The floodgates of Heaven are wide open!

In our classes on Economics and Scripture last year, Ps Jim Stout taught us the importance of believers giving tithes, offerings and alms. Tithes are 10% of one's gross income and are mandatory. They go into God's storehouse, which is collected by the church one calls their home. Offerings are anything given above the tithes and can be given to one's church, or to special building funds, missions, ministers, teachers, charities, compassion organisations, or to people teaching the Word of God, just to name a few! Alms are also mandatory and equate to 10% of one's income over three years. Alms are assistance (e.g. financial or material) given to people who can never afford to pay you back.

Anyway, I had never realised tithes and offerings were different, and that alms even existed before Ps Jim's class. I also didn't realise that if you donate your tithe money to something other than the church you call your home (like some people use it to pay for enrolling their children in a Christian school, or put it into things like missions work or a special project for a church, etc...), than you are effectively robbing God of money that belongs to Him. After all, He is the one who gives us the ability to accumulate wealth, He gives people favor in job interviews and softens hearts to believe we have the skills and expertise to do what they require of us. He created the world and everything in it. Everything we see belongs to Him. We are merely stewards of all that God gives us and it's our job to be channels for his blessings to be redistributed to people who are in a more needy situation than we are.

It says in Malachi 3:10 that if we would try God out by giving our tithes and offerings to Him, then He will open up His windows of heaven and pour out for us such blessing that we do not have room enough to receive it.... so that's just what I have done since I received the wisdom from those classes. I had zilcho income at the time, but then faithfully tithed the little money that came in. Come end of year and I suddenly get landed with new responsibilities, including a job that waives my Bible college fees for this year (rather than paying me cash), a job that pays cash in hand and a job that allows me to pray in tongues the entire time and get paid for it! This week, I earned a whopping $1,155 cash in hand, meaning God's storehouse gets $115.50 of that. I was also given make-up, perfume samples, a new toothbrush and hair lackies - none of which I asked for, all were just random gifts for no reason.

I have numerous friends who don't believe God requires us to tithe 10% of what we earn and so they just casually give a bit here and there, some don't give anything at all. Man, if only they knew what blessings they are missing out on. God has blessed me exceedingly, abundantly beyond anything I could every imagine.

This new year, I believe I will finally meet the man He has chosen me to marry. God's timing is perfect and I have copped a lot of flack for being single for soooooooooooo long, but I wont compromise my standards or God's decision to hide me away for a set period of time for the special guy He has chosen for me. The world doesn't understand, but God does.