Can I reduce my tithe to buy back my engagement ring?

Dan the deacon said:

Sorry but you are dead wrong. The instruction to tithe did not come from the mosaic law. The instruction.predates Moses by many years.
Tithing is not a law. It is our way of understanding that God owns it all and not just the tenth.
Being mad at God is silly
He is not wrong. You very well might have God teaching you something. In.our anger we do not learn well. Now God did not lose your ring. You did that. If your tithe is the only.way to replace it you'd be better off not replacing it. That is of you truly tithe as most Christians just tip God on Sunday. If you are only giving ten percent of your money you are not really tithing. Your time is also a part of it as is any extra money you aquire. Not just the salary from your job. If you.truly tithe God will assure you have enough. That is His promise.

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Would you please back up this notion you have of tithing with New Testament scriptures for Christians? Thanks in advance.

Gids

Gideons300 said:

Would you please back up this notion you have of tithing with New Testament scriptures for Christians? Thanks in advance.

Gids

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There is no scripture concerning tithing in the New Testament that I am aware of. But tithing was also not mentioned concerning the law. The law has been fulfilled but the tithe was before Moses. It has been a part of the Church from the beginning. What the tithe is is a promise made by God. That if we tithe He will bless us.

Dan the deacon said:

There is no scripture concerning tithing in the New Testament that I am aware of. But tithing was also not mentioned concerning the law. The law has been fulfilled but the tithe was before Moses. It has been a part of the Church from the beginning. What the tithe is is a promise made by God. That if we tithe He will bless us.

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God will bless us if we give willingly. The amount that we or the percentage of our income that we give is unimportant.

I once was berated by a poster (no, not you) on CF because I do not tithe, that is I do not give 10 percent to my church. I do try to give away about 10 percent of my income and while the church gets a large donation, I also give money to support the local homeless shelter, to support a Christian school in Haiti, to support a Christian college that I know does good work, to support the Salvation Army and the many things it does, to support children in central America and other causes.

Archivist said:

God will bless us if we give willingly. The amount that we or the percentage of our income that we give is unimportant.

I once was berated by a poster (not you) on CF because I do not tithe, that is I do not give 10 percent to my church. I do try to give away about 10 percent of my income and while the church gets a large donation, I also give money to support the local food bank, to support a Christian school in Haiti, to support my a Christian college, and other causes.

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Why do you choose to give away about 10 percent of your income? Why is that number significant enough to you to mention it here?

RaymondG said:

Why do you choose to give away about 10 percent of your income? Why is that number significant enough to you to mention it here?

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Because I can afford it. I know of others who barely make ends meet who could never afford that amount. If you read what I wrote before you know that I said that the amount isn't important.

Gideons300 said:

Would you please back up this notion you have of tithing with New Testament scriptures for Christians? Thanks in advance.

Gids

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Sorry, I wss wrong about it not being mentioned in the NT. It is in Matthew 23:23 and Luke 11:42 But those references were before Christ died and was ressurected. But the tithe is also in Hebrews 7:5, 7:6, 7:8 and 7:9.

I don't necessarily know what you should do, but this one comes to mind:

"16 And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” 17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” 18 He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, 19 Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 20 The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
23 And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” 26 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” 27 Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” 28 Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the last first." (Matthew 19:16-30)

I know you probably aren't rich like the young man in this parable, but your ring was a great possession, and you're sorrowful about the idea of letting go of it in order to follow God's will and have treasure in heaven. I don't know if we're required to tithe or not, but what's in our hearts matters.

Dan the deacon said:

There is no scripture concerning tithing in the New Testament that I am aware of. But tithing was also not mentioned concerning the law. The law has been fulfilled but the tithe was before Moses. It has been a part of the Church from the beginning. What the tithe is is a promise made by God. That if we tithe He will bless us.

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Then where exactly do you ascertain that tithing was a part of the church from the beginning? It may have been in the church at Jerusalem, I do not know, but I am talking the church after the gentiles were included and the Jewish influences were done away with.

Blessings,

Gideon

Dan the deacon said:

Sorry, I wss wrong about it not being mentioned in the NT. It is in Matthew 23:23 and Luke 11:42 But those references were before Christ died and was ressurected. But the tithe is also in Hebrews 7:5, 7:6, 7:8 and 7:9.

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Yes, but as it pertained to the church itself? There are no scriptures that I know of. There is instead free will offers, be a use God loves a cheerful giver. The very fact that the tithe demands a certain percent is legalistic at best.

The disadvantage truth is, mich of tofpday’s Christianity has used the tithe concept to fund the church as we know it. It would be wonderful if our Christianity was so life changing that free will offerings would not only match but exceed the demand of the tithe, but sadly, right now, that is not the case at all. Thank God, that is all about to change.

Gids

Archivist said:

Because I can afford it. I know of others who barely make ends meet who could never afford that amount. If you read what I wrote before you know that I said that the amount isn't important.

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Ok, I understand......I think your position would be clearer if you used 9% or 11%, if you choose to announce what you try to give....as the tithing population believe 10% to be a tithe to be given to the lord. Whether or not you give it to a church or elsewhere is debatable even to some monetary tithe givers.

Gideons300 said:

Yes, but as it pertained to the church itself? There are no scriptures that I know of. There is instead free will offers, be a use God loves a cheerful giver. The very fact that the tithe demands a certain percent is legalistic at best.

The disadvantage truth is, mich of tofpday’s Christianity has used the tithe concept to fund the church as we know it. It would be wonderful if our Christianity was so life changing that free will offerings would not only match but exceed the demand of the tithe, but sadly, right now, that is not the case at all. Thank God, that is all about to change.

Gids

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Do you believe that there is anything wrong with giving 10% of your money away? I see nothing against giving money away, at any percentage, in the bible. I do, however, see warnings against not doing and teaching others not to do the things in the law......The same will be considered least in the kingdom.....although im not so sure that this is a terrible thing.

puddleoffaith said:

This does make me think about how I shoul best serve God. But also, I am already assured of my salvation through faith. So I don't think that giving less money will make it so that I can't enter the kingdom of God. But...I also don't want to take money that was ear-marked to serve God and use it to serve myself and my want (this ring). It was a great posession and this guy had to give away probably way better and more possessions.

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I thought of a couple more that might be relevant:

"13 Blessed is the one who finds wisdom,
and the one who gets understanding,
14 for the gain from her is better than gain from silver
and her profit better than gold.
15 She is more precious than jewels,
and nothing you desire can compare with her." (Proverbs 3:13-15)

"35 “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, 36 and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. 37 Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. 38 If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! 39 But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

41 Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?” 42 And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? 43 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. 44 Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. 45 But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, 46 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. 47 And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. 48 But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more." (Luke 12:35-48)

I wonder if it would help to look at it from this perspective: if Jesus were coming next week, would that affect your decision?

RaymondG said:

Do you believe that there is anything wrong with giving 10% of your money away? I see nothing against giving money away, at any percentage, in the bible. I do, however, see warnings against not doing and teaching others not to do the things in the law......The same will be considered least in the kingdom.....although im not so sure that this is a terrible thing.

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Of course I do not. What I see wrong is legalistically saying a child of God MUST do so. It simply is not found in the New Testament.

As to your comment about teaching things that are not lawful, may I humbly ask if you keep the Sabbath? Do you carry anything, ever work in your yard, travel? Do you realize that this is against the law?

We cannot cherry pick which commands apply to us and then decide for ourselves how extensively they are to be, or not be, applied.

The Bible is clear. We have died to the law that we might live into Christ. Him living in us is the law of liberty that now iupholds us. Do we hear the law? If we fail in just one part, we are guilty of breaking all the commandments. The law is a hard task master, but praise God, He that is dead is freed from the grip of the law.

Does this mean we have to wait until death before we can walk in real freedom? Not at all. When we finally understand that we.... our old nature.... died when He died and we are truly new creatures, we are truly free.

Our current church structure will collapse when the saints are finally freed from the law.... and the tithe. But out of the ashes will arise the real true church, joy filled, powerful, single eyed and yes, full of cheerful givers. I for one cannot wait.

Blessings,

Gideon

puddleoffaith said:

I have recently lost my engagement ring and I am devastated. I am not someone who has nice things or cares about material wealth but this was my MOST prized posession. I think it somehow ended up in the garbage and is long gone. I can't stop crying about it. We have contents insurance but our deductible is almost as high as the cost of the ring. We also have insurance on the ring from the store but it only covers damage. I really tried to have this ring insured and yet I will still end up paying almost the full cost. I am very upset with God lately because I have had a number of extreme challenges. This is the third of a series of bad events this summer-first I had a major health problem that will never fully be fixed but is managable although I suffer from pain, second I had a major career problem that made me so stressed that I couldn't even sleep for a week and is not really fully resolved, and now this.


The only difference between this problem and the other problems is that at the moment, the ring store still sells my ring (although it's on clearance and will likely be gone soon) so I could fix the problem by buying new one. I have been praying about all of these problems and nothing has really been fully resolved and I am upset with God. I also don't want to pay out $2000 for a new ring. I am wondering if I can reduce my tithe to pay for the ring because God just isn't helping me out right now and I could use the money to repurchase the ring. I would need to reduce my tithe by about almost 50% for almost a year to buy my ring back.

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Please look at this verse:

Col. 2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;

Don't let some local church rob you by putting you under an ordinance like tithing. If you can help the ministry that gives you spiritual food that is great but giving is not of necessity or meant to be a burden. Get the ring and enjoy the freedom of God's grace.

@puddleoffaith, I skimmed a couple dozen posts and didn't see anything like the reaction I'm having, so ...

Why do you feel your options don't include trusting God? He is in control of everything. My first reaction would be to ask God to help me find it. Failing that, I would start trying to figure out why God allowed it to happen. Whether I think up a good answer or not, I would ask God why it is missing. I would consider what the effects of letting it go would be. Is there something good that can come out of it? Finally, I'd ask God for wisdom regarding what I should do. I don't really consider a tithe "my" money, so (hopefully) I wouldn't even consider altering my regular gifts to the Lord as part of a possible solution. When someone suffers and yields to God's will, the Lord tends to reward with something greater, although sometimes one won't see it quickly.

Gideons300 said:

Then where exactly do you ascertain that tithing was a part of the church from the beginning? It may have been in the church at Jerusalem, I do not know, but I am talking the church after the gentiles were included and the Jewish influences were done away with.

Blessings,

Gideon

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Because I belong to the very Church that baptized St.Paul. A bishop of my Church grew up and learned to ride a bike on the road called Strait. My Chirch has taught tithing from its begining. It may not be biblically required but it is suggested. That I have devoted myself to do this before God, I'll continue. I need no commandment. I also do not require God to bless me for my tithing
I only hope He sees it as an act of love.

Greg J. said:

@puddleoffaith, I skimmed a couple dozen posts and didn't see anything like the reaction I'm having, so ...

Why do you feel your options don't include trusting God? He is in control of everything. My first reaction would be to ask God to help me find it. Failing that, I would start trying to figure out why God allowed it to happen. Whether I think up a good answer or not, I would ask God why it is missing. I would consider what the effects of letting it go would be. Is there something good that can come out of it? Finally, I'd ask God for wisdom regarding what I should do. I don't really consider a tithe "my" money, so (hopefully) I wouldn't even consider altering my regular gifts to the Lord as part of a possible solution. When someone suffers and yields to God's will, the Lord tends to reward with something greater, although sometimes one won't see it quickly.

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Great advise.

Sounds like an over-abundance of blessing triggered by losing the ring. Be sure to thank the Lord for the things about which you learned something, and for showing these truths to you.