The Blessing Of Paying Tithes And Giving Of Offerings

Engr. Eder M. Bacus, one of our FGBMFI old time very faithful member, also a well-known and successful (income-wise) Electrical Engineer of Davao City, Philippines, and whom I know believes in paying tithes and giving of offerings as eloquently proved in his life and earthly possessions and the various big construction projects that were awarded to him, personally requested me to write on this very sensitive topic.

Last Saturday (March 8, 2014) after our fellowship meeting, he was in conference with certain of our members. To my surprise, as I passed by them, he verbally requested me to write about this topic.

I recall that many years back, in the church where both Engr. Bacus and I are members up to this day, being then a council member for many years, and he a deacon also for many years, I used to be assigned by our pastors (plural because our pastors are re-assigned or retired from time to time) to exhort in the pulpit our congregation to pay their tithes and give their offerings as an essential part of our worship service. This must be his reason for his request to me. Though I am aware that this topic is highly controversial, sensitive and difficult to follow, I gladly obliged for the glory of God.

The Bible tells us, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there 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, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. 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 field, sayeth the LORD of hosts” (Malachi 3:10-11 KJV).

Due to the frequency of my assignment, I have memorized the verses that even without opening my Bible as I stand before the podium, I could rattle the verses from memory. Of course, to be credible, I bring with me to the pulpit my favorite King James Version [KJV] Bible (a gift to me by my first Pastor Thelmo C. Bringas who baptized me in water), open it to the book of Malachi, but actually from memory, I would recite the verses. I have preserved this Bible up to this day. If I forget any verse, I go back to this Bible and will easily find it. It serves as a concordance to me. I must have done my assigned task well because I was often assigned to exhort the congregation and receive the tithes and offerings.

Tithes is the tenth part of our income. This is what I call controversial because some say that it should be 10^th of the gross income while others say “of the net income”. Since the Bible is silent on this matter, God will understand if the believer is mistaken in his application. Beyond this amount is the offering.

The more we give, the more we receive. The Bible tells us, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give unto your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again” (Luke 6:38 KJV) “… He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully” (2 Cor. 9:6 KJV). And the Lord God additionally promised:

“⁷ Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

⁸ And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:” (vss. 7-8 KJV)

Because of this ministry I used to perform in our church for many years back, aside from being a Sunday school teacher in the professional class (being already a lawyer then and a ministerial graduate of our Bible College), I had to “walk my talk” or to do what I used to “preach” in the pulpit. And I have proved the truth of it myself.

The eloquent proof of the truth of God’s word is that I was able to buy a lot and build our residential house literally beside, in fact, adjacent to our church, a lot which I purchased on installment basis in 1971 at P10,000 downpayment and P5,000 yearly for four years. I was then the legal counsel and Corporate Secretary of the Rural Bank of Tagum (Davao del Norte, Philippines) when it was not yet a City. I used to draw my notarial fee in that bank every December only which amounted to much more than this amount; God provided, and truly provides! In those days the amount was quite a large amount, especially for me who am a struggling practitioner of the law profession, but something in me (now I know it is the Holy Spirit) persuaded me to “close my eyes” to the staggering price, so to speak, to grab the opportunity of acquiring the lot with a DBP (Development Bank of the Philippines) financed bungalow wooden house built by the former owner which I completely renovated by converting it into a semi-concrete, and adding a second storey with first class wooden building materials like Molave for window jambs, alternate Tindalo, Molave and Manggachapoy, for flooring, Narra and Dao for wall paneling and Romblon marble and Narra tilewood for flooring, that even the previous owner could no longer recognize it as his former home. By the grace of God, after the renovation it costs multi-million which took me seven years because I did not borrow from the bank or from anyone else any single cent. Everything literally came from, or was supplied by, our Lord God.

Some years thereafter in 1988, by faith, (as the amount was staggering for me), my wife and I bought on installment basis again, a 700 Sq. Meter lot located one block away from our residence in front of a “rotunda” and the Barangay Hall at Mt. Apo Street, this City, about 100 meters away from the largest and most prestigious hospital in Davao City (perhaps in the whole of Mindanao Island) at P50,000.00 downpayment and “P5,000.00 monthly for a period of five years, again without borrowing a single cent from the bank or from anyone else. God just supplied the amount as they fell due.

During that time, the Personnel Officer of the Department of Health (DOH) where my wife then worked as an Accounting Clerk, Mr. Moises Peralta, who was accommodated in our modest home for two months when he was transferred from DOH Cagayan de Oro City (Region 10) to Davao Region (Region XI), offered to me the position of part-time Legal Officer of the DOH without actually holding office with a monthly compensation of P9,000.00. This is a fulfillment of the aforequoted verse in Luke 6:38 which says, “give and it shall be given unto you…”. Obviously, it was our “giving” Mr. Peralta the accommodation in our home that he must have thought of reciprocating our kindness to him. This became the source of our monthly installments on the lot for five years. In this lot God led me to build the 2-storey fully concrete law office and commercial building which I finished in four years. The ground floor is being leased for business purposes. Again, I used practically the same building materials as in our modest residential house, with granite flooring both on the first and second floors with Narra door jambs and door shutters and tempered window glasses. God blessed me to construct and make my law office to approximate the materials used (cedar wood which is equivalent to our molave tree) by King Solomon in building the famous Solomon’s Temple. Jokingly, I told my uncle Panfilo G. Dumayas who was an Elder in their Church and my “Maestro Carpentero” to make the building like the Temple of Solomon. Engr. Eder Bacus was my electrical engineer!

Why did it take me several years, like King Solomon of old, to finish my building projects? Because this is God’s way for me: “slow by slow” as the funds came in and as my clients pay me in kind like sands and gravel, the steel bars from my hardware client, the alternate molave, and tindalo for flooring, narra and dao for paneling all from my clients, and all charged to my attorney’s fees. My philosophy in building was simple. Don’t hurry; follow God’s time table, so I don’t have to borrow money, but always trusting God to supply the materials and funds. Consequently, the building construction was very slow such that some of my well-meaning friends and clients who sympathized with my “pitiful” situation, we may say it, suggested for me to borrow from the bank, but I just smiled at them, because my source is our God, not any bank or any lending institution. My answer to them, somewhat jokingly, was: “Rome was built in seven years”. Amazingly, God supplied my needs! The Word of God is indeed true that, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19 KJV).

Early this year, God provided funds for a construction of another semi-commercial building beside the law office. By God’s provision and grace, this time, it shall be finished in four months, no longer by several years as in the past, and as usual without my borrowing money from the bank. Praise God!

Why did God provide? Because “I walk my talk”. I followed what I preached in the pulpit of our church.

I myself am amazed and wondering how I was able to attain such a considerable “success” (for lack of an appropriate term) in building our modest residential house and the law office building and the newest semi-commercial building beside, so to speak. I believe it is God’s provision and response to my faithfulness to Him, not by my own effort or work. Of course, I tried to be faithful to my ministry and at the same time worked very hard serving the kingdom of God first and my clientele. It is God’s fulfillment of His promise to one who seeks the kingdom of God first and the believer who pays his tithes and give offerings. Our Bible says, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all the things you have need of shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). If God makes a promise, He will fulfill it up to the last dot.

“Success begets success”. When people see you successful, they “ride” with, and on your, success. From then on my clients added, in fact, multiplied. Praise God!

The summit of my practice of law came when I became a member of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (DCCCII) upon the sponsorship of my bosom friend, the late Rey de Leon, one of my co-founders of the FGBMFI, Davao City Chapter, the first, oldest and with the largest membership in the Philippines, then and up to this day. Praise God for it! In this Chamber of Commerce with a membership back then of 400 businessmen and professionals, I became first an Assistant Corporate Secretary, then Corporate Secretary, Vice-President on Professional & Business Ventures, President for two years in 2005 and 2006 and finally a Chairman of the Board for one year in 2008, when through my initiative as President, the by-laws of the DCCCII was amended by creating a position of Chairman of the Board, following the traditional position of officers in the Philippine Chamber of Commerce & Industry (PCCCI). Businessman John Gaisano of the famous Gaisano Mall was the first elected Chairman of the Board, followed by myself.

My bonus as a Chamber member was its recommendation endorsed by the PCCCI to then President Fidel V. Ramos of the Republic of the Philippines for appointment as an Employers’ Representative of the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board of Region XI (RTWPB-XI), which position of honor and prestige among businessmen, by the grace of God, I hold up to this day. Once in a while when there is controversy on wages in the region, the RTWPB-XI members appear on TV. I have been re-appointed every five (5) years by all succeeding presidents since then. My latest re-appointment is yet pending with incumbent President Noynoy C. Aquino.

Why do I relate these personal amazing achievements and successes, so I may call it, although my topic is “tithes and offering”? It is not to boast, but to demonstrate the truth of the verses in the Bible I have quoted above, because I personally believe that my personal successes, if I may call it aptly, from being a self-supporting student from college, and thereafter supporting all my seven younger siblings in attaining their college degrees, or eight to include my eldest brother who was on his fourth year college at the Central Luzon Agricultural University at Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, is so amazing to me, that I find no other cause than my faithfulness in my ministry in the kingdom of God, here on earth, particularly in the matter of tithes and offerings, and, of course, offerings in the FGBMFI since my joining the chapter in Davao City. Praise be to our God Almighty and His only begotten Son, our LORD Jesus Christ! By the way, I give offering in FGBMFI because the tithe is paid and also offering to the house of God [Church] (Malachi 3:10).