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mmm

Hello:

Do you believe tithing is for The Body of Christ, The Church?

Tithing is clearly in the Law which believers are not under.

Tithing is mentioned before the law but so are other things. Abraham gave a 10th (one time). He also circumcised and did animal sacrifice.

Animal sacrifice is out for believers.

Circumcision is optional for personal reasons.

Justification for tithing by The Church does not exist in scripture. Giving does and only cheerful giving is acceptable.

What do you say?

mmm

Matt 23v23, ...for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone'

Maybe it is okay to not tithe, maybe it isn't.

All I know is, I do tithe and will continue to do so.

It is to my peril that I do otherwise.

I have seen over the years the outcome of those who have refused to tithe, and I never want to be in their shoes.

I am talking about people who have nearly lost their homes because they refuse to tithe, and I am not exaggerating.

It is only when they started to tithe that the situation changed.

Some say that tithing is not for the Church. Where does it say that in scripture?

2 Cor 9 deals with giving. Is it because tithing is not mentioned specifically in this chapter that it means we do not tithe?

It was mentioned that Abraham tithed once.

David danced once in the Old Testament, but yet many in the churches today dance.

Where does it say that Jesus or the apostles danced?

So if we should not tithe today, we should not dance today, right?

And dancing is not part of the law, or is it?

I'll leave you with that.

God bless.

Although not raised in any church, I did happen to read my Bible.

Christians are exhorted to give.

How much?

Well, if you want to get your prosperity bucket filled, work hard, and invest your money.

Yet if you want your blessings bucket filled, you might be surprised at how faithful God is to His promises.

I began tithing out of my poverty...I had just been in my life changing auto accident, my husband had deserted me, my pride had gotten in the way of seeking the appropriate help for claiming the various insurance policies I had, and I was left with a total of $731.00 per month.

Now, no matter how you deal with it, $731.00 is not enough to live on in the US, much less in So. California, particularly if you have a house payment to make, prescriptions to fill, debts to pay, and so forth. And even if I was willing to starve, which I wasn't, 2 oversize Doberman's and a Coyote Mutt were not willing to go without their morning Dogbones, or their rabie's shots.

I call it the year of no mortgage.

Never having giving much of anything to anyone until that time, tithing seemed ridiculous.

Even so, I did that a word search through the Bible on giving, tithing, alms, and so forth in the Bible, and you know...it's there!

Surprise!

Jesus spoke of it when He criticised the Pharisees for their hypocrisy.

And grace only takes away the burden of the law unto death, for Jesus has already died for us.

The laws don't disappear, or why are we still following the Ten Commandments?

The penalty is gone for not being perfect, if we place our lives in Jesus' hands.

But what about those laws that are supposed to be written on our hearts?

Handing over my 10% of that $731.00 didn't bother me, after I read all the blessings that come with the law of tithing and first fruits.

And if you know you can't pay your bill, why not pay your tithe? I knew I was going to lose my house unless God took care of it for me. I knew I might lose it regardless of my tithe.

I didn't. The loan company gave me a signature loan refinancing my house and past due interest before I even got the few dollars that I could collect, my attorneys having missed the filing days for my lawsuits.

My social security went up over $500.00, but where I live, that's not enough to pay the house payment.

Then my family decided to pay it for me.

Their income went up the same year by 10,000 per year, and to this day, they do not understand what happened to make that extra money start coming in. They don't know or understand how God works.

They gave to me, so I could keep my little house.

God honored them helping the poor in their own family, and multiplied their giving.

I kept tithing...not being in a church, I give to Israel's orphans, to the Los Angeles Mission, supporting just one family with food for the month; for water wells and emergency food in Africa, for prison ministies, for missionaries, even for a Christian radio station that I think does a lot of good.

God just saved my water rights to the lower aquafer in my mountain valley...some of the purest, cleanest water seen in decades in California. Co-incidence? I don't believe in them.

I always have enough, and I don't know how it stretches. And what I give, well, it's not a lot, because I don't have a lot.

But God certainly seems to care that I tithe.

The blessing of the Tithe is one we can pick up, simply by listening to Jesus on giving.

In Luke 6:38. Jesus says, "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again."

And please do remember, Jesus was talking to Jews! They knew the laws on Tithing!

What they did not understand was the blessing that comes from tithing. No, not riches, but a constant, vigilant care of the Father for my welfare, because I choose to obey Him in this.

Under grace, I'm positive it wouldn't hurt my salvation not to tithe.

But my absolute trust that God keeps His word has been proven to me, so many times, that I am positive that it would hurt my circumstances if I choose not to give that 10%+ where He leads me to give it.

And it is always strange how 90% of my money pays for more than 100% of my money used to.

As for going above 10%? Definately, bit by bit, as I stretch to pull a few dollars more as the Holy Spirit prompts me.

And while I want to have enough to enjoy in this world, once I have all I need, I'd just as soon have my spiritual bank account growing, and accoumulating blessings!

Blessings,

Forrest

What an awesome testimony of faith and obedience Forrest! THANK YOU for sharing that with us!:-D

Like the saying goes... without a test, we have no testimony. :-)

When our motive is right, when our faith is right and we give right, blessings will follow.

This pretty much sums it up. I once heard someone talking about their financial situation, how it was not as good as they had hoped: “I give more than 10%...I just don’t know what’s going on”.

Motivation is key. I think there are lots of people that tithe just to receive blessings. God knows our ulterior motives.

God no longer requires 1/10th of our money and 1/7th of our time... its 100%

Amen brother!

brother pacowup, i believe that this is a matter of the heart. i appreciate your concern for the church to have money. i think that one really needs to look at the purpose of the tithe in the OT and the revelation of the NT. why was israel commanded to give a tithe to the levitical priesthood?? to support the priests because they did not work the land but rather in the temple. they were the Lord's portion.

brother, like paul shows the galatians, if you place yourself back under the law, you are obligated to keep the whole law. now some may say, well abraham tithed in genesis. if you study that story, you will see a couple things...
(1) abraham was not commanded, he chose to give.
(2) he tithed off of the spoils from the victory and not from his possessions.
(3) it does not show that he ever did this again. it does not say that this was something that he was to keep.

others say, well Jesus told them in the NT to keep tithing. as krispy showed us earlier, this was to the jewish people who were still under the law. "God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those under the law".

do you still keep the sabbath like they kept it in the OT?? does it matter if one is physically circumsised or not?? do you have to follow the dietary laws that the jews did??

let me ask you a couple more questions..
(1) do you have to pray a certain amount each day or you are cursed??
(2) do you have to read a certain amount of scripture or you are cursed??
(3) do you have to witness to a certain amount of people or you are cursed??
it is obvious that the answer to all of these questions are no, then why do people take a OT law and place it on christians and say that we are cursed if we do not uphold the law of tithing??

brother, it is all the Lord's (our time, money, life) and He desires to be in control of it all. it should all be given to Him in our heart that whatever He desires will be given at once. it is truly a heart matter.

now the scripture clearly says that we should give our money to help others. our money should be freely given for those who are in need and supporting others like missionaries, widows, orphans, others in need.

so i said all this to say, brother the giving of money is a matter of the heart. if one is convinced that he needs to tithe, then let him be convinced in his own mind. but let not one try to place another under a law that Jesus redeemed us from.

let all giving be done unto the Lord.
"so let each one give as he purposes in his own heart, not grudgingly or of compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver".

Paul makes it clear that a pastor can draw his income from the church, but Paul sets an even better example by not drawing his income from the church, but instead utilizing his skills as a tent maker in order to live.

Actually, that wasn't always the case. I don't have the time to give details but there are instances where Paul's companions worked and he devoted himself to the Word, and others where, as he put it, robbed other churches so as not to be a burden on the young mission churches he was establishing.

I think the example of Paul is an excellent one though because it is one of freedom. He was free to do either. If he received goods, or if he worked, both were for the Gospel's sake.

I am talking about people who have nearly lost their homes because they refuse to tithe, and I am not exaggerating.

And I know some people who nearly lose their homes and cars because they do tithe. That is, they are so afraid to not tithe that they end up getting behind on their mortgage's, car payments, and credit cards. They might eventually scrape a few dollars together to pay their bills every time, but not without taking on extra debt and late-payment fee's, penalty APR's, etc. I'm sure their creditors are impressed with their witness!

If one reads Deuteronomy 12, they will find that "tithing" is buried deep in the great list of various types of sacrifices that the Jews were to bring to the tabernacle/temple. This shows clearly that the tithe was considered on par with the other types of sacrifices in the sacrificial system. That is, you cannot divorce the tithe from the sacrificial system.

And it is clear from the teaching of the New Testament that the sacrificial system has been done away with. And since tithing is part of the sacrificial system, then simple logic says that unless it can be shown from other passages of Scripture that the practice of tithing somehow carried over into the present dispensation, then it too, like the rest of the sacrificial system, has been fulfilled in Christ.