Here is a quick review from my last blog entry-Legacies: Part 1
I shared how I have been blessed with three legacies:
- Legacy of the faithfulness in marriage based on how God Almighty created marriage. (Gen. 2:24)
- Legacy of corporate Sabbath/Sunday worship & rest.
- Legacy of tithing based on Malachi 3:8-12.
I want to continue with the legacy of tithing. Since my story is based on the verses in Malachi, I am going to restate this passage.
Malachi 3:8-12(NIV)
8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you (God’s people) rob Me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing You?’ “In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing Me. 10 (Command) Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, (WHY-Provision) that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, (WHY-Blessing)“and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.
Still reviewing, I stated that these core beliefs of tithing were ingrained by the Lord through my parents when I was a small child after being caught steeling from God by not giving my 5 cents tithe. Yes, your read that correctly.
If you are new to reading my blog, it might be important for you to understand that I married my high school sweet heart. We were only 19 (Dave) & 20 yr old. We were married after Dave’s second year of college. Before we knew it, I was pregnant with our first child. In fact she came the day Dave graduated from college. Praise the Lord (PTL) that Dave chose not to go through the graduation ceremony. We were babies having babies.
We had Amy the Summer before Dave began medical school. PTL Dave went through medical school on a military scholarship. I hate to call this a scholarship, because it wasn’t free. Dave did pay a heavy price by giving his time for all those years, & it did change the course of our life. One of the greatest benefits of going this route was so I could be at home taking care of Amy. Then, less than two years later, we had Ben. I must admit, I was scarred to look at the man for getting pregnant again.
Now for the “juicy” part!!! Sometimes, in looking at the beautiful Spring flowers or the colorful dancing Fall leaves, you can see GOD is just showing off. In Legacies: Part 2 & 3, I hope you will see how GOD just showed off during one of the hardest seasons of our lives. I firmly believe it was connected to our tithing. We tithed no matter what.
At the end of medical school, close friends gave monetary gifts to Dave as a graduation present. I really admired Dave because he chose to tithe these gifts instead of just doing something fun with them. If anyone deserved to just have some blow-off fun, it was him after working so hard in school, & working extra jobs to support us.
I have never consciously thought about testing God in this command. Tithing is something I did in loving Him. Tithing doesn’t mean when you tithe, God will automatically bless you with wealth. He does say that He will meet our needs, and bestow hidden blessings beyond our thinking.
Hopefully, you will see through my examples in this blog & the next blog how God blessed us in the midst of hard-times as we tithed through-out these years.
1. Over half-way through Dave’s medical school we had two babies, and money was very tight. We were living at the medical school’s married housing apartments. It was perfect for us. Dave could walk to school so I could have our one car when needed. Many who lived there had children. It was really great to just walk outside our front door, & friends of all ages were all around. We did have a resident manger who lived on the property, but no one knew them. They were an older couple that had nothing in common with the medical or dental students.
One day Dave walked in our door with a bright idea. Out of the blue, he thought why don't I be the resident manger!! Yes, ME! After the shock, I thought, why not. Dave went to the residence office the following day. Would you believe, the day that Dave had the idea, the resident manger had just put in their notice. On top of this, the staff were thinking about making one of the student residents the manger of the apartments. If you think that this was all orchestrated by chance, well think again. Because of this blessing, we didn’t have to pay for our housing & had very little utility bills. God is good and very faithful to His promises!!!
2. During the last two years of medical school, all the students begin thinking about their special fields of residence they would like to go into. Dave was very interested in surgery at that time. Because of this, the surgery department asked one student to go to a National Surgical Conference, all expenses paid, in Atlanta, GA. It was held in early December. Dave wanted me to go with him to the conference. I definitely wanted to, but we didn’t have any extra money to pay for my expenses, since he was free. Did that stop us? No! I don’t even remember who kept the kids.
It was one of those LORD SHOW-OFF WEEKS. I saw clearly His hand on every aspect of each day:
a. The conference began with heavy hors d’oeuvres the first evening. That was our dinner :) FREE!!! :)
b. The second day, Dave went & did his thing with the conference. I made my way over to a near by building where I could buy meals, etc… Well, I got my favorite meal at the time-coffee. I can usually occupy myself very well. I did so by doing my Bible Study, & I took along the booklets that had events listed for the spouses & their families. Since I had all the time in the world, enjoying my coffee, I began playing a game. First, I asked myself, “If I had all the money in the world, what would I do in this book?” After that, I went to, “If I had some money, what would I do?” Finally, my third category was, “If I could do two events, what would I do?” I had a great time, but best yet, it took up most of my morning. In fact, it was about lunch time, & I was tired of the game. So I got up to leave. What I didn’t know during all this time a dear, sweet, older, Christian lady had been watching me plan. As I was leaving, she asked me, “What are you planning to do this week?” All I could do was laugh! I ‘fessed-up & told her I was just playing around and wasn’t going to do any of it. Well, to make an already long story short, she & her husband took Dave & I under their wings. They bought lunch for me that day & paid for two events that I did with her. At these events I met other older, Christian couples who took us under their wings, & who took an interest in us.
Again, coincidence!? I think not!! The odds of me going to the same place where I met this lady, at the same time-interesting. These people were generous, but there was something very different from within them as they gave. Also, because of them, we met others who took a great & invested interest in us. Interesting, interesting….
The second couple we met through the first couple, paid for us to attend a dinner theater. The meal was delicious. The play consisted of a one man act who played out the entire book of Matthew in the Bible. I have never seen this before, & I haven’t since. It was really incredible! This couple also paid for other meals.
A third physician we met took us to a famous restaurant in Atlanta called Pitty Pat’s Porch. Delicious & so much fun!
If that was not enough, to top off these blessings, The first couple took me Christmas shopping for our children who were toddlers at the time. The Lord provided again before we even asked. It was a real testimony to us all week long to see the joy this couple & these others had in giving to us. Again, this was not just human generosity & joy, but it was supernatural that came from the Father above through them.
As a side note, like I said, we were wondering where Christmas was coming from that year. Besides the Lord providing through these strangers, the Lord provided through our parents. We didn’t have a clue, & I truly believe our parents had not talked to each other about our Christmas. One set of parents provided tons of toys for the children, & the other set provided all their clothes. Thank you LORD!!!
I must say I was floating pretty high with all these things happening. By sides having a chance to sleep late that week, enjoying my hotel free coffee all by myself, & no interruptions while doing my Bible Study. That in itself was a great week! I had been reading Hebrews throughout this week. When I got to Heb. 11-the faith chapter, I was soaring, until I hit vs 35b-38. Here I read some saints were tortured, mocked, scourged, chained, & imprisoned. Some were stoned, wandered destitute, & not found worthy of the world because of their faith in God. These verses burst my bubble a little. But in vs. 39, I received some encouragement, and all these, having a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise (at that time), vs 40, God having provided something better for them (in the future)….
Also at the end of that week, Dave came in & told me some unexpected news. He (we) were NOT deferred by the Air Force. They had pulled us for their residence program in surgery, & we were going to Biloxi, MS. Nothing against MS, but we had fallen in love with Savannah, GA. We had planned to go there. Dave was devastated! The supportive wife that I was and am, I said, “Well, praise the LORD!” I was too high, & it went right under me. See, we had put out a fleece before the Lord with all this residence “stuff.” Dave had to send references to the Air Force residence program in Biloxi. He didn’t have to send all the references he had. Five of the references were glowing! We really did pray about these five, if we should send them or not. We finally did, knowing God is & was sovereign. We knew that if we were meant to go to Savannah or Biloxi, these references didn’t matter.
Dave called the Air Force several times to make sure we received the correct information. It must have been a mistake!!! After the Air Force personnel looked into our records, they couldn’t understand either why were not deferred. Then they came back and said, “Oh, it is because of these awesome five references!!!” What can you say!
Is this all a coincidence?! Interesting!
to be continue….
ann :)
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