When I’ve had Christian conversations about my questions/concerns about tithing (as I expressed in the previous post), I have, to date, never had anyone provide me with a truly heartfelt answer they've learned by searching through Scripture and processed through with the aid of the Holy Spirit. Typically, the best I get is ‘Scripture says to do it, so we should.’ I’ve heard over and over again how in Malachi 3:10 tithing is the one place where God says to test Him, because He will deliver blessings out of our obedience.
I still struggle with this though. Why do evangelical Christians (or at least the ones I’ve known) repeatedly say that we are not bound by the Law since Jesus came to fulfill the Law, but still cling to and promote this one…well… law? I even knew someone that at one time borrowed money to pay her tithe. Really?
Granted that’s an extreme case, but I’ve heard loads of single women or women who attend church alone that struggle with guilt over not paying tithe or not being able to give more. Somehow, I think God’s purpose wasn’t to make Christians live under a heavy burden of tithing. Everything God asks of us is to bring freedom in Christ from the sin that attempts to ensnare us. Shouldn’t tithing/giving bring freedom also?
If you’ve been following this blog, you know that our financial world was turned upside down about two years ago. It’s truly difficult to have the importance of tithing impressed upon you when you know that giving it means you’ll miss a bill payment, or that no matter what you do, your house is probably going to go into foreclosure. But tithe we did, and while looking back, I don’t fault my husband for doing it, I do see that I was resentful of a God that would demand a tithe from us when in a few months' time, we would lose everything. What I have since realized, is that it wasn’t God placing that demand upon us.
Have there been times in the last two years when we’ve skipped tithing? Of course! But for 2010, we were surprised when completing our taxes to learn that our total charitable giving was exactly 10% of our income. And this doesn’t include the anonymous giving we did to individuals. Only God can take the glory for this. Only He can make this possible when our income is 50% below the poverty level of an American family our size. Praise His Name!
What made the difference for me? Well, I’m still working through it, but...it’s a heart change. When I knew we had nothing and I realized everything we do have came from God because it wasn't possible for us to provide, I found it much easier to let money and stuff slip through my hands to someone else. I’ve commented before about describing my life as a sieve…God pours in the blessing, we get to keep some of it for ourselves and the rest pours through to someone else.
But along the way to this lifestyle of a more generous spirit, God placed many wonderful authors in my path. Most of whom I’ve already referenced on this blog, Brennan Manning’s Raggamuffin Gospel; Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years (after which the title of this blog is named!); David Platt’s Radical; Richard Stearn’s The Hole in Our Gospel and as referenced over and over again in my blog, Francis Chan’s Crazy Love and Forgotten God. The Holy Spirit also led me to do in depth studies in the books of James and Philippians in the Bible. Each of these books deals with generosity, contentment, joy, community, faith and doing good works. So God already had me well on my journey to considering how He wanted us to give.
Then a few weeks ago, I read a great roundtable article in Christianity Today. And for the first time, I felt like someone put into print many of the thoughts I’d been having…vocalizing the very things I’d struggled with in this area.
The question put to these three men, all of them authors or leaders in Christian financial circles, was “Should the jobless tithe on their unemployment benefits?”
Now chew on that for a little while. I’ll be back later with more.
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