ABOUT TITHING

[Guest Carly49]

Well, here we are Sunday afternoon. My husband and I did go to the little Penecostal Church this morning! Praise the Lord! And I did bring in my working money tithes and a little offering! I am TRUSTING GOD to provide ALL MY NEEDS. I personally do believe that Malachi 3:10 does apply to each and every one of us TODAY! The Lord says "test me on this".....so I am.

I am waiting, maybe there will be an "angel" at my door!

Carly

[wordsower]

Great Carly,

If you are convicted, then follow the Spirit.

God told me to tithe when I was first saved and even my pastor said it wasn't for the New Testament but I did anyway, knowing that it would bounce my mortgage check that I had already sent out.

That was Sunday. Monday there was a mysterious $300.00 credit to my account that the bank couldn't explain at first, then a few days later another $300.00!!! They finally said they had made a mistake some 6 months earlier....(fat chance since I would have missed it!!)

God is awesome and He does supply all of our needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus!

[ellie]

Wordsower, that is awesome! I have had that happen several times, once it was for over $1500 and the bank could not find an error anywhere, they just finally said, it must be yours since we can find no electronic error anywhere you must have made a deposit that wasn't recorded, and my husband and I just laughed...because, of course we would have remembered making a deposit that big. I love God so much, He is more than awesome. Love in Christ, Mary (ellie)

[Guest]

I do not find myself disagreeing with anything here, so I cannot add much to it. I would like to distill it into a succinct version, which mirrors what has already been said.

Tithing was Old Testament. and was for the Levites, as their livelihood. They were not only Spiritual leaders, they were the government.

By modern analogy, we need to support our local ministry, and pay taxes.

People were always to give to help those in need, that has not changed. When they collected in the early church, it was for the help of other Christians, not so well off.

God loves a cheerful giver.

It is easy for us to get hung up on paying our bills (which, is a moral obligation, by the way). It is easy for us to add up out bills, and see that there is no money left to pay a tithe or give a free will offering. Stewardship may come into play here. One needs to examine, if they are living outside their means. Do we, forsake giving so that we can enjoy a higher standard of living? Most of us probably do.

I do not think that we need to get legalistic about it, but for those of us who would like to be able to give more, we probably can, by giving up something else in our lives. Trade the SUV for an economy car, drop cable TV, get an antenna or, drop TV altogether. You get the idea. If your are truly poor, there may not be much you can give up, but, if you are truly poor, you probably do not own a computer.

I know I could give up a lot that I have not, and in doing so, would receive a blessing from God, possibly in this life, certainly in the next.

At our church, the pastor required tithing as prerequisite to membership, although one was welcome to attend and benefit from everything without membership.

I was disturbed by this and told the pastor as much. He recommended a book to me about tithing. I read the book, which was a defense of the necessity to tithe. Odd thing was, the book convinced me of just the opposite. However, I also discovered in my freedom not to tithe, that I was now able to give cheerfully. I resented being forced or expected to tithe, once I realized that I did not have to, I was free too! Imagine that!

When all is said and done, we came into the world with nothing, and will leave the same way. Everything belongs to the Lord already, what we have, he has entrusted to us, and it is up to us to manage our material blessings as they are: The property of God.

Well, so much for being succinct! God Loves a cheerful giver!

[ted]

Amen!

My list of mysterious monies is too long to post.

I'm not close to rich, but God gets what He needs, one way or the other.

Blessings,

t.