ROBBERS THAT GO TO CHURCH!
In response to the article posted by Goshen360 on “Preachers And Pastors Receiving Monthly Salary For Preaching The Gospel”, February 27, 2012, I wish to make some counsel from the following scriptures: Mal. 3:8-11 says

8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings.
9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me.
10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the LORD Almighty

There is no gain saying the fact that pastors are meant to get their food (wages) from the work of God. And please note that what the pastors are paid is WAGES (not Salaries). If you study that 1 Corinthians 9:1-14 (NIV) (which Goshen360 quoted) with the mind of Christ, one or two scriptures will jump at you telling you that TITHES & OFFERINGS are primarily meant for the pastor(s) UPKEEP viz:

7. Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk?
8. Do I say this merely from a human point of view? Doesn’t the Law say the same thing?
9. For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.”a Is it about oxen that God is concerned?
10. Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest.
11. If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you?
12. If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more? …
13. Don’t you know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar?
14. In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.
Note a: Deut 25:4

Having said all this, dearly beloved, my counsel is that we ask ourselves the following questions & be sincere about them:

• With what mindset do I approach every Word of God?
• Am I a robber that goes to church?
• How regular and faithful do I pay my tithe or am I a hypocrital Christian?
• Have I been of any material and/or financial benefit to my pastor(s) (1 Cor 9:11)?
• Have I realized that my tithes and offerings are the seeds that will provoke my breakthroughs (Mal 3:10)?
• Should I allow been critical deny me the privilege/benefit of proving God for my breakthrough (if I so believe His infallible Word (Mal 3:10-11))?

It is only sincere answers to the above questions and others that the Holy Spirit may drop in your heart that will tell us where we belong individually.

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable— if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” (Phillipians 4:8-9)