Page 3417 - 1970S

house, that there may be meat in
mine house, and prove me now here–
with, saith the Lord of hosts, if r will
not -open you the windows of
heaven, and pour you out a bless–
ing, that there shall not be room
enough to receive it. ... And al/ na–
tions sha/1 cal/ you blessed: for ye
sha/1 be a delightsome land, saith the
Lord of hosts" (verses 1O. 12).
Oh, that there were a universal
tithing system in the United States
of America today - with every
single person "tenthing" his income
to the Church of God! Then the
gospel of the Kingdom of God
would go out to all nations in such
great power that this evil world
would be rocked back on its heels!
The blessings of God would be
poured out on this great land as
never before. But there is every in–
dication that this won't happen!
lnstead, we wi/1 insist on contin–
uing in our spiritual sicknesses. We
will insist on "doing our own thing.''
no matter what. But God speaks of
our worsening moral crisis as it is:
"Ah sinful nation, a people laden
with iniquity, a seed of evildoers.
children that are corrupters: they
have forsaken the Eterna!, they
have provoked the Holy One of
Israel to anger, they are gone away
backward. Why should ye be
stricken any more? Ye will revolt
more and more: the whole head is
sick, and the whole heart [of the
English -speak ing peoples] faint.
From the sole of the foot [the low–
est-income groups and levels of so–
ciety] even unto the head [topmost
government officials] there is no
soundness in it; but wounds, and
bruises, and putrifying sores ..."
(Isa. 1:4-6).
God charges our nations to repent
- to turn from our sins - to quit
breaking His laws - to return to
Him! "Wash you, make you clean;
put away the ~vil ofyour doings from
before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
learn to do we/1 . .. " (verses 16-17).
Jeremiah adds: "Amend your ways
and your doings. and 1 will cause
you to dwell in this place.... For if
you throughly amend your ways and
your doings; if you throughly exe–
cute judgment between a man and
his neighbor ... then will I cause
you to dwell in this place ..." (Jer.
7:3 , 5, 7).
18
Can't Afford To?
The people of Israel (our English–
speaking peoples) always have a
comeback, an answer - they always
have something to say! There is al–
ways an explanation, an excuse, a
reason why they cannot obey their
God. Mainly, they can't afford it.
How long tax dodge-rs can get
away with evading taxes before they
are indicted, tried, fined and possi–
bly jailed, 1 don't know- nor willl
find out because 1 pay my taxes
when they are due. How long any–
one can be guilty of tithe evasion -
embezzling God's money - and not
suffer any consequences is another
question I don't ever want to answer
personally. 1 certainly don't want to
be brought before a heavenly court
with the sin of having robbed my
Creator on my hands - nor do I
want to experience any physical or
spiritual setbacks in this life.
The real truth is that you can 't
afford not to tithe! Let me share
with you the experiences of sorne
who temporarily decided to stop tith–
ing.
"We began tithing last year be–
cause it was commanded of God.
Then something went wrong and we
d~cided we needed the money for
something else. We 'reasoned' that
we would make up the $25.70 'next'
time. The next week my pay
dropped $100 per week. Then it
dropped to $57.... That's not all,
either. I've gone into debt again,
whereas before 1 was getting out
quite rapidly. Believe me. you need
not worry about my tithe. It will
arrive every week from now on...."
(Readerfrom Sanford, Maine.)
"I went to work about three years
ago, and 1 promised God if He
would give me the strength to work
I would pay Him His ten percent.
But 1 didn't. So 1 got sick and hada
major operation in April. Now I'm
keeping my promise, and sending
you my ten percent because 1 feel
that you are really doing God's
Work in reaching people." (Reader
in Morgantown, West Virginia.)
" 1 was tithing regularly until last
December when 1 gave it up to
boost my financia! viability. How–
ever, in May of this year 1 was
sacked from my job and have not
been able to secure another. 1 at-
tribute my long layoff to the ab–
sence of God's blessings. Should 1
obtain another job - and 1 hope to
_do so early next month - I wish to
resume tithing on a 'for -keeps'
basis." (Reader in Ghana.)
One more: "Thanks to you and
The Plain Truth magazine, my hus–
band and 1 are closer to God than
we have ever been in our lives. We
sent our ten percent to you every
week faithfully for a year until last
winter. Then we had to buy so much
oil for our apart'llent that it set us
back on our bills. Instead of keeping
our faith , we panicked and stopped
giving our ten percent. That didn't
solve anything because our baby got
sick and ended up in the hospital for
four days with a virus. Then my son
got sick, 1 got sick and my husba nd
was laid off from his job. Final!y, we
realized that God was correcting us
for not having enough faith. Right
then and there we decided to start
giving our ten percent. Things sure
started to pick up since. Our kids
are just fine now and so ·am l. My
husband gets an unemployment
check now, but soon he'll be getting
back to work. We have more than
enough food. I.. hope you will tell
your readers this, so they won't
make the same mistake we did."
(Readers.from North Adams, Massa–
chusetts.)
The Ultimate in Financia! Curses
There is one very poignant bíblica!
example of two people withholding
money .from God tha t continually
warns us of the horrible end result
of letting lust for money begin to
virtually rule our minds and hearts.
God saw to it that the account
was preserved for us in the book of
Acts: "But a certain man named
Ananias. with Sapphira his wife.
sold a possession [which they owned
outright), and kept back [withheld
surreptitiously] part of the price. his
wife also being privy to it (a willing
accomplice), and brought a certain
part (while posturing that it was all],
and laid it at the apostles' feet. But
Peter said. Ananias, why hath Satan
filled thine heart to líe to the Holy
Spirit, and to keep back part of the
price of the land? Whiles it re–
mained, was it not thine own? And
after it was sold, was it not in th in e
own power? [No one was forcing
The PLAIN TRUTH March 1977