I am taking a class this Semester with only a few students in it. It has given me a chance to talk to some of them on a more personal level, which is really great. I met Ralph, a pastor at a nearby church. He said that at the end of last year he was thinking that the church was going to close the doors for good in the coming year. The budget had dwindled and they were not sure what was going to happen. Many of his congregation came to him and told him that they didn’t want to go anywhere else because he taught the word as it should be taught, with Authority. To make a long story short, he got up one Sunday and told the chruch how it was. The Statement went something like this, “If you guys don’t stop robbing God, we will close the doors on this church at the beginning of the year.” It is amazing how God can turn things around with just a simple statement. He said that the church is now serving God in so many different ways and they are not “in the red” on their bank statement anymore. Even in these tough times, it is important that we do not take what God has given us for granted. After all it is really ALL his anyway, and He only askes that we give our Church only part of it. I think sometimes we all need a “kick in the pants” to get back on track with what God has for us.

Scriptures:
Malachi 1:12-14
¹² “But you profane it by saying of the Lord’s table, ‘It is defiled,’ and of its food, ‘It is contemptible.’ ¹³ And you say, ‘What a burden!’ and you sniff at it contemptuously,” says the LORD Almighty. “When you bring injured, crippled or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?” says the LORD. ¹⁴ “Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the LORD Almighty, “and my name is to be feared among the nations.

Malachi 1:12-14
6 “I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. ⁷ Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty. “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’ ⁸ “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’  “In tithes and offerings. ⁹ You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. ¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.