A Statement on Giving
Posted on May 20th, 2008 by Reformed Pope into the Tithe, Prosperity Doctrine categorySomeone recently said, "Very Few people on this blog will comment on what they DO believe, they just want to criticize you for your beliefs." Well, I would like to think that we frequently comment on what we DO believe and then criticize you for your beliefs. Anyways, here is what I believe in regard to one subject…giving.
I believe that giving is one of the most important things we, as Christians, can do to spread the gospel. Honestly.
Give. Everything.
It's really that simple. Unfortunately, due to the miss-teachings of many prosperity preachers I must now clarify what I mean by "give". So allow me to present my "Give, but do NOT give" guideline.
Give, but do NOT give…a guideline
Give, but Do NOT give 10% of your income to your church to fulfill an Old Testament ritual. Give 10% to your church, but do it to fulfill New Testament direction from Jesus…and than tack on an extra 10% for fun. Or give 5% with a cheerful heart. Or give $20 bucks with a smile on your face. Give whatever you feel God wants you to give.
Give, but Do NOT give only to your church…give 10% of your income to your church, give another 5% to a local charity, then give $20 bucks to the guy standing on the corner, go buy the single mom down the street food, and also buy coffee for the businessman in a suit standing behind you in line at Starbucks, give to orphans in Africa…give to anybody and give to everybody.
Give, but Do NOT give only money (despite what "they" tell you, giving money is easy)…give of your time…give of yourself…give love…give hugs…give 1 night a week to serving food at a homeless shelter, give another night to read books to sick kids at the Children's Hospital, spend your Saturday afternoon mowing your neighbors lawn, spend a hot day passing around water bottles to those stuck outside in the heat, spend another day stuffing envelops for a local charity… treat others like Christ treated you.
Give, but Do NOT give so that God will bless you. Give because of what God has already done in your life. Give because Christ died so that you might be saved. Give because your eternity will be spent in heaven. Give because if you have Christ you have all the blessing you need. (And yes, if you give God will bless you… but do NOT attach the American definition of "blessing" to what God will do for you…God may just end up "blessing" you with disease, tragedy, and pain…and yet… still bring Himself glory.)
In summation, I believe that we should give… everything… and in doing so find complete contentment in what we already have from Jesus (Forgiveness, Mercy, Grace, Salvation) thus giving all the glory to God.
For those keeping score allow me to also state, "Jesus is my Lord and Savior".
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May 20th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
amen
May 20th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
AMEN!!
May 21st, 2008 at 6:32 am
This is one of the best posts I’ve ever seen on this blog! Well done! THIS is the kind of “change” America and today’s churches need! I’ll vote for an Obama/RP ticket!
May 21st, 2008 at 7:04 am
Well said.
May 21st, 2008 at 7:36 am
Also, as a tithing small business owner, may I add that you cannot simply give your way to wealth. This is heretical, has no biblical basis, and needs to stop being taught at every level. If you want to be rich, giving will be your foundation. It will not, however, be the whole vehicle to wealth.
May 21st, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Great stuff JM, you hit the nail on the head. More statements of faith like this will help readers defend the purpose of this blog. There are many attacks about how we are only bringing down the church or don’t represent Christ or whatever other stupid insecure statements these goof balls make, but the reality is God is doing more through this blog to challenge people’s lives and shine a light in very dark places. Many churches have made the experience a game, similar to some Hollywood sitcom or bang em out, blow em up cheese-ball concert in an attempt to be relevant. More churches need to preach Christ and Him crucified. The Gospel is all there is in my book and I don’t care about anything else. So hopefully the naysayers will open up there eyes and recognize that truth cannot be silenced!
May 21st, 2008 at 4:34 pm
“More churches need to preach Christ and Him crucified.”
I agree!
May 21st, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Wow, well written. It’s about time followers of Christ started giving the proper definitions to “blessing” and “giving” again. And remember that God just cares about our hearts, not about the appearance of things.
I know it’s the truth that God using hardships as blessings. I’ve experienced so much blessing as a result of so much of the heartache I’ve been through in my personal life. I would even venture to say that you can only experience true joy if you’ve also been through real suffering.
And I think it’s crucial that when we think of giving, we don’t think money only, or even as the first thing to come to mind, or necessarily at all. In our country, the easiest thing we could do is give money. It has no connection to our hearts. It’s a whole lot harder, or more revealing of our soul, when we actually give time and energy.
Well I hope that didn’t sound like just an echo of what’s already been stated.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:48 am
I must commend this post. It reminds me of of what I recently heard a brilliant Christian professor say concerning giving between the major three religions that came out of the descendants of Abraham; the way the Jews give, Muslims gives and what is to be the way Christians give. He said Jews give 10%. Muslims are suppose to give 2% directly to the poor. But Christians believe everything belongs to God, so they just decided how much they need to keep and give the rest to His work (which he did not define). I think that is closer to what we see in the New Testament then anything I have ever heard.