By Apostle Frederick K.C. Price

Tithes and offerings are the very center and circumference of God’s financial plan. Again, the issue is not the money, it is the condition of the heart. Where is your heart?

While on our way to church one rainy Sunday morning, my wife and I saw a man jogging. From the looks of it, keeping his flesh intact was important. His flesh was possibly his treasure, and he was taking care of it come hell or high water, rain, sleet, snow or sunshine.

One could say he should have been in church rather than laying up physical bodily treasure for himself. Maybe he had gone to church earlier, but one could think what my wife and I thought about the situation and that his flesh was very important to him and possibly his treasure.

Jesus is the one who made the silver, the diamonds, the pearls, so you know God is not opposed to material treasure. He is the one who invented it. Some people think the Father God made the silver and gold, but Jesus made it. I did not say He created them, I said He is the one who made them.

The Bible says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. But what are they composed of? Our scientists tell us a commodity called matter is the building block, or the ingredients that everything else is made of.

So God created the matter, but Jesus shaped it and formed it into what we see now. That means that God created the matter that gold is made out of, but Jesus made gold, iron, copper, diamonds, sapphires, and all the other things.

John 1:1-3:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

It doesn’t say created; it says “made.” God was the one who created the building materials, but Jesus was the architect.

There is a difference between the words make and create. To create in its most technical meaning is the ability to bring something out of nothing, to start from zero and make something or produce something. Only God can create.

Each year when the seasons change, the designers in the clothing industry talk about the fall creations. They are not really creations, they are taking pre-existing material and just shaping it in a new way, dyeing it a different color, but it is the same old material, same old yarn, same old silk, etc.

God is the creator; Jesus was the architect who designed everything we see; the Holy Spirit energized it and gave it life.

God is the creator, Jesus is the maker, and the Holy Spirit is the sustainer or the power source.

I mention all of this so you will know all the earthly goods originated from a spiritual source, and since this is the case, God cannot be opposed to your having those things. He just wants you to have your heart set on Him and not on the earthly things He created. Taking care of your health is important, it is a form of worship in a way, though you must turn your heart towards Him all the while. I know some who have had to go into an adult day care center in Smyrna because of poor health. It is important to respect the body you have been blessed with and not insult the creation of God by abusing it.

If you get yourself heavenly minded, you will become what we call no “earthly good.” But if you get yourself earthly minded, then you won’t be no “heavenly” or “spiritually good.”

Although we have a heavenly bank account, God wants us to make deposits in the spirit world, and out of those spiritual deposits, they will return and manifest themselves through our lives in material ways, but our hearts won’t be wrapped up materialistically. And that is the thing that God is concerned with and that is what Jesus was getting across to us.