I was once a bean counting tight wad who kept track of every "chavo" (mexican description of a penny, worth about 1/10 of a US penny) and watched every investment, (whether Simple IRA, 401k plan, stock or bond) every expense, any outflow of money to see that I made a gain or good return. So to give it away was the last thing on my mind, especially one tenth, who would be that crazy. Well God took me through the fire like Job to give me understanding and showed me where the wilderness was as all withing a few weeks of each other my tech stocks tanked, my company got taken over and my division eliminated, my lease car had to go, my leased house had to be vacated, my savings got used up looking for a job with a borrowed beat up car, and I was literaly out in the "wilderness" wondering what happened to my well laid plans on economic security.
So after a real struggle in the wilderness, I came back to see what God wanted from me. I had my differences with him and had walked away years before and now he wanted me back for some unknown reason and he definitely had my attention by taking all the things I had accumalated or made my life comfortable. God had to lay me low, down to my last dollar, I sold what few things I had left at the flee market and told God to take the reins and I would follow.
Slowly I am gaining understanding of Gods truth and the first hurdles I came up to was tithing which had once been unthinkable to me, now became easy. Giving to my less fortunate fellow man became second nature, sharing from what little I had gave me a fuller insight into Gods love. I stopped worrying about my next meal, paycheck, took that love of money and turned it over to God and held on with the tiniest bit of faith, and let God work. He humbled me, taught me patience, and showed me how to listen for the guidance from the Holy Spirit, which would have not happened in my former lifestyle. I now pay my tithe with joy, give for the building of 2 churches, and a church schools, have set up a worthy student program for one of the spanish churches, and go put my own labor for the preparations of the church lands for building and others needing help clearing their land.
I ask for nothing in return, and God has blessed me so I can do all these things and more. Our tithe matters so we can be blessed in giving, not that God needs really our money or gifts, he is already the owner of all.......
I came across a writting by Ángel Rodríguez on giving/tithing and here is a excerpt from it:
"...The Creator did not abandon the world He created into the hands of humans or evil powers; He is the Lord. Divine universal ownership can only be properly claimed by Him....
God's ownership of the universe reveals His power over everything He creates but does not necessarily address the nature of that power. It simply establishes that He has the right to be Lord over His creation and that He "has a claim on us and all we have."[4]
...E. G. White introduces another aspect of God's character which functions as a theological foundation for tithing, namely, His love and goodness. It has been on account of His "goodness and love" that He has kept us "from dire disaster and death."[5] For her, the very essence of the Owner of the universe is not selfishness, but love and goodness that manifests itself in the preservation of life. At the very core of that love is God's constant disposition to give. There is nothing we have that does not find its source of origin in God. But the greatest gift we have received from Him, she seems to argue, is not something that He created and that He now joyfully shares with us. In the redemptive work of Christ on our behalf, God gave Himself to us in His Son. She could then say that, "For this work of redemption God gave the richest gift of heaven."[6] God's ownership is now grounded on a loving act of self-sacrifice resulting in redemption. We have been "bought with a price," therefore we are "the Lord's property."[7] We belong to Him not simply on account of His creative power, but particularly through the power of redemptive, self-sacrificing love. All other gifts granted to us are possible only because of and through that divine self-giving.[8] Therefore, the Giver is present in every gift we receive from Him. He has indeed "given us everything. As we sit at our table he has given us this provision; through Christ it comes. The rain, the sunshine, the dew and everything that is a blessing to us, He has given to us. . ."[9] In fact, "He gives to us bountifully."[10] The Owner of the universe is... a "beneficent Father."[11]...."
So after a real struggle in the wilderness, I came back to see what God wanted from me. I had my differences with him and had walked away years before and now he wanted me back for some unknown reason and he definitely had my attention by taking all the things I had accumalated or made my life comfortable. God had to lay me low, down to my last dollar, I sold what few things I had left at the flee market and told God to take the reins and I would follow.
Slowly I am gaining understanding of Gods truth and the first hurdles I came up to was tithing which had once been unthinkable to me, now became easy. Giving to my less fortunate fellow man became second nature, sharing from what little I had gave me a fuller insight into Gods love. I stopped worrying about my next meal, paycheck, took that love of money and turned it over to God and held on with the tiniest bit of faith, and let God work. He humbled me, taught me patience, and showed me how to listen for the guidance from the Holy Spirit, which would have not happened in my former lifestyle. I now pay my tithe with joy, give for the building of 2 churches, and a church schools, have set up a worthy student program for one of the spanish churches, and go put my own labor for the preparations of the church lands for building and others needing help clearing their land.
I ask for nothing in return, and God has blessed me so I can do all these things and more. Our tithe matters so we can be blessed in giving, not that God needs really our money or gifts, he is already the owner of all.......
I came across a writting by Ángel Rodríguez on giving/tithing and here is a excerpt from it:
"...The Creator did not abandon the world He created into the hands of humans or evil powers; He is the Lord. Divine universal ownership can only be properly claimed by Him....
God's ownership of the universe reveals His power over everything He creates but does not necessarily address the nature of that power. It simply establishes that He has the right to be Lord over His creation and that He "has a claim on us and all we have."[4]
...E. G. White introduces another aspect of God's character which functions as a theological foundation for tithing, namely, His love and goodness. It has been on account of His "goodness and love" that He has kept us "from dire disaster and death."[5] For her, the very essence of the Owner of the universe is not selfishness, but love and goodness that manifests itself in the preservation of life. At the very core of that love is God's constant disposition to give. There is nothing we have that does not find its source of origin in God. But the greatest gift we have received from Him, she seems to argue, is not something that He created and that He now joyfully shares with us. In the redemptive work of Christ on our behalf, God gave Himself to us in His Son. She could then say that, "For this work of redemption God gave the richest gift of heaven."[6] God's ownership is now grounded on a loving act of self-sacrifice resulting in redemption. We have been "bought with a price," therefore we are "the Lord's property."[7] We belong to Him not simply on account of His creative power, but particularly through the power of redemptive, self-sacrificing love. All other gifts granted to us are possible only because of and through that divine self-giving.[8] Therefore, the Giver is present in every gift we receive from Him. He has indeed "given us everything. As we sit at our table he has given us this provision; through Christ it comes. The rain, the sunshine, the dew and everything that is a blessing to us, He has given to us. . ."[9] In fact, "He gives to us bountifully."[10] The Owner of the universe is... a "beneficent Father."[11]...."
