Good day dear friends.
We continue to talk about a spiritual matter that unsettles so many: God and money. We spoke on You Can't Outgive God, and here is the study guide for today:
Tuesday: If you haven’t yet taken Disciple 1 Bible study, you are missing out on a great study on the entire Old and New Testaments. One of the sections of that marvelous study deals with the Exodus and how God formed a people out of the ones who left Egypt. Read Leviticus 27:30 and you’ll get a sense of how this group supported the work of God. Read also Numbers 18:26, Deut. 14:24, and 2 Chronicles 31:5. These all have to do with the tithe. Read and discover what a spiritual blessing is ours when we joyfully return to God the tithe.
Jesus spoke more about money and possessions than He did about prayer. Why do you suppose that is? Did Jesus' Bible speak about money? Well, if you look up the above mentioned scriptures, you will see the answer. Let us look first at Lev. 27:30 "All tithes from the land, whether the seed from the ground or the fruit from the tree, are the Lord's; they are holy to the Lord." Gifts to God are holy? Anything given with love to the Lord is holy. Being obedient to God is holy. Giving the tithe, the ten percent of what we make, is holy. Let's look at Numbers 18:26 "You shall speak to the Levites, saying: When you receive from the Israelites the tithe that I have given you from them for your portion, you shall set apart an offering from it to the Lord, a tithe of the tithe." Another mention of the tithe, this as instruction to the priests. And we find more references to the tithe in Deut. and 2 Chronicles. The reality is that if we hoard our money or withhold our money, the possessions are possessing us. Instead of God being in control, our money or physical possessions is in control of us. Someone said last night, "the ones who complain about mentions of money are the ones who are in spiritual weakness." And that is true.
Ours is a spiritual life that can be lived in the fullness of God if we understand the things of God. Ours will be a sad life if we measure and try to understand things from a human perspective. God and money is a spiritual matter. Our spirit is affected by how we perceive and control our money. As the minister once said to the man who said you continue to preach on tithing, when are you going to stop; when everyone starts tithing is the day to stop preaching on it.
Where are you in your relationship with God?
PRAYER: Loving God who owns the ten thousand cattle on the hills as well as the hills, give us the mind of Christ to understand all things, especially that which pertains to the spiritual matter of money. I pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day!
e.v.
