What about Tithing?

For the next several Tuesdays we will be answering the questions left on last week's Open Forum. And we love your questions! So please feel free to ask more.

This week's question is from Amanda:

"I would love to hear how you handle giving (financially) in a SUM. I don't think it would be accurate to say that my husband is an unbeliever exactly, but he is less inclined than I am to dedicate this life to living for God. The biggest struggle we have is regarding tithing and offerings- he generally feels that the 10% is an arbitrary number that has no bearing on modern life. Any thoughts on how to handle this is greatly appreciated!"

Lynn's Answer: Tithing: This is a controversial issue in any marriage but this is one area where unequally yoked couples tend to be at odds frequently. What does the Bible say about tithing? Let’s take a look.

Actually the Bible has much to say about money. Jesus taught us to use our money to influence friends.

Luke 16:9 (NIV) I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. 10"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?

He also said, Luke 12:48b (NIV) From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

There are many scriptures in the Old Testament which address tithing. Look in the first book of the Bible, Genesis: And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand." Then Abram gave him (Melchizedek, king of Salem) a tenth of everything. Chapter 14:20.

But I want you to remember, we live in the new Age. The age of grace given to us by Christ Jesus. We are no longer subject to the law.

With that said, the following scripture is what speaks to me about tithing:

2 Corinthians 9:7 (NIV) Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

So how does this play out in real-life with our spouse. From my own marriage I can tell you that my husband can get worked up about tithing. Because of the years of televangelists pleading for money then misappropriating it, my husband has a jaded view of “giving to the church.” Can I get an AMEN?

And honestly, I can understand why he might feel that way. I have been careful not to push tithing as an issue in our marriage. I give a small portion of our income. Very small. So small that it does not create discord in our relationship. Do I feel bad about this or desire to give more? YES! However, I trust God to see my heart. He knows what I would like to do. More importantly He does not want tithing to become one more issue to drive my husband away from Jesus.

So, I give of my time. I volunteer in ministry. A lot! But not so much that I neglect our home, or him or our daughter. God honors this in our life.

What God really wants is not our money. He wants our heart. First and foremost. Period. The End.

Look at the scriptures below and discover what God really wants. Hint, it is not your checkbook. Be Blessed, Lynn

Revelation 19:7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.

Psalm 29:2 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.

Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'

Dineen's Answer: Tithing is a very difficult issue to settle clearly, and I think Lynn's advice above is sound and the Scripture references are perfect. What I'm about to share is what worked for me.

About 12 years ago, the tithing issue came up big time in my marriage. I'd just recommitted my life to Christ and had joined a church I adored. And my precious hubby had made the decision for atheism. Talk about a couple going in opposite directions!

The tithing issue weighed heavily on my heart though. I wanted to do our part and worried what it would mean if we didn't. At the time I was reading a book called The Wonderful Spirit Filled Life by Charles Stanley. He tells you do this exercise where you write whatever decision you're grappling with on a note card or piece of paper. Then find a quiet place to pray uninterrupted. Ask God to make you absolutely neutral in this decision. Once you've prayed, tear it up, acknowledging your willingness to become neutral and continue praying until you are convinced you're neutral about it.

I wrote on a card that I would ask my husband what he felt we could tithe each month and that I would accept whatever he said. Once I'd prayed and felt I'd reached this place of neutrality, I went to my husband and asked what we could do. He told me a figure. Amazingly, I was fine with it. And though it was not the 10% I thought we were supposed to give, it was more than I'd hoped for. Every year since, I've asked my husband what he feels we can handle, and that's been the commitment ever since.

No, it's not 10%, but I know I'm honoring God and my husband by doing it this way, and that I can give in other ways as well, like using my graphic design skills and programs to do the church newsletter.

And as time has progressed, I've found that I'm the one tested in this. For example, roughly three years ago I started doing freelance graphic design work again. From the start I made the decision to tithe 10% of the extra money I earned. And my hubby was fine with it.

My income has slowly but steadily increased. When we've needed the money, the work has come in. When God had something more important for me to do, like take care of  my daughter when she was diagnosed with a brain tumor, the work literally stopped until the very last week of her treatment. I was faithful, therefor so was God. And you'll notice this had to do with me, not my husband.

So, Amanda, if we were sitting down with a nice cup of coffee and some girl-talk, I would tell you not to worry about the amount but the heart and motivation behind it. God wants us to tithe our resources happily as a way of giving thanks, and a reminder that we what have—money, skills, resources—are from his hand anyway. Ask your husband what he's comfortable with and honor it. That way he's not grumbling and neither are you. Then let God do the rest.

Praying and believing,
Dineen

Trouble ~ Transition ~ Tension

Today is our conclusion to the Love Our Neighbor series. Walking through this scripture has left me permanently changed. My heart for people softened. This series brought with it the Kingdom Assignment. God gave us a chance to practice kindness, and goodness. He gave us a chance to be the hands and feet of Jesus. He watched, as we loved our neighbor.

This series unfolded Matthew 22:36-39 and Matthew 25: 14-30.

I understand this command in a way I never did before:

Matthew 22: 36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'

Our world reverberates with hate, bitterness, and broken dreams. When we give our love away a doorway opens. Kindness and compassion overcomes barriers, hatred, and anger.

It opens a door to share Jesus.

Today, right now in our country and in our world, doors are opening.

People come to know God usually through three circumstances; trouble, transition, and tension. The pressures of the terrible T's propel people to search for God. Our world is smack in the middle of all three. People are scared, they are in financial trouble, and tension mounts each day as we watch the nightly news.

Our opportunity is NOW.

From this day forward I will never be the same. I am going to live every day of my life, giving love away, opening the door for God. I will be obedient. I will be kind. I will live compassion. I will live for Jesus.

If we truly live in this kind of obedience, our unbelieving spouses, our children, our neighbors, the world will know there is a God and He lives and works in our lives.

Lord, this is my prayer for every reader who stopped here in the last few months. Let your Holy Spirit fill us so full, that kindness is in our every breath, love in our eyes, and compassion in our hearts. Let us live it. Let us be the door to share with this broken world the life-changing truth: OUR GOD SAVES! I ask this in the powerful, awesome, glorious name of Jesus, our Redeemer, and our Lord. Amen.

Please share with me what happened with your Kingdom Assignment. Whatever you did with your dollar is exactly what the Lord wanted. Don't judge it unworthy of mention. Allow the Lord Jesus to receive honor because you used God's money in some way to serve His kingdom. Write to me today a quick note. Please email me. You can read other's stories by going to the Kingdom Page through the link in the sidebar.

I am excited to see where the Lord will take us next. You should know I am always just as surprised by the Lord as you are when we walk through these journeys. Thank you for walking beside me. Your friendship, wisdom, and love are gifts I can never repay. But, I sure do tell my "Father" about all of you often. Have a blessed week, Lynn

I was a Kingdom Assignment

Little did Lynn know that a kingdom assignment was already brewing back in May. A dear friend of mine found a lost treasure in a parking lot—a wad of money. She let the store know she'd found something valuable and left her phone number to call if anyone came forward. One phone call would gladly bring her and the treasure back to its rightful owner. She went to the police, but they basically told her there was nothing they could do. So she prayed for the owner to come forward and continued to pray for their loss all summer long.

One night at the hospital, she came to visit us. She handed me an envelope with this wonderful letter telling me how she'd found this literal "manna from heaven" on the ground. And how God led her and her family to give it to us. I was so amazed to hear the story and shocked when I opened the envelope!

God is so good. I couldn't imagine why he wanted us to have it, but I trusted him to know best. And since it was his money, truly, I wanted to tithe 10% back.

Then I got Lynn's letter and my dollar bill. I prayed about what I could possibly do right now with that dollar. I remembered that tithe I had ready to give to my church, and then thought I could take it and add to my kingdom dollar since I technically didn't earn it and felt free to use it elsewhere.

So off my little envelope went today to a friend in need, a check and that dollar. Yep, I "passed the buck," so to speak. (Now how could I resist using that one?) She can keep it or pass it on to another person as God leads her.

The joy of this is knowing that through a blessing I could bless another—the whole point of why we are here! God blesses us so that we may be a blessing to others. He never intended us to keep it all to ourselves. He even asks us to share our struggles so that others can share those blessings with us and share in that comfort—what I and my family have recently experienced in abundance.

We are all part of God's Kingdom. And His Kingdom is within us all.

"The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you." — spoken by Jesus in Luke 17: 20-21

Praying and believing,
Dineen

GREEN

Today I want to share an email letter I received from one of my dear friends. Her heart for God and His creation is apparent. The timing of this letter is perfect as Tuesday was Earth Day. Be Blessed, Lynn

HAPPY EARTH DAY FRIENDS!! LET’S GO GREEN!!!

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth... God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." (Genesis 1:1, 31)

What better way than to begin my letter to you, my friends about an important Day and time in our Earth’s life. For several years I have made conscience efforts to change the way my family and I treat our Earth. After all it is the only longest living evidence of what our Lord our God has made for his children to inhabit. Knowing this day when we acknowledge and make ourselves aware of the value of our Earth, I have been thinking of what I would write to my children and to you about this year’s Earth Day. Therefore, this year I did something different.

I sat quietly and listened. I listened to the winds that have been blowing, to sounds of the leaves on the trees in my back yard, to water draining down the drains of my lawn, to the birds chirping to one another, to dogs barking at the wind and ultimately I believe in the wind I heard our Creator’s voice. His voice was showing me everything he had created and that yes indeed it was all good!

"If you follow my statutes and keep my commandments and observe them faithfully, I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit." (Leviticus 26:3-4)

So what can I do? Is what I am already doing enough? I hope we are asking ourselves these questions. I hope what I model to my children by the way I live and take care of our own little parcel of Earth they will learn to carry on these habits. Habits which I hope will help save the Earth for future generations.

Gradually over the last three years, I have switched all the lights in my house to CFLs – thank goodness CFLS come in all sizes and shapes now. So even my Dining Room chandelier has CFLs. I switched to Earth-friendly cleaning products by companies such as Shaklee, Seventh Generation and now even Clorox offers an Earth friendly product line. Using detergents that are high in concentration is a great way to save on the impact to our Earth. It helps cut down on the number of plastic containers that will end up in our landfills. These containers do not decompose.

Also, last year our newest addition to our routine at home has been two new trash containers in our home. Our family makes a conscience habit of separating our trash in the house by recycling. We have a can for paper, plastic, tin, foam and anything marked with a recycling symbol and number on it. Another can is for pop cans and bottles. The third can is for waste that we can’t recycle.

This year the newest thing I discovered is recycling my shopping bags. I know.... What a guilt I used to get about always throwing away these plastic bags. As a super busy mom I just didn’t have the time or forethought to put reusable shopping bags in my car to take to the store. Better still, I began to purchase reusable shopping bags. And, I remember to put them in my car to reuse and reuse.

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:13-14)

"The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the heavens languish together with the earth. The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth; its inhabitants suffer for their guilt." (Isaiah 24:4-6)

It is up to us to teach our children how to save our Earth and give their grandchildren a safe and healthy Earth to live on. Our Lord our God has given us his commandments bazillions of years ago in the Bible reminding us to take care of the Earth and if we don’t, there would be consequences. Let’s just equate it to the Father telling us to Clean Up our Rooms or else! ;-) Isn’t that what we tell our kids?

There are so many ways we can make a difference to help make our Earth a better place to live and last for generations to come. I suggest starting slow. Do something that you know can be comfortable and easy for your family. Even if it is just shopping for products that have an earth-friendly sticker on them, organics for instance. Or maybe you just recycle your grocery bags? Heck screw in just a couple of CFLs. Chris and I have noticed in the three years we have been using them, we have saved almost $100 on our electric bill.

Well, I know this is a lengthy letter and I apologize. But I care about you and I want us to always be together on this beautiful planet. I hope you will consider what I have written and if you would like me to help you get started on ways to make a difference, let me know. I have many more ideas and ways that we use here at our home that I am sure we can find that one thing you can do to help save our Earth. :-)

I love you guys and God Bless our Happy Earth!

HAPPY EARTH DAY!!

Kerilyn