\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Forget About Tithing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> link).<\/p>\nI figured I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d get some harsh rebuttals from pro-tithing clergy, but not so; apparently the pro-tithing clergy don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t read this letter or they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a good argument in their defense \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 or they agree with what I said (it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the Word that says it, I just point it out). A couple of pastors commented, and they agreed that giving, not tithing is where a Christian\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s heart should be.<\/p>\n
My dear friend Roger, a pastor in the Midwest said:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Pastors preach on tithing for a variety of reasons \u00e2\u20ac\u201c mostly wrong ones. Steve, in regards to giving and tithing, I often think that pastors get the cart before the horse. If we had more church members grounded with sound doctrinal stability, filled with love for their Savior, and driven with child-like enthusiasm for His Word, our churches would discover themselves in a wonderful position to be effectively empowered by God to reach the lost. (Realistically, this is what we are to be about in the first place.) \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 \u00c2\u00a0Oh how our churches need pastors who will get along with God, hear from God, rightly divide what God has said, apply it to themselves, and then proclaim it to others! Lastly, we need always remember that many ignorant pastors attempt to use their Bibles as toolboxes to brow beat parishioners into conforming into preconceived plans for their pastorate. Some never realize, and may never accept, that many of their parishioners may be walking with the Lord, living in His Word, and discovering that God is leading then differently.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/p>\nLinda, also from the Midwest, is the wife of a pastor:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153God so loved that He gave and continues to give, the message of the Scripture from the gitgo is give. Everything we have is a gift from God, perhaps we believe we deserve it but it is only by God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s blessed grace that we have the necessities and luxuries of life. Scripture teaches us to be good stewards of God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gifts and talents. These gifts came from the Lord and in gratitude we return to Him a portion of what He has given us. Giving for me boils down to one thing that we love and trust God with everything we have.<\/em><\/p>\nRather than being \u00e2\u20ac\u0153grudge gifts\u00e2\u20ac\u009d our offerings to God are to be joyous expressions of love, faith, trust & gratitude. God desires surrender of everything we are and have to Him. I question if one is unable to give a tenth how in the world will one ever be able to surrender all to Him? In my opinion money is the easiest to give it is the surrender of our hearts and being to Him where the rubber meets the road.<\/em><\/p>\nOur family for one is daily discovering the unfathomable love of our Father. We have learned the blessings of giving and we started the journey with Mal. 3:10 and we have been blessed beyond our wildest dreams.<\/em><\/p>\nMay all your journeys with the Lord be blessed!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/p>\nAmen! My kind of clergy.<\/p>\n
*****<\/p>\n
Last week I told you that when I searched for tithing in the New Testament I was stunned at how little it was mentioned and what was written was either in a negative context or referring to an Old Testament event. My conclusion? There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing Christian<\/em> about tithing.<\/p>\nWell, I figured that giving<\/em> was Christian and that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d see what the New Testament had to say about giving. It happened again \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I was stunned. My assumption about giving, like my assumption about tithing was way off base. I figured that giving was about sharing my money, my stuff, and my time with others \u00e2\u20ac\u201c those less fortunate, those in need and those who dedicate their lives in ministry to others. I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wrong, wrong \u00e2\u20ac\u201c giving is about that; but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not about that<\/span><\/em>.<\/p>\nFirst of all, remember I said that tithe\/tithes\/tithing<\/em> show up only seven times in the New Testament? Give\/gives\/given\/giver\/gift<\/em> show up over 500 times in the New Testament!<\/p>\nThe next thing I noticed was that the overwhelming majority of those give\/gives\/given\/giver\/gift<\/em> references are about God giving us something \u00e2\u20ac\u201c eternal life, love, spiritual gifts, and earthly necessities.<\/p>\nThen I noticed that there were a lot of references about what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re to give God \u00e2\u20ac\u201c thanks, glory, honor, and praise (and finally an account of our lives).<\/p>\n
Finally, there are references about giving to others \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to the poor, to those who ask, to our brothers and sisters in Christ, to those who serve in ministry full time, and to other<\/em> churches.<\/p>\nWhat struck me was that when I thought about Christian giving it was always in terms giving to my church in the offering, or giving to another ministry or charity, or to a person or family in need. It was always about giving money or stuff or time to someone else. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I assumed Christian giving was all about. But when I looked at what the Bible actually said about giving, it was overwhelmingly about God giving to me, and then a distant second, about me giving to God, and then a far distant third about me giving to others.<\/p>\n
Then the light went on. It was so obvious \u00e2\u20ac\u201c so in front of my face all the time. Giving isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t about money or stuff or even time. Giving is a spiritual transaction. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s initiated by God. He gives to us first. He gives us life and love and every spiritual blessing to nurture us as we grow to become what He has purposed us to be. He gives us every physical blessing we need to survive while we live here on earth. He is our Father in the most intimate, most profound, most original way we can imagine. His gift to us is relationship.<\/p>\n
And we are created to respond. Our giving to God \u00e2\u20ac\u201c thanks, glory, honor, and praise \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is a response to His giving to us. The giving and receiving is what makes us whole; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s our relationship with He Who gives. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intimate and personal; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about His love and our response. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a spiritual transaction.<\/p>\n
Money and stuff and time are physical currencies. And any physical currency we hold, everything we own and our life itself isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t equal to the gift He first gave us. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why our obligatory response is giving him thanks, glory, honor and praise \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the only thing we possess that is of any value to Him. God doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take cash and he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need our stuff.<\/p>\n
But He has provided a way to respond to His giving that comes as close as we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to get to making a proper gift of our money and our stuff and our time. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s when we give to others.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I need clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/em>(Matthew 25:35-36, 40)<\/p>\nHe uses our physical gifts to others as a spiritual conduit back to Himself. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the only way our money and stuff and time can be turned into something of value to Him.<\/p>\n
Giving money and stuff and time isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a financial transaction, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a spiritual transaction. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a response to the inestimable grace and mercy He has given us. Our response to God is to treat others with the same love and mercy and generosity he has given us.<\/p>\n
*****<\/p>\n
A word about churches and pastors.<\/strong><\/p>\nGod told Moses to take an offering \u00e2\u20ac\u0153from each man whose heart prompts him to give\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> (Exodus 25:2) to build the first tabernacle. The first and second temples in Israel were built with tax money. The tabernacle and the temples were where God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Spirit dwelt while He was with the people of Israel.<\/p>\nToday God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Spirit dwells inside His people and we are His tabernacle and His temple. God doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t dwell in buildings; He dwells in us. That building you go to on Sundays and Wednesdays isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a church; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a building. God doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t dwell there \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 unless you (the church) are inside. The place the church (you again) gathers and worships can have a steeple, or big glass windows, or it can be a gymnasium, or a barn or a living room. The building you worship in doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 unless you try to make it matter by committing more honor and resources to it than it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s due. Buildings aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t monuments to God; they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re monuments to men.<\/p>\n
Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s your responsibility: Whatever building you get together in, it usually has expenses associated with it. Make sure they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re covered. If you can pay for cable and latt\u00c3\u00a9s each month, you can afford your share of the upkeep on your place of worship. Pretty simple.<\/p>\n
God provided for the support of the tribe of Levi \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the priests of Israel. Part of the Old Testament tithes went to cover this expense. As we discovered last week, tithing was a Jewish thing; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a Christian thing. But those who work for God full time have a right to support from those they serve (I Corinthians 9:3-11); that is<\/em> a Christian thing. If your pastor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s family is the poorest family in the church, shame on you. Honor God by honoring them.<\/p>\nAs for other ministers – evangelists, missionaries, street preachers, and the myriad of other God servants that come your way via television, radio, the internet \u00e2\u20ac\u201c do what God leads you to do. Just make sure it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s God leading you and not the guy on stage.<\/p>\n
Above all, remember that giving what you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been given is an act of worship. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an intimate personal spiritual transaction between you and the One Who gives all good gifts. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not your response to men; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s your response to Him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Matthew 25:40) We received a lot of comments from last week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s letter, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Forget About Tithing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d You really need to read some of them (just click the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Forget About Tithing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d link). I figured I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[186,459],"tags":[512,513,514,511],"class_list":["post-194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-money","category-possessions","tag-giving","tag-matthew-25","tag-new-testament","tag-tithing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}