Two months down, one to go. I am so proud of you. The stories keep coming in! Check the comment at the bottom. I am praying for God to bless you and your finances as you continue this journey called the Tithe Challenge.
Today we will look at a passage from Genesis, the first book of the bible which means “beginnings.” In Genesis 14 we find a man named Abraham who would become the father of the nation of Israel. This passage records Abraham’s nephew Lot and all his belongings being a captured by an invading army. Abraham recues him and defeats the army that plundered the area. As Abraham and his men are returning with all their loot, they are met by “Melchizedek, king of Salem who brought out bread and wine and blessed Abraham. Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.”
A tenth of all of his loot, riches, and possessions right there on the spot! Who is this? Listen as Hebrews 7:2-3 describes him, “Melchizedek means king of righteousness, without beginning of days or end of life, a priest forever” Most biblical scholars agree that this either a type of Christ, which means it is meant to illustrate a lesson about Christ OR an appearance of Christ himself. Abraham gives Christ, 10% of everything he just earned. Christ brings bread and wine, a picture of the sacrifice He would one day make, “this is my body… this is my blood, which is poured out for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt 26:26-27) And He blessed him.
Notice…
- Before the Abraham had a son and became the father of Israel, he gave ten percent.
- Before there was a nation of Israel, there was the giving of the tithe.
- Before there was the law, there was giving the tenth.
- Before there was a recorded Bible there was giving the tithe.
- Before any of that; in the beginning there was the tithe.
So don’t let anyone try to convince you that tithing is from the law, it’s before.
Or that tithing is something the early church or modern church came up with, it’s before.
Or that tithing was only for the nation of Israel, it’s before.
Before anything, there was Christ. Before we pay ourselves, we give back to the One who has given us everything. Christ is the one who gave His body and blood for us, the one who blesses us in every way.
Thank you Jesus for all you have given and before anything we want to give back to you.
Until next week,
Darrell
Tithe online at www.ridgefellowship.com
Upwards Church 
Here’s another tithing testimony:
This past Sunday we decided to start the tithing challenge….I have been a stay at home mom for the past two and a half years, but now I have to go back to work and I have really been struggling to find a job! So this past Sunday I felt as though we should start tithing and maybe God would bless me with a job. Since we had already paid our bills, we said we would tithe %10 of what we had in our account right then which was about $200, so we tithed $20. Yesterday I got a notification that our bank account balance had dropped down to just $13. We have two children so I was a little worried how we’d go the rest of the week with just $13. This morning I check our bank again, and it’s now at a balance of $105?? I scrolled through it over and over to see if there was a deposit made or something but I didn’t see anything?? I had looked at our pending transactions yesterday evening and didn’t see anything unusual, so unless a pending transaction(s) just fell off I don’t see where the extra money came from?? It’s not like we’re rich now, but it’s just enough for us to live comfortably till my husband gets paid again on Friday . I truly believe God had something to do with that . I didn’t ask for him to give us more money, I wasn’t even THAT worried about it, but he knew we needed it. Jessica
We have another story! I am going to school and I get paid from the VA every month. This month I didn’t get my money. I called the VA and like everything related to the VA, they said it was going to be a few weeks to a few months for them to figure it out and get the money to us. We have money in savings so I wasn’t that worried about getting through the month. Last week I received a check for $200 over what my school money would have been. I guess I was in a lawsuit that I didn’t even know about. So we were able to get through the month without having to touch our savings. It is amazing to me how money can come from nowhere and anywhere!