I am posting an old fovorite for those of you new to this site. If you haven’t taken the time to read this yet, please enjoy.

The Day I Robbed God
Back in early 2001 times were tough. This particular day spirits were exceptionally low. I had a crappy job, I was depressed, it was Monday and I couldn’t even find my Bible.

My wife and I were financially strapped. I was earning very little and the stress was taking its toll. Despite my situation, I was a tither to the core. Come hell or high-water that 10% found its way into the offering basket. The magic 10%, my church believed in it, my pastor preached it and I put it into practice. I also went the occasional extra mile with my open-hearted gifts to missions. I won’t even take blogging space to mention my generous gift of $200 that I made to faith harvest that year.

Due to lack of finances I couldn’t afford to take my wife out and my 2 credit cards were maxed out. Something had to be done. So on that life-changing Monday after years of faithful tithing I abandoned all good conscience and took the plunge. We decided to lower our monthly giving to the church down to a measly 3%. That’s right folks, a whopping 3%. That’s a full 7 less than 10.

Finally the fateful Sunday arrived. I walked through the doors to the sanctuary with my head held low; feeling the kind of shame only a non-tither could feel. With fear and trembling I dropped the check into the offering bucket and tried not listen to the passionate requests from the pulpit for more money. I was well steeped in the doctrine of tithe, and was well aware of the consequences of forsaking such important New Testament…uuuh I mean Old Testament teaching. Here’s mine and yours favorite Bible verse:

“Mal 3:8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. 9 *You are cursed with a curse…*”

And boy did I ever know this teaching. You better obey this one or you will have robbed God and unfortunately find yourself under Malachi’s curse. It was well known to all that this sneaky curse had leaped the pages of the Old Testament, made its way right passed Christ, the cross, the new covenant and found itself a staple teaching in the American Mega-Church. Damn curse, it’s unstoppable!

And so I awaited my punishment. For a month I slept with one eye open. I knew it was coming, I just didn’t know when and how. I waited and waited . . .and waited.

About a month later at about 3am my wife and I lay peacefully asleep in bed. Suddenly an intensely loud crash filled the air. I sat straight up in bed, eyes wide open, convinced that judgment had finally caught up with me. THE CURSE OF MALACHI WAS UPON ME AND MY HOUSEHOLD . . . AAAAAAAAAARGH!!

But, my fellow bloggers do not be afraid, neither be thou dismayed, it turned out to be a false alarm. Some intoxicated driver had lost control of his car and ended up hitting the side of our apartment. No one was hurt.

In time, despite the occasional nightmare of God showing up demanding back payment plus interest, I felt pretty good. I got a better job and paid down the credit card debt. These days I even give pretty darn close to 10%.

Not sure what this story really proves, but it is interesting to note that the only change that giving only 3% had on me was that I had 7% more to spend on bills. Funny how that works.

Posted by White-Boy on Tuesday, December 21, 2004

I just found this article on prayer titled “I can’t pray for you people”. It offers a slightly different perspective which is nice, and I ran it through the bitterness scale and it rated a 2.4. That’s not very bitter.

http://www.the-next-wave.org/stories/storyReader$132

Here’s a taste:

I need you people to stop sending me prayer requests via email. I mean it… just stop. In fact, I want you to stop sending them to just about everyone else, too. I know that you care about these people… these needs you send my way. And you want others to know, to care, to pray. You want to feel a sense of connection, of community with a larger group of people, people who may, even just for a moment, feel some of the same concern you are feeling. But the truth is, there is a cost to what you are doing.

My brother emailed me today trying to get me to post something. I responded saying I didn’t want this blog to feel like a job, and I was quite comfortable going a day without posting anything.

To which he emailed back:

Where has the fire gone? This is no job, this is a mission, a call from God.

The Lord would say to you this day,

“For a time will come-a, when you will be faced with a great calling-a. Your burden will be heavy-a and time will be short-a. I will be your rock-a, I will create a hedge of protection around you-a. Step into the river-a, wade into the river-a, take off your clothes and do a cannonball into the river-a.”

Thus sayeth the Lord.

Our boy Zach Dundas from the Willamette Week has done it again.

In the latest addition of the paper there is a front page article on Donald Miller, a Christian writer from Portland who is gaining national prominence.

I have never met Mr. Miller, but he seems like a fascinating guy, and he seems like the new breed of Christian that is slowly taking over today’s modern church.

He has an excellent quote in his new book Blue Like Jazz, where he describes why he quit his job as a youth minister at a suburban church.

He explains, “It was like going to church at the Gap.”

Ahh, so true… so true… some of you so-called radicals at City Bible should read this quote again and then take a look in the mirror.

Anyway, his book sounds interesting and I plan on buying it tomorrow.

I am posting a brief email that my old college roomate, Peter, just sent me. I thought it was an interesting take on giving to support Christian radio.

For what its worth, Peter has no affiliation with City Bible. He attended the church once when he came out to visit me about five years ago. And at the time, he genuinely enjoyed the church. He thought it was entertaining. This despite the fact that he attended a PBC Graduation service, the second most boring service of the City Bible year (the first being Missions Sunday).

Also, my friend Peter grew up as a Methodist, which as most of you CBC members know, means that he’s really only half of a Christian. (Not being spirit-filled and all)

Anyway, here is his thought:

Well, the local Christian station was having a fundraiser over the weekend quite like a PBS Telethon, but it was named Share-A-Thon. Classic. I love these things; the people who are giving do so because they feel like they are contributing to the Christian cause but really they are just paying for their own enjoyment. Does the station serve seekers or contributors?

Plus the euphemisms didn’t end there. Apparently your sharing couldn’t come in the form of a tithe or donation but rather you would make a “Faith Promise.” What the hell is that?!? A Faith Promise sounds like something you declare at the altar when the Spirit tells you to move to Mongolia and you accept.

But then I guess the donators wouldn’t feel as good about getting fleeced of their money and now they can proudly proclaim the Faith Promise they have made to God and Star 99.1 to all their friends in their inclusive Christian circle.