"Consider then how great this Melchizedek was. Even Abraham the great patriarch of Israel, recognized this by giving him a tenth of what he had taken in battle. Now the law of Moses required that the priests, who are descendants of Levi, must collect a tithe from the rest of the people of Isreal, who are descendants of Abraham. But Melchizedek, who was not a descendant of Levi, collected a tenth from Abraham. And Melchizedek placed a blessing upon Abraham, the one who had already received the promises of God. And without question, the person who has the power to give a blessing is greater than the one who is blessed.
" The priests who collect tithes are men who die, so Melchizedek is greater than they are, because we are told that he lives on. In addition, we might even say that these Levites - the ones who collect the tithe - paid a tithe to Melchizedek when their ancestor Abraham paid a tithe to him. For although Levi wasn't born yet, the seed from which he came was in Abraham's body when Melchizedek collected the tithe from him." (Hebrews 7:4-10 NLT)
"And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God." (1 Peter 1:17-21 KJV)
Having said those things yesterday morning, I had to wonder if I might have said too much, having no real knowledge of most of what was said. Then again, I really do believe that our God is much bigger than we might think! Hopefully that doesn't make anyone concerned over the certain characteristics of God they might have imagined, because from what I have been told, God is over all and in all!
With that, I just need to remember that He has the power to take, just as He has the power to give! We shouldn't think that our giving goes for the church or to any particular people, because what we give is sign of worship to God. As a matter of fact, when God said that He was cheated, as it says in Malachi 3:8, it wasn't for the money that He was cheated, because everything is already His!
No, my dear brothers and sisters, if we cheat God for anything, it is our ability to be blessed by Him...
"This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." (Ephesians 4:17-24 KJV)
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