GIVING: The biggest Crook In the World!

"Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, 'How have we robbed You?' In tithes and offerings."

Malachi 3:8

Who is the biggest meanest crook in the world? Is it a terrorist? An abortionist? Is it a Los Angeles gang-banger? A Mafioso? A scammer? Some one who preys on seniors?

Robert Sumner said, “the biggest & meanest crook of all time is the one who steals from God.” [Excerpt from Sword of the Lord; 1960]

I agree with Sumner: those who steal from God must believe God doesn’t know or cannot see what they are doing. It’s like one convict stealing from his cellmate during a lockdown.

They’re like the tenant farmer who was to pay the land owner 10% of his harvest … but no matter how he planted, every harvest was only 90%.

I recall one couple who decided to drive out an unpopular pastor by recruiting fellow church members to withhold tithes. Not only did they fail to drive the pastor out but they brought shame and reproach upon the Body of Christ and the Name of the Lord as the community witnessed the brouhaha which followed.

I read of one lady who told her pastor she’d start tithing as soon as things got better. He looked her straight in the eyes and said, “No, Pearl, you won’t.”

“I beg your pardon!” She bellowed! To which he patiently replied, “If you won’t give $10 out of a hundred, you’ll never give $100 out of a thousand.”

The widow who tithes $540 out of her fixed income, then lives on the $4,860 remainder, is to be much more admired than the businessman who tithes $10,000 out of his income, then lives on the $90,000 left over.

I’m left in breathless wonder at those who claim the blood of the Lamb yet steal from The Great Shepherd of the Sheep.

Christianity, Giving, Illustrations, Religion