Tithe Stewardship & Church Tithing

When the Church and its pastors can’t convince people to give, leave it up to pastor Bill. This is the new book by Bill Clinton entitled, “Giving”. It’s subtitle is, “How each of us can change the world”. You know what’s interesting is that the title of this book sounds much like a title many of the self-help mega-church pastors would come up with. Actually, i’m sorry, correction, i just caught myself. I did say “self-help” pastors. This book is about giving to OTHERS. It is not about self. So i think Bill Clinton is one notch above the selfish help pastors.

A creative illustration on video to show the effectiveness of giving. The video was a good inspiration all the way through, until the last scene quoted Malachi 3. I was overall impressed by its quality. This video is orignally posted on GodTube, which surprises me that they’ve actually allowed free access for all to see. I’m sure it took quite some time and money to compose this video.

1. The Holy Spirit is our new teacher, not the Mosaic law (Romans 12:8; Galatians 5:18-25)

2. There is no command for the New Covenant Church to tithe (Genesis - Revelation)

3. Tithing was used for the temple storehouse & ceremonial system (Nehemiah 10:37; Deuteronomy 12:17,18)

4. 10% giving is not an eternal principle nor a character trait of God (Romans 8:32)

5. The church is not commanded to follow the ordinances of Abraham and Moses (John 7:21-24)

6. A tithe only consisted of agricultural increase (Leviticus 27:30)

7. Tithing is not the minimum amount mentioned in scripture (Romans 12:1; Matthew 25:24-28)

8. An OT ceremony paralleled the future Church with a freewill offering (Deuteronomy 16:10)

9. We have new commands of giving (1 Corinthians 16:2; 2 Corinthians 9:7; Galatians 5:18-25)

10. I will leave out #10 and see what many of you come up with

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If i were to say to my kids, “tonight, we’re going to skip dinner so that mommy and daddy can save up for a house”, do you think that i could be reported to child affairs? I guess the same goes with how our churches operate. They neglect the immediate needs of their fellowship so they can fulfill the future goals. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with these visions and goals per se, but why have we neglected the immediate needs of our fellowship? You can’t nutritionalize and keep your family healthy by living on a vision. Visions and goals are good and all but let’s face it, i’m not skipping my dinners to fulfill them.

One of the bad doctrines that stem out of “The pursuit of Goals” is the enforcement of tithing. Many leaders call their church to follow in their footsteps as they are being led by the Spirit to build. This raises much suspicion because the people must give by a mandated law to a cause that claims to be inspired by the Spirit. But how can the Spirit give a commission on building expensive structures, without the ability to commission potential givers? Can you see how using the law to fund the call of the Spirit obstructs the spirit of discernment? This is how cults are formed and people are deceived. All someone has to do is say, i had a vision from God, and now you should support this vision, no questions asked.

Let’s have some accountability with our visions and our giving. If the Spirit is prompting the pastor to purchase a nicer complex, then i believe the Spirit should be the entity that prompts the support as well. If a pastor knows that our giving is open to discernment, he’ll probably think twice before he neglects the needy to feed the vision.

What’s the difference? What do I mean what’s the difference? What’s the difference between giving freely and giving willingly? Maybe there isn’t a difference. I have to admit myself that they both are very similar, but in regards to the definition of how you should give, they are different. The actual dictionary definitions do not explain much of the difference. They both practically use the word in the definition, which doesn’t help. So if we use the bible(NKJV) to help us see the difference maybe we can understand what the difference is.

1 Cor. 9:17 - For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a stewardship.

Matt 10:8 - Freely you have received, freely give.

The concordance definition of willingly states this:

1) unforced, voluntary, willing

2) of one’s own will

3) of one’s own accord

The Concordance definition of freely states this:

1) freely, undeservedly

Willingly implies- cheerfully making the choice to do what someone has asked you to do. But it is not obligatory in the fact that you are forced to do it. You don’t have a will when you are forced to do something. Now freely on the other hand implies that the giver wasn’t given a command or asked to do it, but gave it for practically no cause.
Many tithe teachers think that freely in the bible means that we shouldn’t feel that we have to give a tenth, but we should give out of love and because we want to give, and we are under grace now. In actuality though they are explaining willing giving, not free giving. No one is ever forced to give up a tenth of their income. God doesn’t hold a gun to everyone’s head and gives them no choice. if the tithe truly is commanded by God, but He does not force us to do it, then you cannot freely give it. You must willingly give the tithe. Why this is so important to understand is because giving freely has nothing to do with tithing. The bible allows us under the new covenant to freely give the tithe, but we are not under a command to do so. You are free to give any amount that you see fit, including 10%, because there is no exact command from scriptures. Although we have no command in scriptures to give a specific amount, that doesn’t mean that we don’t receive instructions from the Holy Spirit. So, now we are presented with an opportunity to give willingly because there are still commands coming from God about giving.

When the Holy Spirit asks you to give a certain amount, are you willing to give out of love and because you want to give? Do you want to give willingly? It’s your choice.

I will agree that personal standards are a must in one’s life. I think that you are setting yourself up for some sort of danger if you don’t define certain guidelines. God even created Adam & the garden at the beginning with boundaries. I don’t care if people say that giving 10% helps me to keep my finances disciplined, as well as those that say, i will only listen to hymns, wear dresses, and not watch TV. If that helps them with their discipline, and if that’s what their conscience is telling them, that’s fine. Although, we must not let our own boundaries define universal spirituality. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not a spiritually evil or good tree. Because of pictures, we probably think in our head that these trees were glowing with gold fruit and sat on top of a hill somewhere just emanating with a spiritual aura. It was just a tree that God used to set a standard for Adam, and there was nothing right or wrong about the fruit or tree. What was initially wrong, was Adam’s heart and choice. For our own personal life God has planted trees of knowledge of good and evil, but they have no spiritual value to the rest of us, because God has not revealed them to our conscience. If you think about it this way, Adam could not have sinned some other way, such as getting angry, or being stubborn, because God did not reveal those choices to him.

All physical standards are “things” that do not have a potion inside that creates evil once you bite into it. So, unless God has personally revealed to you the purpose of the fruit on your spiritual trees, then you are at liberty to eat or not eat of its fruit. Just keep in mind that your personal standards do not reflect what God has revealed to others.

In light of this, i don’t believe that God has revealed the tithe to everyone. Yes, they’ve heard of giving 10% before, but not as a commandment. The tithe was not revealed to the New Testament Church as a command. God has not planted a tree that defines what we give and where. Instead, he has given us his Spirit to determine that for us. It’s just a matter of remembering and obeying that command while the serpent tries to trick us into thinking differently.

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I read this comment just a minute ago: “money does not make us happy”. i thought about that, and maybe i’m thinking too much, but if money doesn’t make people happy then why should we give our money away? If people aren’t blessed by our gift of money, then what fun would it be to give it away? Don’t tell me that you don’t at lease feel some relief when you receive your paycheck every week. Come on, it puts a grin on everyone’s face. Why not? Is that wrong? God gave us that money. So, wouldn’t it be a gift from him? Wouldn’t he want us to be happy for what he’s given us. Your children, a roof over your head, transportation, have all been given to us by God, but i don’t think anyone of us is saying that our children or a dry bed doesn’t make us happy.

The other point i want to bring up is the other comment that i read: “tithing will help us remember that money doesn’t bring happiness”. To tell you the truth if you want a lesson on how money doesn’t bring happiness, then give it all away. If we truly are seeking that lesson, then why not do the ultimatum and just give it all away. How do we know that giving 10% of our income will teach us that spirit filled priniple? Most people say that God said so in the bible by the guides that were laid out in the Old Testament. What they don’t see, is the guide that was given to us in the New Testament. The Holy Spirit was given to us in the New Testament, so we could have instructions to walk by. The old testament had the law as its tutor, but we have the instructions of the Spirit as ours.

You don’t teach the same lesson to five year olds as you do for 15 year olds. The holy spirit is a personal guide for every individual’s life, not the tithe. In conclusion, ask the Spirit to guide your money and your giving, only He can help you be satisfied with your money and giving.

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http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070505/NEWS10/70505004

The above article is about a religious organization who gave $10 to those who attended the sunday service. I don’t know if you can call it a ‘reverse tithe’, but it’s interesting that they gave money away. All that they asked from the receivers, was for them to give that money to someone or something other than that church, that they feel they are spiritually fed from. I really don’t know anything about the “unity church”, so what are your thoughts on their giving? should other churches follow? Maybe you just have something you want to say about the “unity church”

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