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.