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was still in effect. Yet, in those early years, it didn't
seem to apply to
me.
1 had seen it as a doctrine to
accept as
true-not
as a LAw which 1, personal!y,
must OBEY.
How many of YOU are right now like 1 was then?
1
had
learned the lesson of FAITH. 1 trusted God
implicitly to
"supply every need,"
as he has
promised (Phi
l.
4:19, RSV). But 1 had another
lesson to learn.
We had frequently gone hungry before 1 was
conver ted. Now we went hungry even more
frequently. Then one day, it dawned on my mind
that we, ourselves, were actually breaking God's
financia! law by not tithing! All of a sudden God
made me see his financia! law as something
personal-not
merely a doctrine to accept
impersonally. lt meant
ME!
That very day 1 took 10
percent of what we had (and it was not enough to
buy food), added an offering, and mai led it to the
Church t reasury.
That very afternoon food carne for a completely
adequate meal. 1 don't remember how, but 1 do
remember that
the very day 1
REPENTED for not
having accepted ti thing as a
personal obligation.
instead of a mere doctrinal
argument,
THAT VERY
DAY FOOD CAME!
God d id not bring us immed iate financia!
prosperity. For sorne years more, for our own good,
we were forced to live in very poor economic
circumstances. But
that very day
our fi nancia!
condition s tar ted upward .
Since that time 1 have known of similar
experiences of scores of other people.
One young man already was tithing the
money
that he handled. He was a farmer. He suddenly
realized that they were not selling their eggs and
had not been tithing them in any way. That same
day he brought to us a tithe of all tbe eggs his hens
had laid that day.
Believe it or not, that same day his hens went on
an egg-laying spree. Yes, laugh if you will-those
hens cackled too--it actually
happened.
l t was the
off-season for eggs. But that very day they began to
lay more eggs than was normal in the best
egg-laying season!
It
seemed incredible-BUT IT
HAPPENEO!
1 have given our longtime readers the facts,
before, of a well-driller who was unable to get
any business in 1933, during the depths of the
Great Depression. He began to tithe--one single
dollar of the only $1 O he had. Next day a man
who had owed him $50 he never expected to
collect carne and paid it- and he t ithed $5.
lmmediately he began to get more wells to drill
than he could handle.
Almost daily, sorne television or radio Iistener,
reader of
The Plain Truth,
or co-worker in this
Work writes me a letter telling of a similar
experience-beginning to pay God's honest TITHE,
and beginning to PROSPER fi nancially.
Now don't get the idea from this that in
every
case God is going to work sorne incredible
2
miracle. Don't get the idea that if you
try
tithing, you are to expect sorne astounding thing
to happen--or that you are going to fall hei r to a
million dollars the next day. Perhaps in most
cases the increase in income is not immediately
apparent at all.
But of this, you MAY BE SURE! Over the long
haul, the 90 percent of income God allows you to
keep for yourself will increase to
more
than the
100 percent formerly was. God PROMISES to bless
and prosper the tither! God KEEPS his promises!
God did not establish a binding law of tithing
without a good reason! Actually, there are many
reasons. All of God's laws are for our Gooo.
Listen to God's Word to us: "Observe and hear
all these words which
J
command tbee, that it may
go well with thee, and with thy children after thee
for ever .. ." (Deut. 12:28).
l t is not
good
for a person
to get something for
nothing.
or for very little effort. This evil human
urge to GET without
giving-to receive
without
paying-is
the very thing in human nature that
produces criminals.
All God's spiritual law may be summed up in one
word-LOVE. But Jesus magnified this into the two
great laws-love to God and !ove to human
NEIGHBOR. Love is the principie of GIVING. J esus
summed up the reason for it when he said,
" Jt
is
more blessed to give than to receive." God knows,
and reveals, that we receive a greater blessing by
giving than by acqui ring. God wants us to have
blessings!
People, too, really
want
blessings, but few know
the way. Most people think the greater blessing
comes from receiving-getting-taking- acquiring.
The wAY of most people today is to t ry to
get
more
than they
give.
Formerly, employers cared more
about getting from labor than what they paid
employees in wages. So labor organized. Then the
labor union principie seemed to be to get more in
wages than they gave in product ion from their labor.
Less work-more pay!
We talk, today, about owning property. But God
actually
owns
all the earth. That includes the
proper ty on which
you
pay taxes. God says the
EARTH is his-for he
created it!
God OWNS it. He
lets us occupy HIS earth, as temporary tenants. All
wealth comes from the ground.
It
is not good for
man to take all he consumes out of God's earth
without paying anything for it! lf you rent ground
from aMAN who
thinks
he owns it, he charges you
rent- up to 50 percent or more of what you produce
from it.
God set a LA
w
in motion- that we should pay
him, not 50 percent, but
only
1O percen t, plus
whatever offering we have in our hearts to
give.
Now a LA
w
is not a law without a
penalty.
God
does not
force
you to tithe. But if you don't,
t here is a penalty! You lose the BLESSING that
goes with honest stewardship. You come under a
CURSE (Mal. 3:9). Too many people have
robbed
God.
The man who does
(Continued on page 43)
The
PLAIN TRUTH