As I was going through my office this morning, and if you have seen it recently you would know what a chore this is, and I came across something that made me pause. I came across an envelope with my tithe checks that go to the NW Ministry Network. As I saw this, I was reminded of my time in prayer this morning. I was praying about my families financial situation, which can be kinda scary sometimes. The Lord quickly told me that I need to be obedient and send that check off because I was not walking in complete obedience. I, of course, came up with the great excuse of, "well, it is a cashiers check and so I technically have paid it already, I just haven't mailed it." Well, this was not the answer that God was looking for. It was very clear that He was not amused by my wonderful explaining away of disobedience. See, I realized then that it does no good to only be half-way obedient. Honestly, God doesn't care about the money, He cares about my walk with Him and my complete obedience to His Word. Unfortunately, we often times do this to God. We do just enough to make it look like we are being obedient to the will of God, when what we are doing is not only being disobedient, but also trying to lie to God. My mom always told me that slow obedience is still disobedience. Ouch! This obedience that I am talking about can be anything that the Lord is asking of you. Is it how you are spending your time, is it reaching out to your friends with the Truth, is it a habit that God is wanting you to give up, or is it the tithe that He is asking from you...whatever it is, are you walking in complete obedience, or have you not gotten around to mailing that envelope on your desk? Well, I gotta go...to the post office!
May 16, 2007 at 5:56 PM
Ouch, is right. Some deep stuff to think about. Reading your posts is like a daily devotional.
May 17, 2007 at 11:01 AM
The fact that you feel guilty about failing to 'tithe' does not by itself mean that God is telling you to do it. On the one hand, you should keep your word. It is the honorable thing to do. On the other hand, we all need to be careful about things we promise to do.
After rereading your comment, it seems to me that you might be using the word 'tithe' loosely. Possibly you only mean it is your gift of choice to a ministry as opposed to an obligation to actually give 10% because "God's word says so". The short story is that 'tithing' was never directed to Christians. It was only for the Jews in the Old Testament. Contrary to what we have been taught, there never was one general tithe that all Jews had to obey. There were 4 tithes and they were very specific as to who, when, how, how often, etc. It is impossible for Christians to tithe as outlined in Scripture. That's OK. Like I said, you and I were never the intended audience and NO we are not cursed for failing to tithe.
I go into much more detail on my website www.inyourbible.com and it won't cost you a thing.
George
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