I decided to start this blog (2010) because my son, John-Robert gave me a One Year Bible for Christmas, the New Living Translation... reading it has changed my life... I post a daily Bible verse on my Facebook page every day and it has been well received... I thought that this would be a wonderful way to share part of what I read each day!... I hope that you enjoy it.



This Year 2012 I am going to do things a little different... not much...just a little. I am again reading through my One Year Bible (for the 3rd time). But I am also using "The Secret Power of Speaking God's Word" by Joyce Meyer. This book is divided by putting scriptures under different categories so they can be used to speak over our life situations. Each day I will read a category of scripture and pick a scripture in that category to write about.



Hugs

Jeannie







Tuesday, December 20, 2011

12.20.11

Haggai 1:3-9 Then the Lord sent this message through the prophet Haggai: Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins? This is what the Lord of Heaven's Armies says: Look at what is happening to you! You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. Your drink but are still thirsty. you put on clothes but cannot keep warm.  Your wages disappear as thought you were putting them in pockets filled with holes!  This is what the Lord of heavens armies says: Look at what's happening to you! Now go up into the hills, bring down timber and rebuild my house. Then I will take pleasure in it and be honored says the Lord. You hoped for a rich harvest, but they were poor and when your brought your harvest home, I blew it away. Why? Because my house lies in ruins, says the Lord of Heavens Armies, while all of you are busy building your own fine homes.

My Thoughts
Wow... oh wow! Today for the first time I saw this as a testament to how important tithing is! We often go about thinking we don't have enough money to tithe... I know we did that for so long! It just didn't seem like we had enough to tithe... God gives us all that we have!!  Then we fail to take care of our Church, God's house by giving our 10%. We fail to make sure God's house is taken care of while we fill our houses with gadgets and toys... while we buy more clothes than we truly need... while we put fill our garages so full of stuff that we can't put our cars in them... while we rent storage for our stuff.... while we have yard sells to get rid of our junk.... we do all this and think we don't have money to take care of God's house! Here God was saying your house is not prospering because you have neglected My house.  If you want your money to go far... if you want your clothes to keep you warm...if you want your food to keep you full it is simple... take care of My house then I will take care of yours!

One hundred percent of what we have is from God... all he as in return is 10% of that 100% ... then God will take care of the 90%.  When we give back to God what he ask for it is us saying ... God thank you, I understand that all I have is from you...I trust you to take care of me and all of my needs. I know that 10% is a lot!!  I know that we can look at that 10% and see that it could do so much if we used it for our needs....but here God tells us...look as long at you are not taking care of My house...and long as your are not trusting me to take care of your 90% your money, your hard work, your harvest can not be protected by me...when you trust me enough to give to My house, then I will make sure that your 90% never runs out!!

Luke 6:38 says that Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.  God is telling us here...you give me 10% and I will give it back to you... with more.

It took us forever to trust this... and what I have found... what has happened to us since we started doing this is amazing.  When we kept that 10% we often had to go to our savings to take care of the unexpected... even when we were doing out best to take good care of our money.... even after we paid everything off.... things would come up that we needed that were beyond our weekly income.. since we have learned to trust God .... and we started with less than 10%, but we started...when we did that amazing things started to happen... here we were giving what we didn't feel like we could afford to give and all the sudden our paycheck kept meeting even our unexpected needs...then we slowly were able to give more to God... slowly reaching our 10%... the closer we got to that 10% the more money we had left over after even the unexpected bills came in.... now we meet the unexpected. and we have play money...now our savings grows...it is amazing that we always have the extra when extra is needed.  That investment that we make into God's house makes our money grow in so many unexpected ways.

God is always saying to us... show your faith in me by doing this... when you do this will happen!  God told Moses to strike the rock with his staff when he did water came pouring out... but Moses had so strike the rock... He told the people to march around the walls of Jericho..when they did the walls came tumbling down. God tells us...give to my house!!... Give me 10% when you do I will take care of your 90%. Your pockets will not have holes.. your clothes will keep you warm... your food will make you full...your harvest will come in. But first I have to know that you are depending on  me.

Tithing is the only place where God tells us to test Him... Malachi 3:10 says Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do," says the LORD of Heaven's Armies, "I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!...God says test me and I will show you that I will take care of you!!  When we give to God... God always give us more back in return!!

Does money fall through holes in your pocket? It use to fall through the holes in mine no matter what we seemed to do right... we just had to learn that the right thing was giving back to God the part He ask us for...that made all the difference!

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