BROADCASTS.com

b'"If you really want to wound a man, hit him in the pocketbook!"
\\nThe term "tithing" has a way of making a lot of people uncomfortable. Just talking about finances is considered tacky. It\'s either shrugged off as a practice reserved for the religious or it can make someone feel judged. But as business owners having gone through the process of giving away zilch to faithfully committing 10% of all our gross income, we have experienced the gambit of emotions that accompany parting ways with our hard-earned profits.
\\n
\\nI remember when we first began attending church regularly and before each sermon there would be a call to tithe, that is to give 10% of your income to the church. For a long while, we felt this didn\'t apply to us and we would be satisfied donating $5 or $10 into the offering basket, having accomplished our good deed of giving. But the more we attended, the more we began hearing sermons on the importance of tithing, which began peaking my curiosity. I was under the impression that practice was done away with and reserved for the Old Testament as an old law. How relevant was it today, anyway? And certainly God would not expect us to just give away hundreds of dollars of our income each month; how could we live?!
\\n
\\nGod is so patient. He tells us in Malachi to test Him in our giving:
\\n
\\n"\'Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,\' says the Lord Almighty, \'and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.\'" -Malachi 3:10
\\n
\\n
\\n
\\nSo in part faith and part curiosity, we started to write larger tithe checks made out to our local church. They were not 10% of our income, and they were not regular. But the funny thing is that we always seemed to have just enough at the end of each pay, when before we usually fell short before Friday. This did not go unnoticed. In larger (and more dangerous) faith, we gave more and worked our way up to regular giving of 10% of our net income. It\'s a scary place to be when you first begin to release those funds and are forced to trust God at His word. It takes a few wins under your belt to start believing He will supply everything you need, especially when the numbers don\'t add up. Even still I sometimes struggle with letting go of that much money, but I do it anyway because I don\'t want money to rule me. I do not put my trust in money, my trust lies with God. When something dictates your actions, it has become your master. How sad it is to live one\'s life chasing after more and never being content? So I let it go and that keeps my hope on God, not in my ability to manage finances. If you aren\'t watchful of your heart, man-made cotton paper can become an idol that cannot preserve your life.
\\n
\\n"Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life." -1 Timothy 6:17-19.
\\n
\\nI used to think this verse applied to wealthy celebrities until I heard my pastor state that if you make over $50k/year, you are in the top 1% of income earners in the world! Convicted. I guess my family is "those who are rich in this present world" the Bible was referring to.
\\n
\\n"Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income." -Ecclesiastes 5:10
\\n
\\n"No one can serve two masters.'