<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em>\u201d In my opinion, the storehouse for\u00a0your tithe is the church where you attend. However, if you disagree with this perspective,\u00a0I believe you should\u00a0tithe nonetheless\u2014wherever<\/em> you feel the Lord leads. When you\u00a0disregard the tithe, in my estimation you are making a\u00a0terribly risky decision.<\/p>\n

Some people feel that\u00a0the tithe in Malachi is legalistic and therefore\u00a0non-binding to the New Testament believer.\u00a0If that were true, then\u00a0the rest <\/em>of the book\u00a0of Malachi\u00a0would be\u00a0non-binding as well.\u00a0I wonder if\u00a0such\u00a0folks would be willing to say that Malachi 3:16-18 is also irrelevant to Christians: \u201cThen those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who esteem His name. \u2018They will be Mine,\u2019 says the Lord of hosts, \u2018on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.\u2019 So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

If the tithe is gone, so is the book of remembrance, so is the Lord\u2019s deep esteem for those who follow Him, and so is the distinction between the righteous and the wicked. Is that what\u00a0people mean to say when\u00a0they\u00a0assert that tithing is nothing more than Old Testament legalism?<\/p>\n

Concerning giving offerings beyond the tithe\u2014be led by God. He will probably lead you to give to other ministries, whether on an ongoing basis or from time to time. He will also lead you to give to individuals.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow I will write about the subject of giving beyond the tithe and how to discern when to do so and to whom. In addition, I\u00a0plan to\u00a0show you the biblical\u00a0permission I<\/em><\/strong> received to be unmoved by coercive, manipulative tactics. And lastly, I will introduce you to what I call my supplemental Bible insurance policy.<\/p>\n

Take a closer look at tithing. It is a simple, doable practice that will reap lifelong, positive results as God\u2014according to His promise\u2014opens for you the windows of Heaven and rebukes the devourer on your behalf. Can Allstate, Progressive, or State Farm boast as much? I don’t think so.<\/p>\n

Dorothy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cBring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,\u201d says the Lord of hosts, \u201cif I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. Then I will rebuke the devourer for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[248,247,253,250,251,252,249,237,254],"class_list":["post-6969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-finances","tag-bring-the-full-tithe-into-the-storehouse","tag-gods-prosperity","tag-honor-the-lord-from-your-wealth","tag-i-will-open-for-you-the-windows-of-heaven","tag-pour-out-on-you-a-blessing-till-theres-no-room-to-contain","tag-rebuke-the-devourer","tag-test-me-now-in-this","tag-tithing","tag-your-barns-will-be-filled-with-plenty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6969"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6973,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6969\/revisions\/6973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}