I worked the evening shift at a retirement home while
attending Bible college. One night I noticed a donut in the fridge. I thought
somebody liked me enough to leave it for me, so I ate it. The next day, a
co-worker asked me if I ate his donut. No amount of explained would calm him
down. He told everyone that I had pilfered and purloined his donut and was
nothing but a no good thief. I had to buy him a donut to end this assault on my
reputation. The donut wasn’t the issue, the fact that I took something that
didn’t belong to me did. Besides it gave the co-worker something to harass me
about.
In the grand scheme of things my contribution toward God
doesn’t matter much, except that it is His. I understand that God blesses
people with an income through a job or whatever. All He asks in return is 10%
(that’s what “tithe” means). Offerings are above the tithe.
When I willfully hold back what belongs to God, I am
pilfering and purloining Him - and I am robbing myself of promised blessings.
Funny how that works.
“Will a man rob God?
Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and
offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole
nation. Bring 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. And I
will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of
your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the
field, saith the LORD of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye
shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.” Malachi 3:8-12.
© copyright Kevin T Boekhoff
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