The Lord's Law of the Tithe - Our Obligation Which Brings Manifold Blessings When We Obey it. Our ward bishop is the Lord's steward in this important matter.
Doctrine & Covenants 119:
4 And after that, those who have thus been tithed shall pay one-tenth of all their interest annually; and this shall be a standing law unto them forever, for my holy priesthood, saith the Lord.
Paying a full and honest tithe is a basic requirement in order to be a worthy member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is just one of many obligations the Lord expects of His Saints. By much experience members of this church learn that paying an honest and full tithing brings blessings of all kinds, often way beyond what they ever hoped for.
Tithing is not a requirement of the Lord just for our day and time. It actually has been a basic requirement of God since man's beginning on the Earth.
Genesis 14:
18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.
19 And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth:
20 And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all. (Emphasis Added)
And in addition:
Leviticus 27:30
30 And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD's: it is holy unto the LORD. (Emphasis Added)
And again:
2 Chronicles 31 5 ¶ And as soon as the commandment came abroad, the children of Israel brought in abundance the firstfruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the fields; and the tithe of all things brought they in abundantly.
6 And concerning the children of Israel and Judah, that dwelt in the cities of Judah, they also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep, and the tithe of holy things which were consecrated unto the LORD their God, and laid them by heaps.
7 In the third month they began to lay the foundation of the heaps, and finished them in the seventh month.
8 And when Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps, they blessed the LORD, and his people Israel.
9 Then Hezekiah questioned with the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps.
10 And Azariah the chief priest of the house of Zadok answered him, and said, Since the people began to bring the offerings (Tithing) into the house of the LORD, we have had enough to eat, and have left plenty: for the LORD hath blessed his people; and that which is left is this great store. (Emphasis and Clarification added)
In the just previous post I promised to have you study 3 Nephi, Chapter 24 which is about tithing, in this post. I have already commenced teaching about tithing using scriptures from the Doctrine and Covenants and the Old Testament.
So now we come to 3 Nephi, Chapter 24: These are the words of Malachi, whose book is found in our Old Testament but was not in the Nephites' Brass Plates (their version of the Old Testament). As I mentioned earlier, Malachi's book was not in the Nephite's version of the Old Testament because Father Lehi and his family left Jerusalem at the command of the Lord before Malachi's time.
Please prepare yourself to read 3 Nephi Chapter 24 by reading these instructions:
After you have clicked on the link below and when the scripture is on your screen, please scroll up and click on the word, Listen, which you will see on the upper left hand side of your computer screen. When you hear the voice reading the words of the scripture you can click on the minus (-) sign you will see on the Audio Window which has come onto your screen, so it will be removed and be non-distracting. After you have finished reading and listening to this chapter, please click on the white left arrow in a blue background. This will bring you back to this post.
I now wish to emphasize part of that which you just read that our Savior Jesus Christ taught the Nephites in ancient Central America by inserting it on your screen.
3 Nephi 24:
9 Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.
10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house; and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the fields, saith the Lord of
Hosts.
12 And all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of Hosts.
I want you to know my personal experience with paying tithing. With their mother, I raised a large family of nine children, (five daughters and four sons.)
I was employed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for about 34 years before retiring. I loved the work I did. I didn't expect the salary to to be comparable to that which I could have earned working for a large business or even for the government. Nonetheless, we paid a full tithing. If we ever got behind, we eventually got caught up. I know personally that the blessings that come from paying a full and honest tithing are like we were told above in:
2 Chronicles: 31:10 Since the people began to bring the offerings (Tithing) into the house of the LORD, we have had enough to eat, and have left plenty: for the LORD hath blessed his people;I will now show pictures of two important things payed for by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from tithing funds.
1. Missionaries pay almost all of their own ongoing mission costs (Young male missionaries serve for two years (young female missionaries serve for one and a half years) They pay for their expenses from their own savings and from funds provided them by family and friends. Tithing pays for their travel (this includes the travel of older missionary married couples) to and from their missions and administrative mission costs, etc.
2. The planning, construction of and maintenance of the almost one hundred and forty six temples which are for the most part already built, are paid for by tithing funds. We have seen in a recent blog post of mine what great blessings come to not only Church members from the availability of these temples, but also to their dead ancestors who are "alive" in the World of Spirits.
1. & 2. Washington, D.C. and Buenos Aires, Argentina Temples
3. & 4 Preston, England and Manila, Philippines Temples
If you would like to access the LDS Church's "Temples Around the World" feature which includes pictures and important information about each of the 146 listed, please click on this following link:
http://www.lds.org/temples/geographical/0,11380,1899-1,00.html
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I deeply appreciate your readership and hope you found very beneficial that which was presented to you in this blog post.
If you have any questions about what you have read or viewed in this post or in any previous posts of mine, or if you even have a curiosity about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and or its teachings, please e-mail me. I'm Neil and my e-mail address is: jneilmelva@gmail.com. If you contact me I'll get back to you just as soon as possible.
I invite you to let your friends and relatives know about this blog if you think they would be interested. Please be advised that I also have two additional blogs. One is in Spanish: http://varsinaisella.blogspot.com/ and one is in Finnish: http://varsinaisesti.blogspot.com/ The content of each is translated from the English in this blog.
Neil Birch
