PRIEST FOREVER

PRIEST FOREVER

Heb. 7:8 Here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives.

One of the first tests we all have to pass in our Christian walk is the decision to tithe. I am grateful to God that I was taught about the importance and sacredness of the tithe as a new Christian. In my interview at Bible School (I had been saved two weeks when I enrolled) the director asked me if I was a tither (I had no idea what he was talking about). As he picked up on my greenness, he graciously taught me about the tithe. I love that story. My wife and I had just gotten married with seven hundred dollars to our name. As I sat in the director’s office learning about the tithe, I realized I had seventy dollars left after I paid my school tuition. I joyfully (with a little fear and trembling) deposited my first tithe in the tithe box that afternoon. My adventure had started, I was yielding my self to God, He began delivering on all the promises I inherited as His son. He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. Andrew Murray talks about the connection to these promises to the tithe.

“These are indeed the spiritual blessings in the heavenlies with which God hath blessed us in Christ and which, as High Priest, Christ dispenses. He brings us to the Father, and we learn to know that He blesses and keep us. In Him, the Son, God’s face shines upon us, and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is our portion. In Him God lifts up His countenance upon us, and, by the Holy Spirit, give His peace unto our hearts. Christ the High Priest makes every part of this blessing a divine reality, a living experience in the power of a life that abides continually. Christ gives us the blessing, we give Him the tithes. The tithes to God are an acknowledgement of His right to all. Our High Priest has a right to the surrender of all we have, as belonging to Him, to the willing sacrifice of all He asks or needs for His service. The connection between the tithes and the blessing is closer than we know. The more unreservedly we place all that we have at His disposal, the more we in very deed forsake all for His sake, the richer will our experience be of the fulness and the power which our High Priest can bless.”

Parris and I have been tithers for forty years this coming August. The Lord has truly opened up the windows of heaven over our lives again, again, and again. As ministers of the gospel we not only tithe but we live off of the tithe. The Lord has surrounded us with faithful believers who love The Lord and love His work. Their commitment to The Lord through the tithe enable us to fulfill our calling. We are grateful.