Phil,
         IN the little blurb that I wrote about my Dad a few weeks 
ago, I had said, God was never blamed for the problems, but depended 
upon for the strength to get through them.  You make me more grateful 
than ever for what my Dad taught me.  We never blamed God like 
that.  That poor man, thinking that God could be like that.  If you 
are in error, or mismanaging funds, you will be dealt with, but 
chances are, the  way that you will be dealt with is through normal 
circumstances for making poor choices, not through an act of 
God.  True, God hopes that, eventually, you will become wiser with 
what you have and become a good steward of what He has given.  If you 
need to keep relearning the lesson, instead of blaming it on God, 
couldn't it be through you, or whoever,  refusing to lern the lesson 
of patience and waiting?  To blame God for hurting his daughter makes 
me wonder how well this man really knows our heavenly Father.  The 
devil sure can screw  up a lot of thinking.
Kathy



At 05:35 PM 2/6/2007, you wrote:
>I was about 23 years young when I quit my job and started traveling and
>preaching in Baptist churches.  I will always remember preaching in my home
>town, Omaha, Nebraska in a man's newly established church.  He had about 70
>to 80 people attending on Sunday mornings, and about 30 or so on Sunday
>nights, in a Seventh Day Advents church since they didn't meet on Sundays.
>It was in June and hotter than all get out.  I wore a suit, of course, and
>was soaked before the service was over.
>
>Testimonies were given that night and one man stood up and said he had
>stopped tithing for several weeks because he couldn't afford it.  He
>explained that his 4 year old daughter was playing around one night and
>jumped up on the dinning room table, fell off, and cracked her mouth on the
>corner of another piece of nearby furniture.  They took her to the dentist
>and it cost 800 dollars.  That would be like 5 thousand dollars today most
>likely.  Anyhow, he said he learned his lesson the hard way because it was
>God's way of dealing with his disobedience and refusal to tithe.  He
>commented that he sat down and figured out how much money he had not tithed
>during these weeks and it came, interestingly enough, to almost exactly 800
>dollars.  Of course, I was not a tither at that time but I did give 25
>percent of my income to the church so I don't know what that made me at the
>time.  I felt more Godly than ten percenters, I know that much.  Anyhow,
>this story made a big impression on me and I told the story often in my
>sermons as I traveled around the country and it made for mighty fine
>preaching, too.  Something about it always bugged me but no matter how much
>I thought about it, I couldn't figure it out.
>
>One day, as I mentioned earlier, on my knees begging God to show me from His
>Word what tithing was all about, this testimony of this man and his little 4
>year old daughter popped into my mind.  I tried shoving it away because I
>had never figured it out before and I doubt I would get it this time.  The
>story stuck in my mind so I focused on it and asked the Holy Spirit what the
>deal was.  "Think about it," He basically said.  I thought about it.
>Suddenly, I almost busted into laughter when I saw it.  The Lord said, "I
>didn't push that little girl off the table to get her father's attention nor
>would I ever do such a thing."  I almost jumped to the ceiling when I
>realized what was wrong with the story.  No, I didn't change my thinking at
>that time but I surely did a whole lot more praying and studying of the
>Scriptures once I realized the truth about what the Lord was trying to tell
>me.  In another message, I'll tell you a similar story.  Well, since I wrote
>about this other thing, maybe I'll just post it because it is similar in
>nature, not about tithing, however, and it isn't very long.
>
>Phil.