Test Me in This

The bible tells us to never put the Lord to the test. Jesus' rebukes the devil in the wilderness for suggesting that Jesus put the Lord to the test.

The bible does command us to test God in one area: our giving. It often seems at times that we cannot afford to give. We have this or that bill, or had sporadic issues, and this or that reason.

God responds asking us to put God to the test. It is interesting that we see that God is all powerful and do not connect it to giving.

I am of course not suggesting that the bible teaches prosperity gospel. Rather that God promises to provide for those who give.

He says that you can put him to the test and not be disappointed. I thought early on that the women who put her last two coins in the collection must have suffered terribly.

Of course we do not know so. We often assume that things will follow logically. We miss the fact that we are dealing with God. His logic is not ours and he can do as he pleases.

Missions and Social Justice

Sort of a strange state in some segments of the American church is that you can chose a church which believes in missions or you can join a church which believes in social justice and helping the poor.

I cannot figure out the dichotomy since both are in scripture. I suspect it may be a elder level issue of fear of how to use church funds (i.e. we might not have funds for two many things so what is our priority).

I wonder if the church must really make the either/or if it is a financial issue. I suspect many churches making the either/or decision for lack of funds are simply encouraging church members to support the poor or missions elsewhere.

It is not that their membership does not have these concerns it is just that their membership now needs to find a place to give outside of a church to be in accord with will of God.

Sometimes with faith we find that when we live the will of God the perceived lack is discovered to only have been perceived and did not exist but for our lack of faith.

Seeing Spirtually

The bible calls us to see spiritually by faith and to not live by sight. What is seeing by faith?

First it is a call to understand the bible on its own terms. We must first realize that our sight is bad and often flawed.

Our initial tendency is often wrong. Basically we are often blind to the true nature of things.

It is not a code which we need to crack. The bible makes it very clear where we are blind if we care to listen.

Often we read the words and say, "yes; yes I believe that" and move along. The bible for example says that the poor women who put her last 2 coins into the offering gave more than all the rest.

We get a tear in our eye at the story and then forget what we see are impressed by the rich businessman who we heard rumored gave $10,000 to this or that event.

It is interesting in church as I sit in the pew. I try not to see what others give but you sometimes can. There are always a few people who seem very poor and put a handful of dollar bills into the plate as it is passed.

It is an inspiring thing really. You see how great their faith is. In that moment they have had far more faith than the rich business man and given far more.

But we always forget this. We stack the elder boards of churches with rich business men who "understand" how to run churches. We are surprised they make a muck of things.

Well you see we cannot say absolutely but they really haven't grasped the will of God in a terribly meaningful way. The often live in houses that are 10 times the size and price they need. They consume far more than they need.

I suppose this all sounds very gnostic but you see there are people everywhere who are in need and I sincerely hope for the souls of these people the millions of unnecessary dollars these people spend they are also being equally generous to God.

I do not know what they give but statistically the rich give the lowest percentage of their money to causes on the basis of total income. You see they are statistically in a poor place to be rich to God culturally.

God sees giving based on capacity. Man sees it based on quantity. They quantity they give easily reaches "praise worth" status far before they have given a real drop based on capacity. If the poor women had 2 coins they have 2 million coins and man will greatly praise them if they give 100 coins in public.

The Danger of Wealth

Matthew 19:24 “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

The bible has some hard teaching about money. Wealth can be spiritually damaging. Living in a wealthy country like the USA it is possible to accumulate such wealth as can be dangerous to ones soul. I believe a multimillion dollar house isn’t a neutral choice – it is a sin issue. With the kind of need in the world you cannot simply buy a multimillion dollar house and ignore the suffering in the world as if it is not of significance. Ignoring the suffering (spiritual and material) is not an issue if we wish to follow Christ as we should. There is a major ethical dimension to how we spend the money we have.

Maximum Impact

I recently picked up a book about having the “maximum impact” with your life. The book was written by a thoughtful Seminary professor. The most shocking part of the book was the omission of the subject of giving. Clearly if you are going to talk about making a maximum impact on the world to a wide audience you should also talk about the subject of giving. It’s odd how such a key element of having an impact could be overlooked.

Tithing

I’ve read this befuddling statement in a number of books, so I thought I’d respond to it:

Statement read something like: “We should get rid of the concept of tithing and only then will the floodgates of generosity open.”

Issues I have with this:

1.If everyone tithed there would be a lot more good work being done in the world
2.Tithing is a minimum amount you can always give freewill offerings if you feel led
3.I honestly doubt the motives of the people expressing these vantage points. Are they really giving a lot more than if they tithed?

It just smells fishy to say that tithing restricts generosity when the average American Christian gives 2-3% of income.

Giving Giving a Chance

An interesting dilemma that often seems to come up is that Christians know they should give cheerfully. But they are not cheerful about giving, and since they never give they are never cheerful about it.

Giving is an infectious thing. If one tries it out you will realize that it is in fact “more blessed to give than to receive.” Once one gives then one realizes that giving is in fact enjoyable. The great tragedy is that more Christians simply do not give giving a fair chance.

Blessed Living

Jesus said that it is, "More blessed to give than to receive." We all enjoy receiving good gifts. How great is the greater joy of giving by faith!

Many people often say they must choose between this or that and giving. This may be true, but the call of the bible is to judge rightly.

We can choose to live by faith or by reason. Faith values what God's word values, reason what the human mind values.

Holding Possessions Loosely

We should hold possessions loosely. Ultimately they are not ours in the first place – God is the ultimate owner of all created things. Second, the human tendency is to hold on to things which have no value to us is counterproductive. It is quite possible to drown metaphorically in ones possessions. We should feel less attachment to our possessions and be more willing to share and give them away freely if they will benefit others more than ourselves. If possessions which have no use to ourselves could bless others it is most Christ honoring to give them away.

Giving and Having

The most helpful book on giving I’ve read is A.W. Pink’s book called “Tithing.” The most fascinating thing about the book is that Pink breakdowns the dichotomy between giving money away and having less money without approaching a health and wealth theology. Pink notes stories where people have experienced less financial difficulties after they started giving than when they were not giving. I’ve personally found this true in my own life – my finances have been less of a struggle when I’ve been faithful in giving. I think God works mysteriously to protect the finances of those who give. This is different than the health and wealth gospel which claims that God makes those who give rich. Pink’s nuanced view, as I understand it, is that God protects those who give from financial harm in a more substantial way than he protects non-givers from financial harm. His example in the book is of a shop keeper who is a tither who keeps their job against the odds as they are going deaf, in the midst of a recession, and in an age of limited government protection (an interesting key example because the person is clearly not wealthy). A.W. Pinks book can be found at the Christian Ethereal Library for free http://www.ccel.org/ccel/pink/tithing.html

'Lack' of need for giving?!

I had an interesting conversation recently. I was talking to a person that indicated that he thought there was a limited need for charitable giving. He seemed to think there wasn't a great need for funds among non-profits. The reality is that there is so much good work that goes undone for lack of funds. If you look at the world there is tons of need for poverty relief, disaster relief, literacy programs, evangelization, bible translation, ect... There is certainly an incredible need in the world for people to become generous again.

In reality if we say "there is no need for me to give" we are really trying to justify our sinful ways. If we really look around there are thousands of God-honoring causes that could use more funds to expand their good work. The amount of need in the world is staggering. We cannot say "there is no need for me to give". It just isn't true.

Money

CIT filed for bankruptcy this weekend. However the bankruptcy goes, this will have a big affect on a large number of small businesses. This reminds me how we cannot trust correctly put our trust in money. We can't take any money with us when we die. We can only send our money ahead to heaven by giving it freely now. Of course Jesus wants us to give cheerfully. But, if we are not cheerful givers we should not give up on giving. We should figure out how to change our sinful hearts so that we become cheerful givers. It is only our sin that prevents us from loving to give. Jesus says that it is better to give than to receive - if we do not see this we need to figure out how we can see this beautiful truth.

Going Without or Giving

Recently I listened to a sermon online that indicated that "going without" was a Christian virtue. Jesus often calls us to go without worldly pleasures, but this is simply so that we may have more joy in God. I do not think that "going without" is a Christian virtue unless this "going without" causes us to enjoy God more fully or enables others to not go without.

In contrast to "going without" giving is a Christian virtue. Giving does not necessarily mean denying ourselves of worldly pleasure; although it can. Instead giving is beautiful because it insures that others do not have to go without pleasure, be that material pleasure or pleasure in God.

Giving

A bit Michelle read to me from her book Disciplines of a Godly Woman:

“Fourth, begin (giving) now.  The natural tendency is to put giving off until you feel able to give.  Such thinking keeps many from ever giving.  There’s an old story about the preacher who came to see a farmer and asked, ‘If you had $200, would you give $100 to the Lord?’
            ‘I would,’ answered the farmer.
            ‘If you had two cows, would you give one to the Lord?’
            ‘Sure.’
            ‘If you had two pigs, would you give one of them to the Lord?’
            The farmer said, ‘Now that isn’t fair! You know I have two pigs’”

- Barbra Hughes

Tithing

 “That assumes that ten percent is a sacrosanct* thing.  Tithing is a middle class way of robbing God.  Tithing ten percent is a place to start and then every person who earns money should be dreaming how much more, how much more can I give to Christ, the cause of the outreached peoples, and the advancing of justice and the feeding of the poor and the educating of the uneducated.  My whole life should be dedicated to others.  Live simple and give more away.  If a councilor says tithe and then put millions away into your 401k that is not a Christian way of thinking ... "


* sacrosanct - Regarded as sacred and inviolable. (dictionary.com)