“1 I CHARGE [you] in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, Who is to judge the living and the dead, and by (in the light of) His coming and His Kingdom:
2 Herald and preach the Word! Keep your sense of urgency [stand by, be at hand and ready], whether the opportunity seems to be favourable or unfavourable. [Whether it is convenient or inconvenient, whether it is welcome or unwelcome, you as preacher of the Word are to show people in what way their lives are wrong.] And convince them, rebuking and correcting, warning and urging and encouraging them, being unflagging and inexhaustible in patience and teaching.
3 For the time is coming when [people] will not tolerate (endure) sound and wholesome instruction, but, having ears itching [for something pleasing and gratifying], they will gather to themselves one teacher after another to a considerable number, chosen to satisfy their own liking and to foster the errors they hold,
4 And will turn aside from hearing the Truth and wander off into myths and man-made fictions.
5 As for you, be calm and cool and steady, accept and suffer unflinchingly every hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fully perform all the duties of your ministry.”
Dear people of God, the first part of the post on this same topic generated some reactions.
It should be noted as contained in today’s main Holy Bible text above that a preacher’s duty is NOT to tell people what they want to hear, for that would make the preacher an entertainer as we have in very many Churches today unfortunately.
The preacher’s responsibility is to tell the people the Truth and the Truth is simply God’s view on any matter. Where exactly do we find God’s view on any matter? It is in the Holy Bible.
One could also find bits and pieces of Truths in any text that is consistent with what the Holy Bible says. Anything contrary to this is simply false and unacceptable to God.
When it comes to the issue of tithing, there are very many Christians who treat it with levity according to their financial situation and the amount of bills they have to pay.
Unfortunately, God demands total and uncompromising obedience to His commands.
There is no amount of prayer for a Christian to undertake to get him or her out of financial turmoil. The best God would do for you is show you His Word and what it says about prosperity.
God says we should seek FIRST His Kingdom and His righteousness and everything we need in this life He, God, would provide – Matthew 6:33.
I once heard the testimony of a Christian trader who prayed fervently to God that he did not want to be a pauper like his ancestors and that he wanted to prosper.
One of the nights as he slept, God gave him a dream where he saw a tree with ripened fruits on it that fell to the ground and people were scrambling for the fruits that had fallen.
A voice told him that that was not the way because scrambling involves struggle and then the same voice referred him to God’s Word in Luke 6:38 (AMPC), “Give, and [gifts] will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will they pour into [the pouch formed by] the bosom [of your robe and used as a bag]. For with the measure you deal out [with the measure you use when you confer benefits on others], it will be measured back to you.”
The young man woke up and began to thank God for revealing to him the secret of prosperity. Sometime later requests came at 3 different times from his local church assembly for financial contributions for 3 different projects and each time, the man gave out a substantial part of his trading capital and after a while, some of his friends told him to take it easy so that he does not exhaust his trading capital.
Of course, he had now met the condition God gave him in His Word.
Not long after, this businessman began to get business connections and his business began to grow and grow and grow to the extent that his fellow traders became alarmed and began to say behind him that he had gone to do money ritual and that he was just using the Bible and Christianity as a cover up!!
Dear friend, it is because many Christians take God the way they take their fellow humans, that is why they struggle financially when they disobey God’s command to pay tithes.
God does not need your money but He needs your heart of love to co-operate with Him to take the Gospel to the entire world to save lost souls and this is where tithing, offering and contributions to Church projects come in.
Tithing is compulsory because God has decreed it in Malachi 3:8-10 including a curse in verse 9 for non-compliance and an irreversible blessing in verse 10 for compliance and there is nothing anyone would say to change what God has said in His Word.
For those who claim there is nowhere tithing is mentioned in the New Testament and that Jesus never mentioned tithing, I would refer them to Jesus’ comments in Matthew 23:23, Luke 11:42 and the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican (Tax Collector) in Luke 18:9-13.
Tithing is also mentioned in Hebrews 7:8 (AMPC) where a person of spiritual understanding would discern from the verse that Jesus Christ is the One referred to in that verse as living perpetually and had received tithes from Abraham.
Do recall that even the Lord Jesus Christ said Abraham saw His day and rejoiced – John 8:56.
Dear friend, just as little children in their innocence boast to others about their earthly father’s ability to do all things, so a Christian must know and understand that his Heavenly Father, God Almighty and Father of my Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ can do all things.
We must be able to demonstrate this to others through uncompromised obedience to God’s command.
We must take God at His Word because His Word is forever settled in Heaven – Psalm 119:89.
We must believe God and do exactly what He commands because the penalty for disobedience is grievous and eternally damning. The blessing for obedience is unimaginable both here in this life and the hereafter.
If you have been joking with your tithes before now, I beg you, please repent today and now and make amends with God before it is too late for you.
A person cursed by God for not paying tithes (Malachi 3:9) will NOT enter Heaven because disobedience to God’s Word defiles a person and nothing defiled shall enter Heaven – Revelation 21:27.
It is God’s Word that says so and not me.
May the good Lord bless you as you heed His Word today, act on it and share with others in Jesus’ Most Righteous Name, Amen.
Gabriel Ama.
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