May the mumbling commence!
Make a plan to give to the Lord and follow that plan. If you do, the perks will become immediately tangible. Are you going to serve someone in mission? You will likely feel like you got as much or more out of it than you gave. Are you going to invest in the movement of God’s Spirit? You can never out give God. And what you do with your life will be a sign pointing all who look to Jesus. You will stick out like a sore thumb. Read a passage from Malachi chapter three:
"So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me," says the Lord Almighty.
"I the Lord do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you," says the Lord Almighty.
"But you ask, 'How are we to return?'
Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.
But you ask, 'How do we rob you?'
In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse – the whole nation of you – because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the Lord Almighty. "Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land," says the Lord Almighty. (Verses 5-12)
The message is simple. Tithe – give back to God what already belongs to Him. Otherwise, you are nothing but a thief. And who do the thieves truly rob? They do not only rob God but they also rob people who work the hardest and people who are the most vulnerable. Justice is laid by the wayside and miracles are exchanged for sorcery – lies, half-truths and deceptions.
The message is simple. Tithe. Fill the storehouses of the Lord. Robbery will cease, and blessings will flow. Crops will be extra fruitful. The work of our hands will be exponentially blessed. The blessing will be impossible for the world to miss. It is amazing what God can do through us when we follow His commands. May we be vessels of God’s blessings to the world! There will be true healing. Read the last chapter of Malachi:
"Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire," says the Lord Almighty. "Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things," says the Lord Almighty.
"Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel.
"See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse." (Chapter Four)
To tithe in this way is to revere the name of the Lord. Healing has come. His name is Jesus. We leap with joy. Our feet seem to be barely touching the ground. Our families are made whole again, and we are all adopted into the family of God.
What a fitting transition to the gospel accounts of Jesus! We will start them tomorrow.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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