Tithing

Tithing, Giving and the Scriptures [Part 10]

Posted on by Dianne

ADDITIONS TO THE LAW OF MOSES

There are several references outside of the written Law (Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers & Deuteronomy) which include additions or clarifications to that which was already established. These all do, however, refer back specifically to the written Law.

A King Over Israel (1 Samuel 8:6-22)

6But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” So Samuel prayed to the Lord. 7And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. 8According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day—with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also. 9Now therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them.”

10So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who asked him for a king. 11And he said, “This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots. 12He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties, will set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. 14And he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants. 15He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants. 16And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17He will take a tenth of your sheep. And you will be his servants. 18And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord will not hear you in that day.”

19Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, “No, but we will have a king over us, 20that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” 21And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he repeated them in the hearing of the Lord. 22So the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed their voice, and make them a king.” And Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Every man go to his city.”

This passage describes how, by rejecting God as their sovereign leader, the Israelites would be required to pay additional costs; monetary, their sons and daughters, animals, servants and land would all be required by their king. And they would serve the king, instead of God. And they would cry out to God to deliver them from their leader, and God would not hear them.

"Practical Christianity"

The Soul & the Supernatural Realm

Posted on by Dianne

Each of us is born with a soul. The soul is made up of mind, will and emotions. The soul is distinct from both the body and the spirit. For instance, the mind is not the brain, and we have the same will after we become a spirit being as we did before salvation. The soul God gave each of us is the one He wanted us to have; it ain’t broke, and He is well pleased with it. It is only when we depend on its attributes to get our needs met that we run into trouble. This is how we create flesh, or self-life.

The way our soul is put together, a combination of our individual strengths and weaknesses within our soul, can be referred to as our temperament. Each of us has a unique temperament, though there are many ways we can generally categorize them, often according to strengths and weaknesses, or what is socially desired or devalued (someone with a strong will, passion, and intelligence is often referred to as a leader or gifted person, while someone with low motivation, low intelligence and passivity is often referred to as “slow.” It is important to remember that God does not value one person’s temperament more than another’s; He specifically created each of them!).

Leadership

[Leadership] Clarity

Posted on by Dianne

Those who are learning to depend on God will also be learning to clearly articulate what God has on His mind in the form of goals and objectives, as well as strategies and tactics. One of our goals must be to represent Him accurately to a diverse and unpredictable audience. To do this will demand flexibility and perseverence, to hear clearly and to speak clearly.

This week expect the Lord to speak to you clearly and begin to refine your goals and objectives going forward. Look for other ways to be precise in thought and actions in both private and public settings.

Clarity and Brevity are Brothers.

Other Authors

A MIND RENEWED INTO CHRIST by Ray Prinzing

Posted on by Dianne

“And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” (Ephesians 4:23)

The negative forces seek to control with all their propaganda and brainwashing. Many a battle is being fought and won in the mind, making it a vital necessity that we “put out of the way once for all everything that would impede the free action of your mind, be calm and collected in spirit, and set your hope perfectly, wholly, unchangeably, without doubt and despondency, upon the grace that is being brought to you upon the occasion of the revelation of Jesus Christ,” (I Peter 1:13, Wuest).

With the Lord’s dealings with our thinking, there also comes a stripping away of the façade and masquerade, which we have put forth because of our ‘thoughts’ of the past. We thought we ought to act a certain way to have an image of spirituality, which was not a true manifestation of what we really were, but super-imposed as a disguise of what we thought we should appear. Now we are challenged to “change your outward expression to one that comes from within and is representative of your inner being, by the renewing of your minds,” (Romans 12:2 Wuest).

We rejoice in the truth, “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” (Col. 1:27), because it is His Spirit dwelling within. Yet, because of the trappings of the carnal mind it has been difficult to give expression of this INNER LIFE OF CHRIST. Now, the more we are “renewed in the spirit of our mind”, the more we can LIVE OUT that which HE is BECOMING in us. This is more than just the mental gymnastics of our own self-efforts. It is the energizing of His Spirit upon our human spirit, which in turn takes dominion over our mind and brings our mind into subjection to the Spirit of Truth. May it become the ‘norm’ of our life to just be thinking HIS thoughts, that we might “shew forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light,” (I Peter 2:9).

Hedz Up

[Hedz Up] Committed

Posted on by Dianne

This week remember that Daddy is fully committed to you. All of His resources are ready; His desire and intent are focused on you. Whatever comes your way this week, and in the weeks to come, are part of His plan. Some things you may not understand, but our goal is not to understand, but to depend. Daddy is committed to you because He loves you, and can do nothing but BE committed to you. And there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it.

Accept His Commitment To You.

Overcomer, Have a Strong Week.

Tithing

Tithing, Giving and the Scriptures [Part 9]

Posted on by Dianne

Summary of the Tithe as Legislated in the Law of Moses

This is the sum of the institution of the tithe, as part of the commandment given by God through Moses to the Israelites:

1. One-tenth (a tithe) of the produce of the land, fruit, grain and livestock, belonged to God, and was to be given to and used by His priests, the Levites. This tithe was dedicated to the Lord.

2. The Levites were in turn to give one-tenth (a tithe) of the tithe they received to the High Priest (Aaron, his descendants and their households).

3. In what is probably a second yearly tithe, a second-tenth was to be taken up and used specifically for festivals and feasts. This was consumed by the tithers and the Levites before God.

4. A tri-annual tithe, or a third tenth (of the produce only) was to be put into storage facilities to take care of the Levites and those in need in the local vicinity. This was not dedicated to the Lord, and was to be dispersed with generosity.

5. Using the above summaries, 20% a year would be given off the top, with an additional 10% every third year, to support the religious, governmental and social structure of the day.

6. Some attribute the inconsistency in the accounts of these tithes to the two time periods in which they were written; When the tithes were to be given exclusively to the Levites, the Israelites were still wandering around in the desert. After they entered the Promised Land, they became much more home-bodies, multiplied, and needed other ways to not only take care of the Levites, but ensure religious and social cohesion (through festivals) and social care-taking (through legislated welfare programs).

7. There were no specific penalties or consequences for not tithing; the penalty of withdrawal of the Lord’s blessing and His casting away Israel from being His people was if they did not keep THE WHOLE LAW! (Not, if you don’t tithe, God won’t provide. If you don’t wash your food the way they were commanded, they’d get sick. It was a package deal—all or nothing). No single aspect was singled out as more important to God than others.

8. The commandment of the tithe was in effect as long as The Law was in effect [from the codification of the Law (Moses) to the fulfillment of the Law (Jesus’ Resurrection)]. We can conclude that God, through Moses, DID indeed command the Israelites to tithe! And He gave specific parameters, as to who, where, when, how and the consequences of both obedience and disobedience to this commandment.

9. “To tithe” is to fulfill the covenantal requirements as specified by God through the scriptures, laid out specifically in the Mosaic law in Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

"Practical Christianity", spiritual

What Does “Spiritual” Mean?

Posted on by Dianne

When we refer to something as “spiritual” we are saying it is from the same place and made of the same stuff as God; it is therefore eternal, righteous, perfect, holy, loving, kind, pure, unchanging, unchangeable, gentle, true, etc. If a concept or thing doesn’t fit this description, it is not spiritual, but fits into either the natural or supernatural realm.

Leadership

[Leadership] Wisdom & Judgement

Posted on by Dianne

We often think that if we can hear God’s voice clearly and consistently we’ll never have to make decisions on our own, that He’ll just give us His wisdom and we’ll know what to do. But God is pouring His character into ours, so that as our mind, will and emotions are healed and freed, and our soulical senses are finely tuned, we can, in our selves, judge righteously. We bring that judgement to God for His review, but there will be increasingly little feedback, as He sets us free to try and fail and make mistakes and succeed as part of the learning process. Take every opportunity that God has arranged for you to objectively evaluate the situation, even if you’re not involved, to develop this badly needed leadership skill — Sound, Objective Judgement.

Other Authors

BECOMING HIS SERVANTS by Ray Prinzing

Posted on by Dianne

“And He said unto me, Thou art My servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” (Isaiah 49:3)

It is a lofty position to which we are called, and for which we are being prepared. Sonship, yes. Kings and priests, yes. But why equipped with such power and glory? TO SERVE! For it is written, “Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, AND MY SERVANT whom I have chosen”, (Isaiah 43:10).

When we think of witnesses, we cannot refer to the old idea of a soap-box in a park where one preaches away at the passerby. Acts 1:8, “But ye shall receive power, after that the holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me…” The Greek word for ‘witness’ is ‘martus’ from which we get our English word MARTYR. A martyr is one who gives his life for the message he declares. It requires the enduement of the holy Spirit to enable us to BE OUR MESSAGE, our whole life given to manifest that message. A state of being that proclaims the truth regardless of whether we speak or not.

To witness to the truth is to give your life to that truth. Even more, we read that it was to “BE witnesses UNTO ME”. Not to talk about Him, not just to build cathedrals in His honour, but to live and give our whole life UNTO HIM, so that every action, every word, all that WE ARE is a declaration unto Him, pointing others to Him, exalting Him.

Furthermore, receiving the inflow of the Spirit gives us the power to be able to lay down our own self-life, that HIS LIFE might be lived through us. “God so loved the world that HE GAVE…” Our giving is first unto Him, and then dispersed abroad to all those who are in need of Him. Of the same Israel that it is written, “Ye are My servants,” it is also written, “And in thee shall all nations be blessed”, (Gal. 3:8). Right now the greatest service that we can give to others is to die out to all our own ego-self, that the living of HIS LIFE becomes its own declaration that it is truly the best life, to His glory and praise.

General, Hedz Up

[Hedz Up] What a Great Idea!

Posted on by Dianne

This week be aware of new ideas and creative approaches to problem-solving, conflict resolution or even new concepts or products. As a spirit being, you are a creative person, regardless of your temperament, though that creativity may be filtered by your temperament for now. By increasing your awareness, you accept God’s flowing in and through you in a new way, bringing your soul into greater alignment with your spirit in this area. As always, test this idea; “Lord, is this something I can move forward with?” In this area, unless you receive a “no,” move forward, as it may also be an area where the Lord wants to stretch your judgment. Have fun, realizing change causes stress, but stress is something we no longer avoid, but actively manage instead.

Have a great week! Daddy is Proud of YOU!