Sabbath Message 15/6/41/120

Dear Friends,

It is appropriate that we consider our position as members of the Church of God and look to see how genuine we really are in our return to God.   The test of a true return to God is found in Malachi 3:6-12:
[6]"For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
[7] From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, `How shall we return?' 
[8] Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, `How are we robbing thee?' In your tithes and offerings. 
[9] You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me; the whole nation of you. 
[10] Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house; and thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing. 
[11] I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil; and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the LORD of hosts. 
[12] Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the LORD of hosts. 

The tithe legislation is contained in the paper Tithing (No. 161). We should all know the requirements.

Many in the churches come into the church on the idea that they will be able to cry poor and ask for funds all the time and not pay their tithes. This is especially so in Africa and India. We have requests for assistance and when we ask for registration and records of tithe income many fail to provide them because they are robbing God and failing to tithe. So also some fail to document the church for reasons known only to them and God. They do not realise that their poor conditions are caused by their robbing God and being punished for it. Tithing is not a voluntary affair.  It is required of all those who are receiving earned income in the church. Even the widows and pensioners who are not required to tithe provide funds to the best of their ability.

I once said to a group in Kenya that in the conflicts coming the West may come into urgent need and Africa might have to assist them.  A man looked at me in horror and shook his head saying: oh no! Needless to say he did not stay long. 

We do what we do because God says to do so and not because we wish to fund some bottomless pit in some other country.

Our officers do not work for nothing and pay tithes and travel often at their own expense because they are dull witted. They do it because they love God and are called according to His purpose as we see in Romans 8:28-31.

As Paul says in Philippians 3:10-11 words that are translated as “That if possible I may attain to the Resurrection of the Dead.”   Paul knew as we all do that all men of the Adamic creation will be resurrected. The text in the Greek refers to the outresurrection of the Dead (ex anastasin).  The word really means the earlier or First Resurrection of the Dead to the spirit. Even Paul was not certain as to his resurrection. If we wish to be in the First Resurrection we had better get our acts together and work for the faith and for each other. Love one another and tithe to support the work and thereby show that we love God.   It is by faith that we are chosen and justified and then glorified.

Wade Cox