Comments on: Giving

By: James McCartney

James McCartney — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:57:14 +0000

I hope you don’t mind me joining in!! To answer the question above “does God expect us to become poor for the sake of His kingdom?” The answer to that is no, defiantly not!!!! Here is how I conclude my answer: (New King James)

Exodus 25:2 “Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring Me an offering. From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart you shall take My offering.

The key point word here is *willingly*. If you are to give over and above your tithe then it must be YOUR decision. Not out of fear, our thinking God does not want you to have money,

Psalm 35:27 tells us “Let the LORD be magnified,
Who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.”

The definition of prosperity, according to Google, is – “to be in good health, happiness and a state of financial security. The Antonyms of the word prosperity are – failure, hardship, loss, poorness, poverty. There is now way God wants us poor, lost etc.

Malachi 3:10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
That there may be food in My house,
And test Me now in this,” Says the LORD of hosts,
“ If I will not open for you the windows of heaven
And pour out for you such blessing
That there will not be room enough to receive it.

God does not use tithe to get something from us. He is trying to get something to us. This is a powerful scripture, blessing is favour, wisdom, health, understanding, wealth everything. Never think you cant afford to tithe. YOU CANT AFFORD NOT TO TITHE.

God has streets of gold, gates of pearl. He likes nice things, nothing wrong with that at all. So I don’t think people should worry Jesus being mad that we use some of our money for hobbies, nice clothes, holidays, fancy cars etc.

By: Lou

Lou — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:40:37 +0000

I’ve been thinking a lot about this recently – from the very outset God expected generosity from his people and was all for the redistribution of wealth (check out Leviticus and the year of Jubilee) A tenth of our income is all very well – but that works fantastically well for those with plenty and not great for those with very little – giving £100 pounds out of a £1000 still leaves a lot left over, now take a tenth of a hundred and suddenly the issues are different. Jesus wasn’t interested in how much people gave – only in what they had left – the woman with the 2 small coins for example, and what about Zacchaeus for radical kingdom economics – I can’t imagine he had much left after he returned four times what he had taken.

Still trying to work out what this means for me – but an increase in generosity beyond a tenth is a good place to start

By: John

John — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 09:34:43 +0000

See..I love the idea of that…and I once even worked out a spreadsheet to see how much this would be…but what about hobbies, books and all the things that help shape us a Christians. Should we give this up?

By: Sam Moore

Sam Moore — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 09:05:02 +0000

I don’t know if he exactly expects us to become poor for the sake of his kingdom, but Paul’s argument in 2 Corinthians is certainly that we should give so there would be less inequality. The OT also encourages us to be open-handed and not tight fisted. I think we are called to be good stewards of what God gives us, and to trust in his provision for us as we give what he entrusts us with. I don’t live that out as I should. In many ways it’s not for me to tell others how much to give. I definately think if we begin to live more generously and simply we will begin to discover there is a freedom in that..

One way I’ve heard several people living is to calculate how much they need to live on and to give everything over and above that…

By: John

John — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 23:26:58 +0000

Some interesting points. Does God expect us to become poor for the sake of his kingdom? Where is the line…if there is one?

By: A Just Life « the soapbox

A Just Life « the soapbox — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:52:54 +0000

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