God First
By Arthur Vess

      4. Excuse Four: "I pay my own bills and then tithe what is left." Your own bills are not the Lord's bills. This reminds us of the colored boy who asked for the rind after he had been refused a piece of the melon, and received the selfish reply, "Dey ain't gwine ta be no rine." How can a man tithe what is left when there is nothing left? How many of us have anything left after our bills are paid? God claims the "First-fruits of ALL thine increase," not the "left-overs -- the bones for the dogs, the pennies for the Church." All your living expense, such as groceries, clothes, and houserent belongs to your own affairs, and is to be settled by your part, -- the nine-tenths. How can we take God's tithe for these things when God's world is in darkness and sin? Those who say that they pay man first, often fail to pay God or man. Tithers make good prompt customers.