hi, i realized i haven't been blogging. Bear with me, it will be long. I'll try to make it interesting.
Building Fund is coming ppl!! lol I'm so excited for it. i already have in mind how much i want to pledge, it's an amount i pledged last building fund but due to financial difficulties in my family i couldn't fulfill it. so this time round, I'm going to complete it and i believe God will provide for me Amen!! i love it whenever pastor say you may be poor but when u walk with God, you will never be poor all your life. AMEN!! i love this part.
Because it is so real in my life, like i mentioned previously my family had a financial difficulty and i was really tight in my pockets but now i just feel that wherever i go, I feel so blessed. these 6 months has been a really blessed period. my mum's financial situation started picking up, now all of a sudden the management of her workplace told her that they needed that space where her shop was. so she either had to leave or change location. by God's grace, she fled from that ghost town. now she's working for her friend, a basic pay every month and if business is good she will have commission. her income previously was always negative, not only did she not make any sales, she had to take out from her own. God turned the whole situation around!! PTL!
ok that's that. now ME! when i just came to church, my allowance was 480. that time i remembered clearly i only tithed 27 dollars. i cheated God, i felt so bad and convicted that i began tithing the correct amount. there was also once when i missed my tithe, partly because i wasn't managing my money well and i didn't have my priorities right. i prayed and felt forgiven, i became convicted to tithe on time and tithing first. through these experiences i learnt ALOT! now my allowance is more than 2 times the previous amount PTL! haha i believe its cause of my consistent tithing. not only that, the previous month is really a month of tremendous blessing. i got a burberry wallet from my aunt, burberry cologne from my mum. and last week, an iPHONE from my dad. haha its really blessings after blessings. Building Fund season is coming so i decided to share this to encourage ppl to give, hope you are encouraged. lol remember you will never be POOR all your life!
one last thing, i remember we sang once a praise song in church that really spoke to me, the chorus was something like :
No more running wild
I'm yours for life
Well you got me here
You got me
I hear your call tonight
Your heart is mine
Well you got me here
You got me
i think its really nice and meaningful. that it's God that got us here in church, that right from the start until now, it was never a coincidence. the friends we made, the situations we got into all contributed to us coming to church. so if God did so much for us to come to know him, surely we are going to be great men and women for Him. so therefore we must not waste His efforts and no more running wild, we're His for life. haha i just feel so relieved and at peace when i know He is my God. Everything we go through, even the tough situations are there for a reason. because His ways are higher, therefore we do not know why? Yi Lun my bible study teacher for FT1 and FT2 told us that Extraordinary people have Extraordinary trials, wow. logically, if the devil knows that you are going to do great things for God and save the ten thousand souls out there, surely he would wanna stop you, but of cos we know on the other hand, we have the king of kings on our side lol. he can flip the whole situation around, maybe you would get the ending you expected but there are things sometimes that when we will learn and never be forgotten, like becoming stronger, enlarged capacity, huge faith. who can steal this away from you?
are you encouraged in a way or another?
1 comment:
Friend, May I offer an alternative interpretation of Malachi for your study.
From: Tithing is not a Christian Doctrine
www.shouldthechurchteachtithing.com
Russell Earl Kelly, PHD
Malachi 3 is the Most Abused Tithing Text in the Bible. The “whole” tithe never was supposed to go to the Temple!
A. Malachi is Old Covenant and is never quoted in the New Covenant to validate tithing (Lev. 27:34; Neh. 10:28-29; Mal. 3:7; 4:4).
B. In Malachi 3:10-11 tithes are still only food 1000 years after Leviticus 27:30-34 and Numbers 18:21-28.
C. Malachi’s audience had willingly reaffirmed the Old Covenant (Neh.10:28-29). The blessings and curses of tithing are identical to and inseparable from those of the entire Mosaic Law. The rain in Deuteronomy 28:12, 23-24 and Leviticus 26:1-4 is only obtained by obedience to all 613 commandments. Galatians 3:10 (quoting Deu 27:26) “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” Trying to earn God’s blessings through tithing only brings curses for failure to keep all of the law. See also Galatians 3:19.
D. Beginning in 1:6 “you” in Malachi always refers to the dishonest priests and not the people (also 2:1-10; 2:13 to 3:1-5): “Even this whole nation of you --priests” (3:9). In 1:13-14 the priests had stolen tithed animals vowed to God. In Nehemiah 13:5-10 priests had stolen the Levites’ portion of the tithe. God’s curses on the priests are ignored by most tithe-teachers (1:14; 2:2 and 3:2-4).
E. Point #12 of the essay. The Levitical cities must be included in a correct interpretation of Malachi 3:10. Most tithe-recipients lived outside of Jerusalem.
F. The 24 courses of Levites and priests must be included in a correct interpretation of Malachi 3. Normally only 2% of the total Levite and priest work force served at the temple one week at a time. Subtract wives, males under the age of 30 and daughters. Therefore 2% did not require all of the tithe. See 1 Chron 23-26; 28:13, 21; 2 Chron. 8:14; 23:8; 31:2, 15-19; 35:4, 5, 10; Ezra 6:18; Neh. 11:19, 30; 12:24; 13:9, 10; Luke 1:5.
G. Nehemiah 10:37-39 is the key to understanding Malachi 3:10, The people were commanded to bring their tithes, not to the temple, but to the nearby Levitical cities. Verse 38 says that the priests were with the Levites in the Levitical cities when they received the tithes.
H. According to Nehemiah 13:5, 9 the “storehouse” in the Temple was only several rooms. The real “storehouses” were in the Levitical cites per Nehemiah 10:37b-38. Only the Levites and priests normally brought tithes to the Temple (10:38). Two rooms in the Temple were far too small to contain the tithe from the entire nation and 98% of the Levites and priests lived too far away to eat from them.
Therefore, Malachi 3:10’s “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse” only makes contextual sense if it is only commanding dishonest priests to replace the tithes they had removed from it or had failed to bring to it.
While the 3:10 of the Law in Malachi is so important to tithe-teachers they ignore the 3:10 of the Gospel in Galatians and 2nd Corinthians. Perhaps those wanting to enforce the 3:10 Law of Malachi should also enforce the 3:10 Law of Numbers. They share the same context.
Christian giving is freewill, sacrificial, generous, joyful, regular and motivated by love. That is enough to provide the needs of the Church.
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