GOD LOVES A CHEERFUL GIVER
BISHOP L. A. PARENT
TITH02.TXT

2 Cor. 9:7-11

This article is to deal with the subject of giving. There is many gifts spoken of in the Bible, and many strive for each of them, but I have never heard of anyone striving for the gift of giving. It is the most tremendous gift in the Bible, the gift of giving, it has the most promises

In the book of Genesis God speaks of Abraham, through his giving being a blessing to every family of the earth, and we would like this article to show the channel God used through Abraham, because it is God that giveth, but He will use us in His program if we will let Him. He gives food to the birds, and the flowers, He said they lay not up or put into barns but God supplies their needs. I have often driven along a road and seen the farmer drop from his load an ear of corn, and the birds gather about to get their meal. God supplies to each that which it needs. God ‘s economy is a wonderful thing. The best part of giving is to the spreading of the Gospel, when Jesus arose from the grave He said to all of us in Mark 16:15 “Go into all the
world and preach the Gospel to every creature.” Now a thought in mind, each one of us have a ministry, you may not be able to go but you can help to send someone both have their part and is necessary.

In these last days with the coming of Jesus at hand, I have set  and trembled thinking what Paul would have done with my opportunities,  he preached where ever he was, even when he was marooned in the
Mediterranean where he spent the winter, he preached, you recall when  the viper came out of the fire and fastened itself upon Paul, those  standing by looked on expecting him to die immediately, but he just
shook the viper off into the fire and received no harm, even this is a  testimony to God ‘s giving. So to you and I as laborers together is  left the mission to get the gospel to every creature under heaven. This
has been the goal of my life, trying to get the gospel to others, and  to you who read this may God richly bless you and may He put this  vision into your heart, we ask this in Jesus Name.

Genesis 12:1-4 Now the Lord had said unto Abram get thee out of  thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father’s house unto a  land that I will show thee and I will make of thee a great nation and I
will bless thee and make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing  and I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee  and in thee shall ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH BE BLESSED. So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him and Lot his nephew went with him. Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of  Haran. Please note the scripture just read, first there must be a
declaration. Genesis 17-5, 6, God changed Abram’s name to Abraham. Then second the separation must be established, if you notice Abraham left his father’s house his kin and kindred and departed into a land of
which he knew not. Certainly God protected him by putting a blessing on him that could not be revoked by those that loved or hated him, if they blessed him they received good and those that hated him received evil. Notice particularly, in the third verse in the later portion, “In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” There is a blessing that followed faithful Abraham. Ch. 13 verses 5 through 11. Lot, who went
with Abraham also received these blessings, they had flocks, herds, and tents, and the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together; for their substance was great, and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abraham ‘s cattle and the herdsmen of Lot’s cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land. And Abram said unto Lot, let there be no strife I Pray thee between me
and thee and between my herdsmen and thy herdsmen; for we are brethren. Is not the whole land before us; if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I
will go to the left. Then Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan that it was watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomarrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan. And the Lord said unto Abraham after that Lot was separated from him, lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where thou art Northward and Southward and Eastward and Westward, for all the land thou seest to thee will I give it and to they seed forever.

CHAPTER 2…..

Notice in Genesis 14, That Lot by his choice of the fertile plains gets into difficulty and trouble and the kings of the earth battle against Sodom and Gomorrah then Lot falls prisoner to the kings. Abram armed his servants born in his own house and persues after them and finally overtakes them and rescues Lot. Again we find from this account Abram meets Melchazidec King of Salam, we read that this king is a priest of the most high God, he blessed Abram and said blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth and blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And Abram gave him tithes of all. Chapter 14:9,10. Notice in the following verse the king of Sodom wanted to return part back to Abram but Abram would receive nothing back, but remember he gave tithes of all to Melchazidec. This is the first mention in the Bible of tithing. We can further follow tithing but remember
Abram gave tithes first and it was accounted unto his seed because it brought them into tithing. The word tithe means one tenth of each portion that falls into your hand.

Genesis 17 :9-13, God makes a covenant with Abraham, verse (9) And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy, seed after thee in their generations. (10) This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. (11) And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. (12) And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in thy house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. (13) He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. Notice mention of the covenant, in the
book of Heb.8:7-9. (7) for if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. (8) For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: (9) Not according to the
covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. Mentioning of the covenant, meaning the first covenant which the people did not keep and God did not
regard them. In other words God discontinued that covenant to make a new covenant which he had in his mind. When God mentioned taking them by the hand, each individual family bore the mark of circumcision. Working with the covenant I want to work with the second covenant also which is so marvelous that you and I being Gentiles have come into this new covenant that God has made when he considered the second covenant. Now the first covenant was to every individual in Israel and also is the
second covenant, it is an individual thing, it has to be worked out with every individual. We are so happy that we can be in the second covenant. Pursuing the first covenant, Abraham received a marvelous test. In Gen. 22, we find that Abraham was called by God to sacrifice his son. We also find that God tried Abraham because Abraham would that Ishmael was his son, as you know the story God gave Abraham a son through Sarah’s handmaid, Hagar. Ishmael is the father of the Arabs. I would like to quote one scripture about Ishmael and God ‘s promise to the mother of Ishmael as she ran away from Sarah when she found she was with child by Abraham, and she despised Sarah, her mistress, an angel of the Lord appeared to her and this is what he said to her about the child. “And he will be a wild man. His hand will be against every man and every man’s hand against him, and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.” Remember this, and look at the Arabs, they have never changed through all the years, they still dwell in the same land and his hand is against every man even yet today, we find them demanding so much from the rest of the world. As we notice in the news they are sent bread in the form of grain and when some mention of restraint on that, they threatened to blow up the oil wells that they now have.

Chapter 22, Here we find Abraham offering up Isaac and God so miraculously prepared an offering and saved Isaac and saved the hand of Abraham. Chapter 22:18-19, And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. 1 Sam 15-22 (19) So Abraham returned unto his young men, and  they rose up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba. Now these are the acts of Abraham the day God took him by the hand to lead them.

Now I thank God that the second covenant God has with us, you and I, is written in our heart.

Genesis 24: In this chapter we find that Abraham sent a servant to make a choice of a bride for Isaac, his son. The servant found in Rebekah the qualifications God had told him to look for, they called her and asked wilt thou go with this man and she said I will go. How is your heart, will you go with the word of God? Now unto Isaac and Rebekah was born two sons, Jacob and Esau, Esau brought grief to his mother and father, because he did not obey their voice, we can further follow this into Hebrews where it mentions a profane person like Esau. And though he sought repentance with bitter tears, there was no place of repentance found. God can not be evaded. We need to honestly seek God and to follow the pattern of the Bible. God said to Moses, See that thou follow the pattern. I feel that if we follow the pattern or find the perfect will of God, we will be in a position to escape the things that are coming upon the earth.

With Jacob we find he followed his mother and father’s advice and went back to their relatives and there found Rachael, whom he loved, but was tricked into marrying Leah the one that was tender eyed, he worked seven more years and was then given Rachael for a wife also, she was beautiful. Chapter 28 verses 16-8, (16) And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. (17) And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and is the gate to Heaven (18) And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. (19) And he called the name of the place Bethel: But the name of the city was called Luz at the first. (20) And Jacob vowed, saying If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, (21) So that I come again to my father ‘s house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God: (22) And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the
tenth unto thee.

I would like to tell you a little about the last days of Jacob, remember he had a large family and each one of his sons he blessed in Chapter 49. You might read the whole chapter through, to me this represents organizations or groups or tribes or whatever they choose to be called.

When I was a very young man, I was at a conference and there was a man there by the name of Booth Klibern, and he spoke to the Brethren about organizations, and he made this statement, That God used organizations like men used suits of cloths. This gave me something to think on, you see there has been many organizations, and we still have a great many yet today, I’m not against organizations, neither am I for them but they are necessary, and what they are for is a means to an end. Some people will preach the organization more than Christ, the giver of all good gifts. We ought to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified, raised again the third day; living forever and giving life to this present world. We are living in the greatest day the world has ever seen, the closing time. All the fulfillment of the scriptures we see coming to pass, the very things the book called the Bible has written about. Surely Jesus was right when He said search the scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life but these are they which testify of me.

The Lord spoke to me about this and brought to my mind Judah, Genesis 49:8, 9, 10. So my answer was. God called Abraham and from him came 12 families or organizations, and Judah was the one I had chose, because we know that it was from this tribe that Jesus came, in the tenth verse. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

We are happy because of Israel and what is taking place there in that land now. My heart has never desired to go there because one of these days I will be there when Jesus comes. We want you to remember this. May God bless you in this chapter.  Note now the deliverance of the children of Israel after they spent time in bondage in Egypt and have become great, there was a child born whose name was Moses, his father and mother knew he was a proper child and hid him. Pharoah’s daughter found him and raised him in Pharoah ‘s palace, but he refused to be called the son of Pharoah’s daughter, but rather chose to go back to his own people. As Moses fled for his life, he met his wife, the daughter of Jethro, the priest of Midian. Later in the
wilderness Moses encountered the burning bush, from which God spoke to him. and told him to go back to deliver his people. Moses asked God who he would say sent him, and God answered and said I AM THAT I AM: and he said Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. This is recorded in the third chapter of Exodus.

NUMBERS 18:23-27 (23) But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they shall bear their iniquity: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generation, that among the children of Israel they have no inheritance. (24) But the tithes of the children of Israel (which they offer as an heave offering unto the Lord), I have given to the Levites to inherit: therefore I have said unto them, among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance. (25) And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, (26) Thus speak unto the Levites, and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up an heave offering of it for the Lord, even a tenth part of the tithes. (27) And this your heave offering shall be reckoned unto you, as
though it were the corn of the threshing floor, and as the fulness of the winepress. We are coming right to the very part of this great subject, today, and we find here God has separated in these great tribes unto himself, one tribe called the Levite Tribe.

THE TITHE OF THE PRIESTHOOD

I have studied the tithing of the Bible and in it I have decided there is many blessings. In fact God gave me a wonderful Bible study on the Seven Blessings of Tithing, which I taught one time. But now I would like to bring in offerings as well. We find according to the scripture tithes are for the ministry. This should be spiritually discerned, the tithes are not for the minister, they are for the ministry, the breaking of the tithe into the keeping of the ministry. I am sorry to say that there is great mistakes made today concerning this matter. I have searched all my life to find the truth of the perfect system of tithing, so many years ago we decided that every tithe and offering, before we would use any of it should be tithed and set aside, this has been one of the greatest blessings of the church. The use of this set aside part has been used to help in
the missionary work both home and abroad. I feel God revealed one of His secrets to us when He put this in our hearts to do it, because it has brought such a blessing.

In my searching of the books of the Bible on tithing I find the priest would give to the widow, and the needy, he would give to the cause, it was in his hand. You see, as it passed from the children of Israel to the Levite then from the Levites to Priesthood and then from the priesthood on, what a vast amount it had to be, 90% was left with the individual then with the priest 90%, with the missionary 90% would be left, it would go on and on, it would be like a mighty river. In the beginning what a river it would have to be as it came to the ministry for them to make it effectual unto the mission field. This is the greatest truth, I believe, in the Bible for the survival of the work of God, For the reaching of the ministry to the mission field and to the far corner of the earth, that this gospel might be preached to every creature. I am happy that God let us discover this great truth on giving and can say we have practiced it in our church for many years, also I am happy to see my son who is the pastor in my stead now staying on in this great program, I am sure it is because he has seen the great benefits of it, we have found out you cannot out give God! This is a great truth.

Deuteronomy 14:22-25, (22) Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year. (23) And thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God, in the place which he shall choose to place His name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herds and of thy flocks; that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God always. (24) And if the way be too long for thee,
so that thou art not able to carry it; or if the place be too far from thee, which the Lord thy God shall choose to set his name there, when the Lord thy God hath blessed thee: Many people do not understand these scriptures, we find here God bringing the tithe into the place he has chosen to place His name. Now we are living in a day when this is just as real to us as it was to those early followers of the Lord. You see, God
has chosen him a people and set them apart. You can hardly take the covenant and the tithing apart, because they go hand in hand together. With the tithe God places His name in a certain place. Where I came for the first time many years ago to the city of Pontiac, from the evangelistic field, there were a few people, five in number, that asked me to be their pastor. First I told them I wouldn’t preach without water, I had to have water to baptize men in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. To bring a man to Jesus Christ, leaving his sins tagging on him, that is something I wouldn’t want to do, so I demanded
that there be water. And even in a three cornered church building that we first came to, with five people, we placed a pool for people to be baptized in. I can remember very plainly the first that came to be baptized in the precious Name of Jesus for the remission of sins. This brings them into the body. Since we want to be in the body, today I feel I am a Gentile Jew. Really of the tribe of Judah, looking for the coming of Jesus which is sure to happen most any time now. We are so happy to be a part of this, and there is so much to do
and so little time to do it.

God asked them to truly tithe. Now this should be carried on so very religiously. We have set up in the
church tithing the way that God would want us to, we feel, the home missionary is made up of ten percent of all the tithes and offerings which is brought into the church. There is two offerings that we do not touch for tithing, they are the offerings for the evangelist, although many time they give us the tithes but we do not ask for them, this is their business, the other being the missionary offering brought by the people
from their hearts to go to the mission field; this isn’t touched because it is the missionary’s portion. He will come into his place to tithe. To everyone there is given the privilege to give a tenth of all his possessions for a blessing. Ninety percent is left for the individual. Now since we have covered this and I have brought you to understand how that it has worked, we would like you to go before God in prayer and fasting that you might bring your tithes.

God has so blessed in our church and in all of our labors and we feel it by tithing. For me it was a hard thing to receive an offering. I can remember the first offering that I received, and how that I would feel like I didn’t want them to bring me an offering. But in prayer and meditation God spoke to me and said that charity works two ways. There has to be a giver and a receiver. Some times we might be on the receiving end of which we are at all times with God. Then we might be on the giving end of which God calls us to be a blessing to others. This is a great truth if we ran understand it.

We have prayed much about the giving of offerings. God spoke to me and showed me that it was bring, bring bring. I will go to the book of Malachi 3:6-10, to explain this. (6) For I am the Lord, I change not therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed (7) Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from my ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return? (8) Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have ye robbed thee? In tithes and offerings, (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 mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts if I will not open you the windows of heaven, pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. God here has a plan He mentions both tithes and offerings. We will leave offerings until later. Speaking now on tithes, God said bring them I can
see even passing the plate that will get the tithes. But the saints should bring their tithes, they should want to bring them. As we study the plan of the tabernacle and remember when Jesus stood by the treasury and they passed by and put in their offerings. You can take up a collection, but I wouldn’t do that. God is a very particular God, and when it mentioned Jesus stood by the treasury and beheld them as they cast in, it must have been that the people walked or marched by, and even in marching it should be done right, remember the treasury was on the right and Jesus stood by and beheld, so the people should march to the right, when we seek to find God ‘s perfect will in any part of the church, when we have found it and obeyed it we will find it brings a greater blessing. As Jesus stood by and the widow came with her mite, which was all that she had. Jesus looked on that and said of her poverty, she has cast in all that she had. Jesus was able to bless that widow. God stands to bless today, a person that will follow the plan of God cannot stay poor. We do have the poor with us always; but it is their privilege that if they will follow God ‘s plan that they will
arise from poverty into the riches of His blessings. I recall David saying, in one of the Psalms, Once I was young, now I am old and I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their seed begging bread. In the New Testament Jesus spoke about the very same things. Matthew 23:23 (23) Woe unto you, Scribes and
Pharisees, Hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Luke 11:42 (42) But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone. Many feel that tithes is not carried over into the New Testament, but in Matthew 5:17 (17) Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. God is going to fulfill this law.

To me grace is much stronger than law. In the book of St. John 1:14 it says. . .And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. In St. John 1:17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. He came to fulfill the law. In Matthew 5:27-28, Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: (28) But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. From this scripture. I understand that grace is much, much stronger than the law. It was hard for me in my younger days to synchronize David, which was one of the great men of the Bible, when he took Uriah ‘s wife, it was hard for me to consider. But you see the penalty God laid upon David. Even though he had been such a great man and warrior and fought so many, many battles there came a day when God said to David; Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars thou shalt not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight. So God let David son do what he, David, had wanted to do, build the great tabernacle of God. You see when God wouldn’t allow David he did allow his son to enter in. In the days of those great men; they did not have the power that is given to you and I by the grace of Jesus Christ. Grace is unmerited favor, in other words we did nothing to earn this. One of the parables that Jesus spoke as he spoke about the man that had a servant working in the fields. And he said when he came in, would you make ready and have him sit and eat, but no, you would rather that he serve you and then serve himself. In St. John, He said this to us, you are henceforth no more servants but friends, because a servant knoweth not what
his master doth. You see he hath revealed to us some of the most wonderful things of his great word. 1 Corinthians 3:9, For we are laborers together with God. When we think of this it makes us to rejoice. He also goes on in verse 10 to tell us; But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. Wouldn’t it be a terrible thing to build and see what you built crumble and fall to the ground. But isn’t it wonderful we can build that which will last through eternity, through all the ages.

I would like to return to the covenant, we will go back to the book of Hebrews 8:1-9, (1) Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens: (2) A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle which the
Lord pitched and not man. (3) For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer. (4) For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law: (5) Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount. (6) But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant which was established upon better promises. (7) For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. (8) For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and wit  the house of Judah: (9) Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. Notice in the changing of the covenant, the first covenant had a seal, you will find this back in Genesis. Now I want to find out if it is possible for me to find the seal of the new covenant. Genesis 17:10. (10) This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. Note that it says EVERY man child. (11) And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. (12) And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generation, he
that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of the seed. (13) He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. Now we notice that God is very particular and you note as you read in Chapter 8 of Hebrews that God’s command to Moses was to see that he followed the pattern. That is just as important today as it was in the day of Moses. To the very best of our ability we should follow the pattern written in the word of God. It brings me back to the days that the Ark of the covenant was
lost and the Philistines led it, remember they took two milk cows that had their calves with them. They tied up their calves and they put them on a new cart with the Ark. This worked for the Philistines but it did not work for Israel. When Israel regained the Ark and started to move it, as the ox would stumble they would put their hand out to steady it, but this displeased God, He had a right way of moving it and until David found that right way it brought death. Its up to us, the Apostolic People, in this day to follow that pattern. That is the reason I have written this book, because I have spent much time in searching out these things for our benefit. Going back now to Chapter 8 of Hebrews, 10-13, (10) For this is the covenant that I will
make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their heart and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: (11) And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. (12) For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their
iniquities will I remember no more. (13) In that he saith, A new covenant he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

Colossians 2:9 (9) For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. This is speaking of Jesus Christ, and to us He is the Creator. You might ask me how can I bring this about? By St. John 1;10 (10) He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. Colossians 2:9-13
continued. (10) And ye are complete in Him which is the head of all principality and power; (11) In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: (12) Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with
him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. (13) And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him having forgiven you all trespasses.
When I think of this, it is so wonderful. In the days of my youth I was raised in an old fashioned Christian home, where family prayer was offered every day, we returned thanks daily for our food, and moving back from the table my father would take the Bible and read and then we would pray. Being raised in a Christian home like that I loved the word of God. I thank my parents for that and they took me to church. At the age
of 8 years God gave me a vision, as I was walking to school, and that is forever before me. The valley that we lived in, I could see at least five miles and possible three miles wide. And that valley filled with people. God showed me that some day I would preach to that multitude. I believe that has really happened because I have traveled and preached to many. Then at the age of 14 the old Baptist preacher preached and his text was Matthew 27:22, (22) Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified. It was then I made my decision to follow Christ. I did my very best. At age 17 1/2 I met my wife. Then I decided I would get married which we did. Then God so very graciously unrooted me from the Baptist church of which I loved. And when I was 21 years old, I met a man by the name of Grant. He had been a Nazarene preacher but he received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. While he didn’t know anything about the Baptism of Jesus, all he knew was the formula of Matthew
28:19. He did know about the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which he preached. In the year of 1920 in a little church called the Round Top, of which we have had much to do with even in this very day, I received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, December 28, 1920. I spoke in tongues as they did in Acts 2:4. But reading down through the Bible, when I came to Acts after I had received the Holy Ghost, I read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and then as I read Acts Chapter 2:38 and those words moved right out of the book at me. Well, my wife hadn’t received it, she was still a good Baptist. I said to her, I’m into this, but not legally. I
began to search Water Baptism, this was in February, in April of the same year 1921 a man by the name of John Deering came to my house and preached Water Baptism, in Jesus Name. I could make much more mention of this, but needless. August of that year, 1921, I was baptized in the Precious Name of Jesus for the remission of sins. I understand the feeling that I got when I came to the scripture in Colossians. See, to me Water Baptism means something. When I went down in the water and came out, such a peace had come over me that I didn’t want to speak to break that great spell that seemed to be on me. I just felt to
be set apart. I realize now at this later date that this is the seal.

I was circumcised of the heart. The seal of the new covenant was placed upon me and I can greatly rejoice
in this. So it takes Water Baptism in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. It also takes the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues to make that better resurrection. I have covered the beginning of the covenant with Abraham. Abraham remembered. God said I know
Abraham, he shall command his children after him. And truly in this new covenant, you have this same possibility of commanding your children. This is not meaning that you give them orders, but the mark of the Gospel by your faithfulness will mean their salvation.

Let us just take a summary of what we have covered, we come to Abraham; we come to tithing, and in Moses we also come to offerings. If you remember the people gave until Moses said to stop them. Imagine, people with such a heart to give, that they would give until you would have to stop them. You know that
has happened in our lives. In the church in Pontiac, the first year I asked for four thousand and they brought fifty-six hundred. Last year at our great conference we asked for ten  thousand and the people brought fourteen thousand. Oh such  people, such brethren. How marvelous to live among people like
this. As I spoke to my son before he left for South America, this time, I asked him what we should ask for this year for the missionary field, and before he thought he said twenty thousand. Now in the face of all the upheaval in the world the changing of the nations and all of these things and we say twenty thousand,
Shouldn’t we cut back? NO, let us cut ahead, God gives and gives. Remember in the beginning of this we spoke about the gift of giving. Now notice a rose bush, I love roses and the gardener says you have to love them in order to raise them, that must be true because even if they pick you, you can see the beauty in them. But if you do not cut the rose and take out the blooms the plant would stop blooming. If you wouldn’t give what God gives you to give, remember this, the gift from the giver would stop and we
would be without anything to give. Oh, it is so wonderful. The laws of God are past finding out. May this little booklet bring a great joy into every heart. And may you practice the gift of giving. Also let us give of ourselves to the Master. Surely the end time is near. We know not the day nor the hour. He may come
at morning, He may come at mid-day, or at night, or even at midnight or the morning watch. God bless each, in Jesus Sweet Name, Amen.