Pour Out

Pastor Sam Ursales tells his story….

2005 was a year of great lesson for me. My wife and I were both working for the government. We had been married for two years and we had our first child. We had a farm, which gave us a very abundant harvest, so life was good.

Since I was involved in a livelihood support project for the fishermen of our community, I had access to government agencies that were responsible for the project. One day, a contract for the construction of 3 fishing boats was offered to me. It was a good deal. Since I was not the only bidder, I prayed to God to give the contract to me and in return, I promised to give 20% of my profits to Him.

My prayer was answered. I got the contract and in three months time I made a profit of Pph100,000.00 ($2,000) from it. But as I held the money in my hand, I made another deal with God. I told Him that I would invest the money and fulfill my promise to Him later with an increase of 30%. So I didn’t give God my
promised 20%.

But tragedy struck! A month later, my father died. And he was the one in charge of our corporate business. Our company started losing money. After a month, I struggled to recover my investment, only to find out that my assistant stole thousands of pesos from me. And things got worse when robbers entered our home and at gunpoint, demanded money from us. They left with large sums of money. Right away I remembered my unfulfilled promise to God, so I begged for His forgiveness and guidance.

A few months later, my wife delivered our second child through cesarean section, which left us with a large hospital bill. I thought things would start getting better, but they did not. The robbers continued to threaten our lives. I prayed earnestly to God and asked for His leadings. I was very sorry for my broken promise.

Then things started to look up a bit, or so I thought. I heard about a job opening in Japan. Without hesitation, my wife and I resigned from our government jobs and transferred to Davao so my family could live with my sister there while I was away.
The job recruiter asked for Pph 50,000 ($1000) to process my papers. I thought this was God’s way of solving our problems, so I gave up our last money. Four months later, the recruiter for the Japan job disappeared with our Pph 50,000.

Today we no longer have any money, yet we are hopeful. I learned a valuable lesson from my dishonesty. We are starting over, but this time through God’s help we will do what is right, for it surely does not pay to break promises to God.

Pastor Asher Catalan tells his story…

I came to America with no money in my wallet. I had no suitable clothing for my first cold Sabbath in San Francisco.
But I was not worried because I knew that God would provide me with the things that I needed. I started my work here as a Bible Worker, receiving only $300.00 a month. Yet even with this small stipend, I gave $30 for tithe and $10 for offerings. I sent $150 to my mother in the Philippines, and the rest I used to buy things that I needed. I was given a free room inside the church.
Amazingly, every time I returned my tithes and offerings to God, He doubled my blessings. The brethren in church gave me needed necessities. And in my first few months here, I also received 2 big boxes loaded with clothes and everything that I needed. And it came from you, Mom Reva!

In the five years of living here in the United States, I had never experienced not having money in my pocket. And God continues to provide. Today I’m greatly blessed. He gave me a godly wife and two healthy TWINS. God is good all the time.

Malachi 3: 8 – 11. “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me. But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings…..Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house. And try Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not OPEN the windows of heaven and
POUR OUT for you such a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. And I will REBUKE the DEVOURER for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground…”

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