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Partnerships |
| In nature there are many creatures that depend on each other for survival. |
 Ants
farm aphids. They like the sweet milk that they get and the aphid has a
protector. The ant does not want anyone to disturb his herd of aphid
"cows". |
 Have you ever wished you could be in partnership with
someone who had all the money he wanted and extra. A great
partnership would be with someone who always had the money to fund
all the projects you would like to do. God wants us to be His partner.
Now, He owns all the banks in the world and the world they are built on.
He can do anything to get His projects done. God wants to be in
partnership with us. This is a generous offer. |
 He
requests that any increase in money or any possessions needs to have 1/10th
given to support the pastors or ministers He has anointed to work
spreading the gospel. To return tithe or one tenth, shows we are in loyal partnership with Him.
He says, Bring the full amount of your tithes to the temple. Malachi 3:10 SONG:
|
 Marriage
Partnerships
When people marry, they enter into a partnership. The hearts must be filled daily with God's love to make the best partnership. The goal is to help each other and bring companionship and joy into the life of each other. . Each culture has different goals. It is good to clearly define what you expect. God does this in the Bible. Agreements are made and there is mutual respect in the successful marriage relationship. There are promises made to only love and cherish each other for the rest of their lives. Successful partnerships also agree to allow individuality and respect the freedom of choice. Love is earned not demanded. It is earned by many acts of unselfish service like Jesus does for His people. Daily the love plant must be watered by spending time exchanging thoughts, ideas and expressing gratitude. Jesus wants us to spend time daily in a relationship with Him. He loves these appointments. |
 In the Bible in the book of Leviticus the Bible tells us
that all the tithe of the land is the Lord's. Tithe is one tenth.
God clearly states that He wants us to return to Him one tenth. If you have ten dimes, pesos, dollars one belongs to God. Count the dimes. The gold one is not yours, it is God's. If you keep it you are stealing from God. |
 If you have ten
clusters of bananas growing on your trees, |
 |
|
Only 1 belongs to your PARTNER |
| And you get all the rest. |
 If you
harvest ten cartons of rice from your rice paddy, nine are for you to use and
one is for God. |
| 10 |
| 9
are yours |
| Your Forever Friend Partner asks for only one. |
 If
God gives you ten
chicks |
| One
is God's. |
| 9
are yours |
If
God gives you 10 baskets of pomegranate fruits on your trees, God lets you have 9 |
|
|
He only claims one. |
 Tithe envelope
The tithe is to be returned to God. The tithe is used to support the ministers. That is what the Bible says it is to be used for. (Numbers 18:21) The ministers are those teaching God's WORD and taking care of the church members. This is a picture of the tithe envelope we use for our children. Inside it says 'God loves a cheerful giver.'
|
  Those who come to love Jesus, show him gratitude for what
He did for them. They are grateful that He cared enough to die for them.
The gift was so big, there is just nothing we can give back in return to
match it. Yet Jesus says the most precious gift we can give Him is our
hearts and our loving service.
Jesus helps us in all our troubles, so that we can help others who have trouble. II Corinthians 1:4 God always promises to give enough that we can have some to give others. |
| We
choose to put God and His ministry first. Our pay is the joy of seeing God provide. When God
asked us to go to other countries to share the Bible's good news of
salvation, we love to do this. You can read many stories of these trips by
clicking on Mission Stories.
We used what was in our hands and the Lord multiplies
it. We know that we are in a partnership with Him. If we need something,
we tell Him, and He provides. I am sharing this with you to show you God
does provide for all your needs. (Phil 4:19) . He asks us to share the good news
throughout the world.
When we needed a home, we prayed and God provided shelter.
|
 There
are so many blessings promised from our rich Partner, God. If we show our
love and loyalty by returning a full amount of our tithe and give gifts
besides,
He promises to open the windows of heaven and pour out blessings.
Imagine the windows opening and all kinds of nice things just pouring out of heaven. He said there would not be room enough to hold everything. Remind Him of His promise. He loves for you to do this. It increases your faith. I can think of many blessings of food, flowers, and answered prayers that He has given to us. He said to prove Him and see if He was telling the truth. He always has done big special things for us. I will share a few stories after telling about some bad partnerships. |
 The
Bible says in I Corinthians 4:1 that we are stewards of the mysteries of
God.
A steward is given responsibility in caring and keeping things for someone. If a careful job is done, there is usually an increase.
|
 I
have never seen the righteous forsaken nor His children begging for bread.
Psalms
God always provides. "Psalm 37:25 "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsake nor his seed begging bread." Ps. 37:25 |
| God does not just provide for our needs, He grants our
desires. He fills us with good things.
"Delight thyself also in the LORD; and He shall give thee the desires of your heart." Phil. 4:19 does not say God provides some of our needs but ALL of them. |
 Selfish
Partnerships
The tapeworm inside the human body takes all the nutrients for itself. It leaves the person without much energy. This is a terrible relationship. Are we being selfish and robbing God instead of returning a tenth of all He gives us? He gives us strength to earn |
 Another selfish partnership is the mosquito that takes
blood and leaves a disease which can eventually kill the person. Malaria
is a dreaded disease. There is really no partnership here at all.
Just like there is no partnership at all with God when you ROB Him all the time. |
| If I regard sins and disobedience in my heart; the Lord will not hear me. (Psalm 66:18) If I rob God, He will not hear me. |
| Let
us give cheerfully of our tithes. And also let us give God thank offerings
besides. All that we have is
His anyway. God will abundantly bless you more than you ask or
think. He will open the windows of heaven and start pouring blessings on
you.
|
| Now for the story I promised:
Windows of Heaven Pouring on Us
My husband lost his job suddenly and we feared the worst. There was not enough food in the cupboards for the four hungry children. We set the table and knelt to pray. I reminded the Lord of His promise if we returned the tithe. I was a bit emotional as I told God that there was a lot of room in my cupboards. I thanked Him for hearing and said "amen". One of the children said, "Wow, mama, you pray like that and the kitchen will be stuffed by tonight!". No sooner had he said this than there was a knock on the front door. A friend drove up that we had not seen in a great while. They saw the "for Sale" sign on our home and were just curious. She was so much wanting to tell me that she had joined the church and thank me for what I had done to help her. After they left, I hurried over to another neighbor who said I could have canning jars. While I was getting the jars, the friend returned with box loads of food. She had felt impressed to bring lots of food.
God was real generous in His demonstration to me that He could provide for me and His children. |
Quiz time, put your
thinking cap on.
How much of what we have is God's? If you have 10 chicks how much does God want us to give to Him? If you have been robbing God should you try to pay it all back? If you are robbing God, will He hear and answer you with protection and supplies? Where in the Bible does it say God will open windows and pour out blessings if you return tithe? What interest do ants have in aphids? What do the aphids get in return? Name a selfish partnership in the animal world. (two were mentioned) |
God promises a special blessing for those who want to be His partners.
When
we had need of a car and were not able to get one because of being out of employment, God provided.
Just as we are to be careful stewards of money, we are also to be
stewards of Bible truth. It is a pleasure and a delight to return God's
money and to share the truth about His love and requirements. He promises
to open the windows and He does. One always feel like they were blessed
more than the people they gave to.
I had always been a "workaholic". I worked very hard
through school and often held 5 jobs. I had baby sitting help and house
cleaning help. Every day was so busy. I began to see that I could
buy most anything except love for my children so I quit my work to
care for our four young children. 
Our neighbors asked if we could use any green beans. Their garden had made
too many. They were tired of eating these for morning noon and night. The
kids ran from their chairs and to the neighbor's garden. The excitement
was partly because they adored these neighbors and just loved being with
them. We filled a 5 gallon bucket and I begun to wonder how I could can
the extras.
I could hardly get into my kitchen. The Lord had poured out blessings till
there was not room enough to receive it. We had generous amounts of apples
and blue berries given to us. We found black berries on our land and froze
all we could pick.